Protoconnus apaapa sp. n.

(Figs 67, 82–83, 101)

Type material. Holotype: BOLIVIA (Sud Yungas Province): ♂, two labels: " BOLIVIA: Chulumani, Apa apa / forest, S16°21', W67°30', 2000m / 12-14.XI.2007, sifting forest litter / leg. V. Grebennikov" [white, printed], " PROTOCONNUS / magnus m. / P. JAŁOSZYŃSKI, 2018 / HOLOTYPUS " [red, printed] (MNHW). Paratypes: 1 ♂, 1 ♀, same data as for the holotype, with standard yellow " Paratypus " labels (cPJ).

Diagnosis. BL 1.08–1.10 mm; body moderately stout, elytra 1.75 times as broad as only indistinctly transverse pronotum; frons in male between supraantennal tubercles flat; vertex unmodified, strongly convex and strongly rounded posteriorly; pronotal base lacking transverse groove and with only superficial traces of antebasal pits; lateral pronotal carinae and humeral carinae indistinct; aedeagus in ventral view with basal capsule narrowing distad, distal region slightly broadened near middle, distally with sinuate lateral margins and with slender, subtriangular and pointed apex; parameres slender, bent laterad.

Description. Body of male (Fig. 66) strongly convex, brown, covered with setae distinctly lighter than cuticle; BL 1.08–1.10 mm.

Head broadest at moderately large, strongly convex and coarsely faceted eyes, HL 0.18 mm, HW 0.21 mm; tempora in lateral view as long as about half of the longest diameter of eye; vertex strongly convex, with its posterior margin rounded and laterally confluent with rounded tempora; frons flat and moderately broad between small supraantennal tubercles. Punctures on frons and vertex inconspicuous; setae short, sparse and suberect. Antennae conspicuously long and slender, AnL 0.60–0.63 mm, distinctly longer than half BL, club distinctly delimited; antennomeres I–II about twice as long as broad, III as long as broad, IV–VIII each slightly to strongly elongate, IX about as long as broad, X distinctly transverse, XI slightly longer than X, about 1.2 × as long as broad.

Pronotum indistinctly transverse, subtrapezoidal, broadest shortly at base; PL 0.23–0.25 mm, PW 0.30 mm.

Anterior margin straight, lateral and posterior margins weakly rounded, lateral carinae absent; transverse antebasal groove absent, base with barely discernible traces of pits. Punctures on pronotal disc inconspicuous; setae sparse, short, suberect.

Elytra much more convex than pronotum, oval, broadest in front of middle; EL 0.68 mm, EW 0.53 mm, EI 1.29; humeral carinae indistinct, rounded. Punctures and setae similar to those on pronotum.

Legs moderately long and slender, unmodified.

Aedeagus (Figs 82–83) slender; AeL 0.23 mm; in ventral view basal capsule about as long as distal region, slightly narrowed distad; distal region laterally indistinctly delimited from sides of basal capsule, slender, arrowshaped, with shallow constriction in basal half which delimits flame-like apical half with narrow, symmetrical and pointed apex, in lateral view distal half distinctly recurved; in lateral view area above parameral bases forming a short, massive projection; parameres strongly divergent distad, each with one long apical and one short subapical seta.

Female externally similar to male, but with distinctly smaller, and much less convex eyes; tempora in lateral view distinctly longer than half of the longest diameter of eye. BL 1.10 mm; HL 0.18 mm, HW 0.20 mm, AnL 0.58 mm; PL 0.25 mm, PW 0.30 mm; EL 0.68 mm, EW 0.55 mm, EI 1.23.

Distribution. West-central Bolivia (Fig. 101).

Etymology. Locotypical, after the Apa - Apa Reserva Ecológica (a noun in apposition).

Remarks. Protoconnus apaapa is remarkable and easily recognizable on the basis of its unique, Euconnus -like body form, with unusually long antennae, conspicuously small head, and the pronotum strongly narrowing anterad. However, females of another species representing the same body form were seen (also from Bolivia), and identification must be confirmed by examination of the aedeagus.