Corresponding author: Tomáš Lackner (
Academic editor: Harald Letsch
The monotypic genus
The lectotype specimen was soaked in water overnight, removed from its original mounting card, cleared from dust and remaining glue with 70% ethanol and mounted on a triangular point for observation. Other specimens were observed under binocular microscope. Colour images were made by F. Slamka (Bratislava, Slovakia). Measurements were made by ocular micrometer. Body part terminology follows that of – Universidad Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Perú – National Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands – Servicio Nacional de Sanidad Agraria, Lima, Perú – Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany
width between anterior angles of pronotum
length of elytron along elytral suture
maximum width between outer margins of elytra
length between anterior angles of pronotum and apices of elytra
width between posterior angles of pronotum
most parsimonious trees Bootstrap decay indices
Very small elongate-oval non-metallic
As I am not familiar with most of the South American taxa of the species-rich genus
Unknown, the type specimens were found in guano originated from Peru; reduced eyes can indeed indicate its inquilinous habits. The other three specimens do not carry any biological data on their labels.
Lectotype (designated here), ♂, glued on its side on a triangular mounting point, except for pretarsus all other tarsi missing, both antennae, left mandible missing, both hind legs missing, propygidium and pygidium dismembered, separated from the rest of the abdominal segments and glued to the mounting card separately from the specimen, right elytron wholly longitudinally cracked, with dismembered male genitalia glued also to the same mounting card as the specimen, with following labels: “in Peru guano” (written); followed by: “Type” (brick-red label, written); followed by: “
PERU: 2 ♂♂, Isla Don Martín, 15.ii.1955, Coll. M. Peña (
Body (Figs
Pronotal hypomeron punctate, with distinct regular microscopic setae, lateral pronotal margins (Fig.
Elytral epipleuron with several irregular wrinkles and few punctures, otherwise smooth; marginal epipleural stria fine, complete, marginal elytral stria carinate and complete; apical elytral stria obliterated on half its length. Oblique humeral stria deeply impressed on basal elytral fourth; in one specimen a median fragment of inner subhumeral stria as well as a basal fragments of elytral striae 1-2 present; in rest of specimens all other elytral striae, except for short basal fragment of fourth dorsal elytral stria that is basally connected to almost complete sutural elytral stria completely lacking. Elytral disc with scattered punctures separated by several times their diameter.
Propygidium and pygidium with punctuation similar to the elytra, but punctures deeper and denser, separated approximately twice their diameter.
Prosternal process (Fig.
Mesoventrite (Fig.
First visible abdominal ventrite vaguely striate laterally, disc almost glabrous, only with scattered microscopic punctuation.
Legs: protibia slightly dilated, with 9–11 low teeth topped by rather long thin curved denticles diminishing in size in proximal direction, protarsal groove shallow, protibial spur short and stout, growing out from apical protibial margin, further characters of protibia not examined. Mesotibia on outer margin with a row of low teeth topped by long, slender amber-coloured denticles, setae of outer row dense and rather long; setae of median row finer and shorter; on anterior face of mesotibia another row of shorter dense amber denticles present, mesotibial spur stout and well-developed; metatibia slightly longer than mesotibia, denticles on outer metatibial margin more closely-set; metatarsal claws short, bent, about half-length of terminal metatarsal segment; other characters of legs not examined.
Male genitalia: eighth sternite (Figs
Results of the tree reconstruction analyses are shown in Figure tree length
The genus
The position of the species
Based on the reduced eyes as well as its presence in guano there is room for speculation that
Thanks are due to the curators of the above-mentioned institutions that loaned me the two type specimens as well as to Gerardo Arriagada (Santiago de Chile, Chile) who sent me the three specimens of