Synonyms
Bucolus Mulsant, 1850: 1000. TS: Bucolus fourneti Mulsant, 1850.
Bucolinus Blackburn, 1892: 252. TS: Bucolinus longicornis Blackburn, 1892.
Diagnosis
Bucoluscan be distinguished from all Australian genera of Coccinellidae by a combination of flattened and externally angulated tibiae and projecting anterior part of prosternum.
Description
Length 2-4.5 mm; head dorsally not covered by pronotum; body elongate-oval and flat to convex; winged; dorsum uniformly hairy. Elytral colour brown or black with apices sometimes yellow or orange. Head transverse; eyes finely facetted, slightly emarginate. Antenna 11-segmented; slightly shorter than head capsule with scape distinctly broader than pedicel enlarged; antennomere 3 elongate; antennal club 3-segmented, flat and strongly asymmetrical. Terminal maxillary palpomere long and parallel-sided or weakly expanded apically. Pronotal disc evenly convex; anterior angles often thickened. Prosternum long in front of coxae, arcuate and produced in various form of chin piece; prosternal process variable without distinct carinae. Anterior margin of mesoventrite straight medially. Mesoventrite narrower than coxal diameter; metaventral postcoxal almost straight. Elytral epipleuron broad, usually incomplete apically with distinct foveate. Tibial spurs absent. Abdominal postcoxal line peculiar and recurved or not recurved and incomplete laterally. Male terminalia. Parameres and phallobase symmetrical; penis guide symmetrical. Parameres articulated with phallobase. Penis stout, consisting of single sclerite; basal capsule distinct and T-shaped. Apodeme of male sternum 9 very narrow and rod-like. Female terminalia. Coxities distinctly elongate, triangular; styli terminal, well developed, with apical setae, or strongly reduced and hardly visible; infundibulum a lightly sclerotised but clearly delimited piece of bursa; sperm duct simple, uniform in diameter. Spermatheca worm-like, without clear ramus or nodulus; spermathecal accessory gland distinctly separated from sperm duct.
Distribution and Biology
Bucolus is endemic to Australia and is distributed throughout the continent including Tasmania. Specimens of Bucolus have been collected commonly under bark of Eucalyptus, from vegetation and in flight intercept/Malaise traps. Larva of B. fourneti Mulsant is probably ant predator that ambushes its prey under bark of Eucalyptus; no other information is available and diversity of body forms among different species suggest strong differences in their biology.
Genus References
Mulsant, M E. 1850. Species des Coléoptères Trimcres Sécuripalpes. Annales des Sciencies Physiques et Naturelles, d'Agriculture et d'Industrie, publiées par la Société nationale d'Agriculture, etc., de Lyon, Deuxicme Série, 2: xv + 1-1104 (part 1 pp. 1-450; part 2 pp. 451-1104).
Blackburn, T. 1892. Further notes on Australian Coleoptera, with descriptions of new genera and species. XII. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 15(2): 207-61.
Slipinski, S.A. 2007. Australian Ladybird Beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) their biology and classification. ABRS, Canberra. 286 pp.
Slipinski, A and Dolambi, F. 2007. Revision of the Australian Coccinellidae (Coleoptera). Part 7. Genus Bucolus Mulsant. Annales Zoologici (Warszawa), 57: 763-781.
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