Synonyms
Serangium monteithi Slipinski and Burckhardt, 2006: 44.
Diagnosis
This is the only known Australian Serangium species with yellowish-orange head and pronotum in males. It is also distinguished from other species by the combination of 8-segmented antennae, 3-segmented tarsi, completely glabrous dorsum and a very narrow elytral epipleuron.
Description
Length 1.3-1.5 mm. Pitch black dorsally, head and pronotum yellow in male, black in female; dark reddish brown ventrally; antennae, tibiae and tarsi dirty whitish or yellowish. Winged. Body shape hemispherical; pronotal margins visible from above, without or with very indistinct rim; elytra with inconspicuous swelling near humeral edge; elytral margins with narrow rim, visible from above in anterior half. Head, pronotal and elytral surface very shiny; head impunctate, glabrous. Pronotum very finely and indistinctly punctured, glabrous. Scutellum elongate, triangular, flat, shiny, glabrous. Elytra impunctate, glabrous. Head with moderately large eyes, separated by 1.8 times eye width; flattened medially. Clypeus flat, long, straight anteriorly. Terminal maxillary palpomere narrow, oval, indistinctly obliquely truncate apically, terminal labial palpomere narrow and aciculate. Antenna 8-segmented, scape weakly expanded apically, club small, elongate, inner margin strongly convex, and apex obliquely truncate. Prosternum shiny, glabrous; mesosternum mat, transversely furrowed, glabrous; metasternum shiny, impunctate, glabrous. Elytral epipleuron narrow, dark brown, broad, flat and perpendicular to elytron in anterior half, with a few setae, narrowing to a mere rim in apical half. Anterior margin of profemur irregularly curved. Tarsus 3-segmented. Abdomen: ventrite 1 large, shiny and glabrous, ventrites 2-5 small, mat, transversely furrowed, glabrous apart from ventrite 5 which bears a few long setae. Last ventrite not grooved laterally.
Male
Male genitalia as figured.
Female
Similar to male but with head and pronotum uniformly black.
Variation
Not observed.
Distribution and Biology
Northern Queensland.
Species References
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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