Synonyms
Serangium microscopicum Lea, 1902: 510.
Diagnosis
The species is characterized by the combination of small size, black convex dorsal surface, relatively large eyes and a single row of setae along the elytral margin. From similar species it can be reliably identified based on the male genitalia.
Description
Length 1.0-1.2 mm. Dark brown or almost black dorsally, dark reddish brown ventrally; head in front and femora brown, tibiae and tarsi dirty yellowish. Winged; body shape hemispherical; pronotal margins with very faint rim, visible from above; elytra with inconspicuous swelling near humeral edge; elytral margins with narrow rim, distinct in anterior half, visible from above in anterior fifth. Head, pronotal and elytral surface shiny; head with a few fine punctures which are associated with long setae. Pronotum impunctate, bearing long sparse setae. Scutellum elongate, triangular, flat, shiny, glabrous. Elytra impunctate with a few long setae in basal fifth and a row of evenly spaced setae along margin. Head with moderately large eyes, separated by 2.0 times eye width; flattened medially. Clypeus flat, long, weakly curved anteriorly. Terminal maxillary palpomere relatively slender, oval, subacute apically, terminal labial palpomere narrow and aciculate. Antenna 9-segmented, scape not expanded apically, club elongate, inner margin convex, apex angular. Prosternum mat, surface weakly furrowed, sparsely setose; mesosternum shiny, impunctate; metasternum shiny, impunctate with a few scattered setae. Elytral epipleuron yellowish, broad, flat and perpendicular to elytron in anterior half, with some long setae, narrowing to a mere rim in apical half. Anterior margin of profemur strongly angled slightly beyond the middle. Tarsus 4-segmented. Abdomen: ventrite 1 large, shiny and glabrous, ventrites 2-5 small, mat and transversely furrowed, ventrites 2-4 glabrous, 5 bearing a few long setae. Last ventrite not grooved laterally.
Male
Male genitalia as figured.
Female
Externally identical to male.
Variation
Not observed.
Distribution and Biology
Northern Territory and northern Western Australia
Species References
Lea, A.M. 1902. Descriptions of new species of Australian Coleoptera. Part VI. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 1901: 481-513.
Slipinski, A. and Burckhardt, D. 2006. Revision of the Australian Coccinellidae (Coccinellidae). Part 5. Tribe Serangiini. Annales Zoologici (Warszawa), 56(1): 37-58.
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