Aleochara (Xenochara) laevigata GYLLENHAL , 1810

Assing, V., 2009, On the taxonomy and zoogeography of some Palaearctic Aleochara species of the subgenera Xenochara M & R and Rheochara M & R (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 59 (1), pp. 33-101 : 60-63

Aleochara (Xenochara) laevigata GYLLENHAL, 1810 ( Figs 105-113)

Aleochara laevigata GYLLENHAL, 1810: 433 .

Aleochara apicalis MÉNÉTRIÉS, 1832: 147 f.

Aleochara bisignata ERICHSON, 1837: 357 f.

Type material examined:

Aleochara bisignata : Lectotype ♂: "5572 / bisignata Er. / Europa [curator label] / Hist.-Coll. ( Coleoptera ), Nr. 5572, Aleochara bisignata Erichson, 1837 , Europa - Asia, Zool. Mus. Berlin /? Syntypus? Aleochara bisignata Erichson, 1837 , labelled by MNHUB 2009 / Lectotypus ♂ Aleochara bisignata Erichson , desig. V. Assing 2009 / Aleochara laevigata Gyllenhal , det. V. Assing 2009" ( MNHUB). Paralectotypes: 4 exs.: same data as lectotype ( MNHUB).

Additional material examined:

Morocco: A ♀, Asni env., Iml, 1600 m, 20.VII.1993, leg. Stüben (cWun) .

Spain: 1 ♂, Andalucía, Granada, Sierra Nevada, near Solynieve , 1850 m, 18.III.1994, leg. Wunderle (cWun) .

Germany: Nordrhein-Westfalen: 1 ♀, Euskirchen, Kirchheim , 11.V.1988, leg. Fritz (cWun) . Niedersachsen: 1 ♂, 2 km SE Wolfenbüttel, Öselberg , 150 m, pitfall, IX.1998 (cAss) ; 1 ♂, Hannover, Kugelfangtrift , pitfall, VIII.2002, leg. Sprick (cAss) ; 1 ♂, N Gifhorn, NSG " Heiliger Hain ", Calluna heathland, pitfall, VIII.1987 (cAss) ; 1 ♂, same data, but IV.1986 (cAss) ; 1 ♀, same data, but IV.1987 (cAss) ; 1 ♂, E Schladen, Hedeper, Westerberg , pitfall, IV.2001, leg. Schmidt (cAss) ; 1 ♀, same data, but VIII.2001 (cAss); exs., Helmstedt env., Uehrde, Mühlenberg , chicken dung, 10.VIII.1989, leg. Assing (cAss) ; 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀, Helmstedt env., Heeseberg , 31.VIII.1991, leg. Assing (cAss) ; 1 ♂, Heeseberg , sheep dung, 31.V.1991, leg Schmidt (cAss) .

Sachsen-Anhalt: 1 ♂, S Halle, Hohenweiden , forest, 30.V.1996, leg. Sprick (cAss) ; 1 ex. [det. Feldmann], Halle, Gimritz , fallow, pitfall, 4.VIII.1993, leg. Teichmann (cFel) ; 1 ex., same data, but VI.1993 (cFel) ; 1 ex., same data, but 11.V.1994 (cFel) ; 1 ex., same data, but 12.V.1993 (cFel) . Thüringen: 1 ♀, Jena env., Leutratal , 19.V.1987, leg. Heinig (cSch) ; 1 ex., Kyffhäuser, Esperstedter Ried , 11.IV.1992, leg. Peschel (cSch) ; 1 ex., Kyffhäuser, Schlachtberg , 9.V.1989, leg. Peschel (cSch) .

Austria: 1 ♂, Burgenland, Neusiedlersee, Kaisereiche , 28.VIII.-9.IX.1988, leg. Melber (cAss) ; 1 ex., locality not specified ( MNHUB) .

Greece: 2 ♀♀, Levkas, Vouno peak, 1050 m, sifted, 25.IX.1993, leg. Assing (cAss) ; 1 ♀, N-Corfu, Zigos env., 24.IX.1994, leg. Wunderle (cWun) ; 1 ♀, Chalkidiki, Kassandra, Pefkohori , beach, human faeces, 21.III.1989, leg. Assing (cAss) ; 1 ♀, Kassandra, Polichoro env., 100 m, donkey dung, 20.III.1989, leg. Assing (cAss) ; 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Kassandra, Polichoro , beneath bones, 26.III.1989, leg Assing (cAss) ; 1 ♀, Kassandra, Polichoro , on bird cast, 20.III.1989, leg. Assing (cAss) ; 1 ♂, Pelopónnisos, Patras, Pteri , dung, 7.IV.1986, leg. Assing (cAss) ; 1 ♂, Pelopónnisos, Sparta , 28.III.1990, leg. Assing (cAss) ; 1 ♀, Pelopónnisos, 40 km SE Tripoli, E Agios Petros, 37°20'N, 22°35'E, 900 m, 22.III.1997, leg. Assing (cAss); 1 Pelopónnisos, Korinthía Feneos , 37°56'N, 22°17'E, IV-VI.2006, leg. Miksch (cSch) .

Turkey [see also ASSING (2007a)]: Kastamonu / Çankırı: 1 ♀, Ilgazdağı geçidi, 1900-2200 m, 13.VII.1996, leg. Bayer & Winkelmann (cSch) . Izmir: 1 ex., " Smyrna " ( MNHUB) . Bitlis: 1 ♂, 1 ♀, 16 exs., S Tatvan, 1700-2000 m, 21.V.-18.VI.1973, leg. Schubert ( NHMW, cAss) ; 1 ♂, E lake Van, 1800-2200 m, VI.1971, leg. Schubert (cAss) .

Comment:

The original description of A. laevigata , which is based on an unspecified number of syntypes, is contained in a work on Swedish insects; neither a holotype nor a precise locality are specified ( GYLLENHAL 1810). The type material was not examined, but since only one species of the A. laevigata group is known from Sweden and this species is described and illustrated by PALM (1972), there is little doubt that the present interpretation of A. laevigata is correct. The illustration of the genitalia of A. laevigata in NIKITSKY et al. (1998) refers to a different species.

The original description of A. apicalis is based on an unspecified number of syntypes from " Bakou " (today Baku in Azerbaijan) (MÉNÉTRIÉS 1832). The name has been regarded as a synonym of A. laevigata at least since BERNHAUER (1901). An examination of the type material is required to clarify the identity of this name. Repeated requests for a loan have remained unanswered, so that it is uncertain whether the type material still exists.

Like the preceding name, A. bisignata , which was described from Mark Brandenburg ( ERICHSON 1837), has been regarded as a junior synonym of A. laevigata at least since BERNHAUER (1901). In the historical collection of the MNHUB, five specimens that may qualify as syntypes were locat- ed. However, since none of them has original locality labels, it is impossible to determine which of them was actually seen by Erichson. Therefore, all of them are regarded as syntypes and the first specimen in the series, a male, is designated as the lectotype. It is conspecific with A. laevigata , so that the long-standing synonymy is confirmed.

Aleochara lonae GRIDELLI, 1924 , which was originally described as a subspecies of A. laevigata (based on type material from Albania) and subsequently regarded as a synonym of that name, refers to a distinct species (see the following section).

Redescription:

Body length: 3.0-6.0 mm. Usual coloration: blackish; elytra posteriorly with a comparatively small and rather well-delimited reddish spot of triangular shape, this spot usually longer than broad; tarsi pale-brown to dark-brown.

Head approximately as wide as long; punctation rather fine and sparse; median dorsal area usually without punctures; microsculpture absent (traces of microsculpture may be visible on frons); eyes rather large, usually somewhat longer than postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna with antennomere approximately as long as wide or weakly transverse; V distinctly transverse, distinctly larger and wider than IV; V-X very weakly increasing in width, i.e., X only slightly wider than V; X approximately 1.5-1.8 times as wide as long; XI slightly longer than the combined length of IX and X.

Pronotum 1.28-1.45 times as wide as long and 1.50-1.60 times as wide as head, widest usually behind the middle; punctation fine and sparse.

Elytra 0.75-0.85 times as long as pronotum; punctation coarser and much denser than that of pronotum. Metatarsus approximately 0.85-0.95 times as long as metatibia; metatarsomere I approximately as long as the combined length of II-IV or nearly so.

Abdomen with segments III-V of subequal width, segments VI-VIII rather weakly tapering; tergites III-V with rather shallow anterior impressions; punctation rather variable, coarse and dense, particularly so in anterior halves of tergites III-VII; posterior margin of tergite VIII crenulate and weakly concave in the middle ( Fig. 105).

♂: sternites VI-VII unmodified; posterior margin of sternite VIII weakly produced, very obtusely angled in the middle ( Fig. 106); median lobe of aedeagus 0.57-0.75 mm long, shaped as in Figs 107-112, with long and straight, apically characteristically shaped ventral process; internal sac with long flagellum; apical lobe of paramere relatively small, approximately 2.5-3.0 times as long as wide.

♀: posterior margin of sternite VIII broadly convex; spermatheca shaped as in Fig. 113, distal part of capsule rather long and slender.

Intraspecific variation:

According to BERNHAUER (1901), LIKOVSKÝ (1974), and other authors, the coloration of the elytra is variable, with the reddish spot occasionally completely obsolete or covering most of the elytra. However, I have seen no such specimens in the material examined. Since A. laevigata has been confounded with various closely related species in the past, it may well be that specimens with completely black or predominantly reddish elytra refer to other species.

Distribution and bionomics:

According to SMETANA (2004), A. laevigata has a trans-Palaearctic distribution, from the Iberian peninsula and Morocco to the Russian Far East and eastern Siberia. In view of the similarity of the species of the A. laevigata group, as well as of the fact that the species was previously identified mostly based on external characters, practically all previous records need to be confirmed. The record from Gümüşhane (NE-Turkey) in ASSING (2007a) refers to A. grandeguttata (see below).

The species has been found in various kinds of dung, on bird casts, and on carrion. According to MAUS et al. (1998), it is a parasitoid of several genera and species of Anthomyiidae and Calliphoridae .