Synonyms
Bucolus posticalis Blackburn, 1895: 256.
Diagnosis
This is a very distinctive species due to its compact and convex body, the head and elytral apical third orange and rather long whitish pubescence not forming a whorled pattern on elytra.
Description
Length 2.7-3.5 mm. Head, anterior angles of pronotum, prosternum, mouthparts, antennae, tarsi and abdomen orange or brown; meso-and metaventrite, elytra blackish with apical one third orange. Dorsum convex, covered with distinct, whitish pubescence not forming whorled pattern on elytra. Punctures on head as large as eye facets, separated by 1.0-2.0 diameters; intervals between punctures shiny with fine microsculpture. Anterior clypeal margin deeply arcuate. Antenna slender with broad club. Apical maxillary palpomere slightly longer than broad, ovoid. Eyes at frons separated by about 2.1 times eye width. Pronotal base distinctly margined in front of scutellum; prosternum long in front of procoxae with large and forward oriented, setose projection that is about 0.3-0.4 times as broad as prosternum. Prosternal process 0.4 times as wide as transverse coxal diameter. Hypomeron deeply concave but without distinct foveae. Scutellum triangular, setose. Elytral surface densely, irregularly punctate; all punctures of similar size, setigerous and 1-2 diameters apart; interspaces shiny and without noticeable microsculpture. Epipleuron narrow, about as broad as metepisternum, strongly narrowing posteriorly from the level of abdomen and completely absent apically. Foveae well defined; the mesofemoral fovea delimited both on metepisternum and epipleuron; the metafemoral one deeply delimited on a very narrow epipleuron. Meso-metaventral junction about as wide as mesocoxa; mesoventrite straight and bordered anteriorly. Protibia short and very broad weakly emarginate along external margin of deep tarsal groove; mid and hind tibiae similar to each other, narrower and sharply angulated externally; claws appendiculate with basal tooth prominent and short. Abdominal postcoxal line recurved and complete; ventrite V rounded posteriorly; surface of ventrites convex and uneven with median area between ventrites IV and V depressed transversely.
Male
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Female
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Variation
Not observed.
Distribution and Biology
Known only from northern Queensland.
Species References
Blackburn, T. 1895. Further notes on Australian Coleoptera, with descriptions of new genera and species. XVIII. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,19: 201-258.
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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