Nazeris virilis, Assing, 2014

Assing, Volker, 2014, A revision of Nazeris. VI. On the fauna of East Yunnan, China (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 64 (2), pp. 355-373 : 360-361

Nazeris virilis sp. n.

( Figs 8–13 , Map 2 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “ CHINA [12] – Yunnan, mt. WNW Wuding , mix. forest, 25°38'45"N, 102°06'55"E, 2390 m, 18.VIII.2014, V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Nazeris virilis sp. n., det. V. Assing 2014” (cAss).

Paratypes: 3 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀: same data as holotype (cAss) ; 1 ♂: same data as holotype, but leg. M. Schülke (cSch) ; 12 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀ [2 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀ teneral]: “ CHINA [12a] – Yunnan, mt. WNW Wuding , mix. forest, 25°38'45"N, 102°06'55"E, 2390 m, 1.IX.2014, V. Assing” (cAss, MNHUB) ; 4 ♂♂, 1 ♀ [1 ♂ teneral], same data, but leg. M. Schülke (cSch) ; 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀ [1 ♂ teneral]: “ CHINA [10] – Yunnan, mt. NW Wuding, mixed forest, 25°36'53"N, 102°18'59"E, 2190 m, 17. VIII.2014, V. Assing” (cAss) ; 1 ♂ [teneral]: same data, but leg. M. Schülke (cSch) .

Etymology: The specific epithet (Latin, adjective: manly, virile) alludes to the conspicuously large aedeagus.

Description: Species of moderate size; body length 5.5–6.7 mm; length of forebody 2.8–3.1 mm. Coloration: body blackish; legs and antennae yellowish.

Head ( Fig. 8 ) weakly oblong, approximately 1.05 times as long as broad; lateral contours behind eyes smoothly curving towards posterior constriction in dorsal view, posterior angles obsolete; punctation very dense, not very coarse, and distinctly umbilicate; interstices forming narrow ridges, without microsculpture. Eyes approximately one-third as long as distance from posterior margin of eye to posterior constriction in dorsal view, or nearly so. Antenna 1.6–1.7 mm long.

Pronotum ( Fig. 8 ) approximately 1.15 times as long as broad and 0.90–0.95 times as broad as head; punctation very dense and much coarser than that of head; midline posteriorly with short and narrow impunctate glossy elevation; lateral portions without distinct impressions, elevations, or callosities; interstices without microsculpture and glossy.

Elytra ( Fig. 8 ) 0.50–0.55 times as long as pronotum; humeral angles obsolete; punctation approximately as coarse and as dense as that of pronotum; interstices without microsculpture and glossy. Hind wings completely reduced. Metatarsomere I elongated, but distinctly shorter than the combined length of II–V.

Abdomen approximately 1.2 times as broad as elytra; punctation moderately coarse and very dense on tergites III–VI, finer and sparser on tergites VII and VIII; interstices of tergites III–VI without, those of tergites VII and VIII with very shallow microreticulation; posterior margin of tergite VII with narrow rudiment of a palisade fringe; posterior margin of tergite VIII strongly convex.

♂: sternite VII ( Fig. 9 ) approximately 1.65 times as broad as long, with shallow postero-median impression, posterior margin with distinct broad median excision, this excision with a lateral cluster of long black setae on either side ( Fig. 10 ); sternite VIII ( Fig. 11 ) approximately as broad as long and with strongly convex anterior margin, posterior excision acutely V-shaped and approximately 0.22 times as deep as length of sternite; aedeagus ( Figs 12–13 ) conspicuously long (approximately 1.6 mm); ventral process deeply incised apico-ventrally, basally with a short and acute projection on either side; dorsolateral apophyses weakly sclerotized, very short, far from reaching middle of ventral process, weakly curved, apically distinctly dilated and obliquely truncate.

Comparative notes: As can be inferred from the similarly derived morphology of the aedeagus (very long ventral process with median carina; dorso-lateral apophyses conspicuously short, weakly sclerotized, apically dilated, and obliquely truncate) and from the similar modifications of the male sternite VII (posteriorly with a pronounced concavity and with a pair of clusters of modified setae), N. virilis is undoubtedly closely related to N. brevilobatus , from which it differs by the more pronounced posterior concavity and the more pronounced clusters of setae of the male sternite VII, the less deep posterior excision of the differently shaped male sternite VIII (not transverse), and by the much longer ventral process of the aedeagus.

Distribution and natural history: The species was discovered in two localities to the northwest and westnorthwest of Wuding, approximately 75 and 90 km to the northwest of Kunming ( Map 2 ). The partly teneral specimens were sifted from litter in a mixed forest margin with alder and pine and in a degraded mixed forest with alder, oak, and pine at altitudes of 2390 and 2190 m, respectively.

Figures

Map 2: Distribution of the named species of Nazeris brevilobatus group in eastern Yunnan: N. brevilobatus sp. n. (white circle); N. virilis sp. n. (black circles); N. claviger sp. n. (black diamond); N. constrictus sp. n. (white triangles), N. discissus sp. n. (black square).

Figs 1–13: Nazeris brevilobatus sp. n. (1–7) and N. virilis sp. n. (8–13): forebody (1, 8); male sternite VII (2, 9); postero-median portion of male sternite VII (3, 10); male sternite VIII (4, 11); aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (5–6, 12–13); basal portion of ventral process of aedeagus in ventral view (7). Scale bars: 1, 8: 1.0 mm; 2, 4–6, 9, 11–13: 0.5 mm; 3, 10: 0.2 mm; 7: 0.1 mm.