Laccophilus peregrinus Zimmerman 1970

Laccophilus peregrinus
DESCRIPTION. — Small (length, 3.3 to 4.6 mm; width, 1.9 to 2.6 mm) species; elytral pattern highly variable from brown to reddish-brown, black, or yellow and black, irrorated, unicolorous, or variegated; metacoxal file absent; prosternal process short; ovipositor rakelike. COLOR. Head: yellow darken
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ing to brown or reddish-brown on the occiput between the eyes. Pronotum: pale brownish-yellow except for prominent dark reddish-brown or brown on the anterior margin between the eyes and a somewhat less distinct area at the apex. Elytra: pattern varying from irregularly irrorated brown on a pale yellowishbrown background to one that is almost entirely unicolorous reddish-brown or very dark brown or black; or is variegated with yellow and dark brown or black; epipleura pale anteriorly and pale or dark posteriorly. Tergite VIII: basally dark brown, but lightening to yellowish-brown along the hind margin. Venter: proand mesolegs pale reddish-yellow brown, remainder darkening to medium shades of the same color; abdominal sternites usually darker than thorax and metacoxal plates. Genitalia: reddishor yellowish-brown. ANATOMY. Microreticulation : double on head, pronotum, and elytra. Head: supraclypeal seam arching slightly upward above the margin. Pronotum: WH/PW, 0.71; LP/PW, 0.38 to 0.39. Elytra: somewhat attenuated, truncation barely perceptible; female epipleura usually with a flange in p. peregrinus, but almost never in p. variabilis; crease apparent immediately above the female epipleura and extends about one-third the distance along the elytron. Venter: prosternal process with well-defined crest extending from apex to level of line drawn across the front margins of procoxal cavities; postcoxal processes rounded and laterally projecting slightly beyond the midline; last visible segment not truncated in either sex; rounded in males with very slight production of the apex in males and subtriangular in outline in females; males with asymmetrical curving crest; females with marginate groove extending from anterior lateral margin of segment to near apex; scattered setigerous punctures accumulating toward hind margin in both sexes. Legs: proand mesotarsi enlarged in a dorsoventral plane; fifth tarsal segments on both pair of front legs about twice as long as corresponding fourth segment; palettes easily visible at 20 power magnification: profemoral setae (5 or 6) much finer and shorter than the mesofemoral ones (5 or 6). Genitalia: oval plate with acuminate produced tip; median crest of plate extending anteriorly with little or no curvature; about three or four raised lines on the left side of crest and about twice that number on the right; aedeagus with strong bend at about half its length and another lesser one subbasally; right paramere smaller than left; ovipositor with four pair of long wide-spaced distal teeth and about five more smaller proximal ones.