Trisunius smetanai, Assing, 2014

Assing, V., 2014, A revision of Trisunius IV. Two new species and additional records from China (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 46 (1), pp. 443-448 : 444-446

Trisunius smetanai nov.sp. ( Figs 1-7 )

T y p e m a t e r i a l: Holotype: " China: N-Yunnan Nujiang Lisu Aut. Pr. Gongshan Co. Gaoligong Shan, snowfield at 2500 m, 27°45.404'N 98°35.749'E, 19.VI.05 A. Smetana [C165] / Holotypus Trisunius smetanai sp.n. det. V. Assing 2013 " (cAss). Paratype: "P.R. China, Yunnan, E slope N Gaoligong Shan, N 27°46.8' E 098°33.1', 12-15.vi.2009, 2000-3000 m, sifting 1- 7, V. Grebennikov" (cSme).

E t y m o l o g y: The species is dedicated to Aleš Smetana, who collected the holotype and whose material the present paper is almost exclusively based on.

D e s c r i p t i o n: Body length 3.6-3.8 mm; length of forebody 1.80-1.95 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 1 . Coloration: body reddish-brown, with the head and the abdomen slightly darker than the pronotum and the elytra; legs and antennae reddish.

Head ( Fig. 2 ) approximately as broad as long; lateral margins behind eyes subparallel in dorsal view; punctation extremely fine and dense; interstices with distinct microreticulation ( Fig. 3 ). Eyes weakly convex, not distinctly protruding from lateral contours of head, and small, approximately one-third as long as postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna 1.0- 1.1 mm long.

Pronotum ( Figs 2, 4 ) approximately 1.1 times as long as broad and 0.9 times as broad as head; lateral margins very weakly converging posteriad in dorsal view; punctation fine and dense, slightly less fine than that of head; midline narrowly impunctate and with fine

furrow of variable length posteriorly; interstices with extremely shallow microsculpture noticeable only at high magnification (100 x).

Elytra ( Fig. 2 ) short, approximately 0.7 times as long as pronotum; punctation fine and dense; interstices without microsculpture. Hind wings reduced. Metatarsomere I approximately as long as II.

Abdomen approximately 1.2 times as broad as elytra; punctation very fine and very dense; interstices with shallow microreticulation; posterior margin of tergite VII with narrow rudiment of a palisade fringe.

: sternite VII ( Fig. 5 ) relatively weakly transverse, pubescence only weakly modified, posterior margin weakly convex in the middle; sternite VIII ( Fig. 6 ) weakly transverse, posterior excision approximately 0.2 times as deep as length of sternite; aedeagus ( Fig. 7 ) 0.52-0.53 mm long; ventral process short and of distinctive shape in lateral view.

C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s:UsingthekeytospeciesinASSING (2011), T. smetanai would key out at couplet 4, together with T. discrepans . From this species, T. smetanai is distinguished by paler coloration ( T. discrepans : brown to blackish-brown) and by the male sexual characters. For illustrations of T. discrepans see ASSING (2011).

D i s t r i b u t i o n a n d n a t u r a l h i s t o r y: The known distribution is confined to two geographically close localities in the northern Gaoligong Shan, western Yunnan, Southwest China. The holotype was sifted from leaf litter in a gully partly filled with snow in a mixed pine and broadleaved forest at an altitude of 2500 m (SMETANA pers. comm.).

Figures

Figs 1-7: Trisunius smetanai nov.sp.: (1) habitus; (2) forebody; (3) median dorsal portion of head; (4) median posterior portion of pronotum; (5) male sternite VII; (6) male sternite VIII; (7) aedeagus in lateral view. Scale bars: 1: 1.0 mm; 2: 0.5 mm; 5-7: 0.2 mm; 3-4: 0.1 mm.