Paratasmanicola Malipatil & O'Donnell 2022, gen. nov.

Genus Paratasmanicola gen. nov.

(Figs. 1–8)

Type species. Paratasmanicola inerma sp. nov.

Body elongate-ovate (Fig. 1), slightly flattened dorso-ventrally.

Head porrect, non-declivent, strongly shining similar to pronotum and scutellum, contrasting with pruinose but noniridescent hemelytra (Fig. 1); bucculae short flaplike (Fig. 2), ending before antennifers, meeting behind labium in a sharp V-shaped carina at about half head length; antenniferous tubercles visible from above; antennal segments 2 and 3 slender, terete, segment 4 narrowly fusiform and slightly thickened (Fig. 1), segment 1 exceeding apex of tylus by about 1/2 its length; labium short, reaching to about middle coxae, segment 1 extending to about ½ length of head, same as length of gular / buccular carina; labrum as long as 1 st labial segment (Fig. 2).

Thorax. Pronotum roughly trapezoidal, with lateral margins weakly and bluntly carinate, margins roughly straight, calli on anterior lobe contiguous mesally, impunctate and smooth, transverse impression obsolete, posterior lobe distinctly but irregularly punctate. Scutellum with a shallow median impression, lacking a carina, punctate as pronotal posterior lobe. Clavus with three distinct rows of punctures, some irregular punctures between inner and median rows; corial margins strongly explanate and evenly sinuate. Legs with fore femora only slightly more incrassate than other femora, without any spines in both sexes; hind tibiae with fine soft hairs only, lacking any rows of movable spines. Metathoracic scent gland orifice acuminate, slightly curved caudo-dorsad (Fig. 2).

Abdomen. All spiracles ventral, those on sterna 2, 3 and 4 hidden under epipleura (Fig. 4), abdominal tergum not punctate, inner laterotergites present on segments 4-6 (Fig. 3), abdominal venter shining, suture between abdominal sterna 3 and 4 and 4 and 5 crenulate, the latter curving strongly anteriorly and not distinctly attaining connexival margin; suture between abdominal sterna 3-4 attaining lateral margins; posterior pair of trichobothrial hairs on segment 5 located one above the other and located just posterior to spiracle (Fig. 4); thoracic scent gland scars 3-4 slightly wider than those between 4-5 and 5-6 that are subequal in width (Fig. 3).

Male genitalia Pygophore subspherical in outline, dorsal opening as in Fig. 5. Paramere relatively short and robust, median and lateral lobes pilose, blade bluntly pointed and moderately curved (Fig. 6). Aedeagus (Figs. 7, 8) with phallotheca cyclindrical, conjunctiva subequal in length to phallotheca, membranous and without lobes, ejaculatory reservoir reduced, wings broad plate like and slightly bent down, holding sclerites absent, helicoid process short, reduced to 2-3 turned flap, flaps weakly sclerotized particularly along outer margin, appearing like band / stripe on each turned flap, gonoporal process very long, tightly coiled and heavily sclerotized but coils becoming gradually smaller (tighter) and less sclerotized towards tip ending as secondary gonopore.

Etymology: The generic name is composed of the Latinised Greek prefix para - and the generic name Tasmanicola, in allusion to the superficial similarity to the widely distributed Tasmanian and eastern Australian genus Tasmanicola Slater & Sweet.

Discussion. In the key to world genera of Stygnocorini by Slater & Sweet (1970), Paratasmanicola gen. nov. does not key out satisfactorily to any genus, but to couplet 8 with the sub-couplets separating the New Zealand genus Margareta White, 1878 from four other genera, viz., Tasmanicola (Australia), Notiocola Slater & Sweet, 1970 (southern Africa and Madagascar), Paracnemodus Slater, 1964 (South Africa) (now placed in tribe Myodochini, see Slater & O’Donnell (1995)) and Capenicola Slater & Sweet, 1970 (South Africa).

Paratasmanicola gen. nov. differs from all these genera in the combination of the unarmed fore femur and the lack of distinct holding sclerites in male aedeagus, and from each of these five genera as below.

Paratasmanicola gen. nov. is similar in appearance to the genus Notiocola, differing chiefly in the shining abdominal sterna, the bicoloured pronotum with pale posterior lobe, the lack of vertical pseudosutures on sterna 3 and 4, the lack of holding sclerites on aedeagus, a fine rather than thickened gonoporal process, and a more coiled and developed helicoid process (Slater & Sweet 1970, and Figs, 7, 8, present study). From Paracnemodus (Myodochini) the new genus differs in not having a vertically rounded pronotum, and from Capenicola in lacking a spine on the fore femur, in having suture between abdominal sterna 4 and 5 strongly curved anteriorly, and with a fully developed membrane on corium and lacking holding sclerites in male aedeagus.

The new genus resembles the only other stygnocorine genus known from Australia, Tasmanicola, in that both have the pronotum distinctly bicoloured with pale posterior lobe, a shining abdomen, and extremely long gonoporal process; however, Tasmanicola differs from Paratasmanicola gen. nov. in having the lateral pronotal margins sharply and acutely carinate (bluntly carinate in Paratasmanicola gen. nov.), the fore femora armed below on distal 1/3 with a single sharp spine (unarmed in Paratasmanicola gen. nov.), and the male with distinct and well-developed holding sclerites on the aedeagus (lacking holding sclerites in Paratasmanicola gen. nov.).

Paratasmanicola gen. nov. also has some similarities with the only stygnocorine genus from New Zealand, Margareta, but differs from the latter in having unarmed fore femora (three spines in Margareta).

Slater (1975) while discussing wing polymorphism in Australian Stygnocorini, noted the presence of macroptery (= “unmodified” wing condition) as well as an advanced form of coleoptery (= clavus and corium fused, the two wings do not overlap but meet along the midline like the elytra of Coleoptera) amongst the limited number of specimens collected from southeastern parts of Australia and associated with cool mesic conditions. According to Slater, there is little doubt that the Australian stygnocorine fauna represents an old Bassian element. In the present study, however, both the specimens examined of the new taxon are macropterous, that is with fully developed and unmodified wings.

Stygnocorini is diverse and abundant in montane areas and southwestern Cape region of South Africa and related taxa in New Zealand, Tasmania and southeastern Australia, and mountains of tropical Africa and Madagascar, with a secondary radiation in the Palaearctic (Slater 1986). The undoubtedly ‘old’ genus Notiocola is a cool-adapted genus that occurs in montane areas of South Africa and Madagascar (Slater 1986). As noted above, Notiocola is closely related to Tasmanian genera Paratasmanicola gen. nov. and Tasmanicola (latter also in other parts of eastern Australia) and somewhat less closely to an endemic New Zealand genus Margareta.

During a cladistic analysis of the Rhyparochrominae, Slater & Woodward (1982) stated “The present cladistic analysis therefore is important in emphasizing that at present the distribution of the Stygnocorini cannot be considered of zoogeographic significance as the taxon may be paraphyletic.”. If the hypothesis of Slater (1986) that the stygnocorine fauna of Tasmania represents “an ancient south temperate complex” is corroborated through phylogenetic analysis, the presence of additional genera in the Bassian region would then be significant.