Synonyms
Bucolellus Blackburn, 1889: 210. TS: Bucolellus ornatus Blackburn, 1889.
Cycloscymnus Blackburn, 1892: 251. TS: Cycloscymnus minutus Blackburn, 1892.
Diagnosis
Bucolellus resembles peculiar Australian Sticholotidinae genus Chaetolotis Slipinski because of small size and setose body, foveate elytral epipleurae, 5 segmented abdomen and presence of an oblique dividing line along postcoxal lines. Bucolellus can be recognized from Chaetolotisby its non geniculate palpi (with palpomere 2 distinctly shorter than the terminal one) and the median part of prosternum not prominent medially but bearing carinae.
Description
Length 1.5-2.1 mm; head dorsally not covered by pronotum; body oval and convex; winged; dorsum uniformly hairy or only head and pronotum with distinct pubescence. Elytral colour blackish usually with spots. Eyes finely facetted, weakly emarginate. Antenna 10-segmented; antennomere 3 short; antennal club compact, 3-segmented. Terminal maxillary palpomere elongate, parallel-sided or narrowing apically. Prosternum moderately long in front of coxae, arcuate; prosternal process broad with complete diverging anteriorly carinae. Anterior margin of mesoventrite straight medially and entirely bordered. Mesoventrite broader than coxal diameter; Metaventral postcoxal lines recurved. Elytral epipleuron narrow, incomplete apically, distinctly foveate. Abdominal postcoxal line not recurved and complete laterally; dividing line present, close to coxal cavity. 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 triangular, about as long as broad; styli terminal, well developed, with apical setae; infundibulum absent; sperm duct simple, uniform in diameter. Spermatheca worm-like, without clear ramus or nodulus; spermathecal accessory gland adjacent to sperm duct.
Distribution and Biology
Endemic and widely distributed in Australia. Adults are collected year round in various habitats but mostly in dry sclerophyll zone. They were found in Eucalyptus flowers, in grass tufts under Leptospermum sp., on Casuarina infested by scales and sooty moulds or feeding on red scale on Citrus.
Genus References
Blackburn, T. 1889. Further notes on Australian Coleoptera, with descriptions of new species. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 11: 175-214.
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.
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