Quedius mutilatus, Eppelsheim A. Smetana, 1888

Salnitska, Maria & Solodovnikov, Alexey, 2018, Taxonomy of the poorly known Quedius mutilatus group of wingless montane species from Middle Asia (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylinini), European Journal of Taxonomy 401, pp. 1-17 : 3-4

Quedius mutilatus group

Diagnosis

The Quedius mutilatus group of species can be recognized as follows: relatively large Microsaurus (body length 8–11.6 mm) with brown to dark brown, dorso-ventrally flattened body, with notably small eyes and pronounced signs of brachyptery such as short elytra and absent palisade fringe on abdominal tergite VII; head with posterior frontal puncture situated very close to neck; pronotum with distinct anterior and posterior angles, normally with three punctures in dorsal rows with anteriormost (smaller) puncture located latero-anteriorly at pronotal anterior margin, and with one to two sublateral punctures situated slightly anterior to large lateral puncture; scutellum impunctate; aedeagus robust, symmetrical, with apical portion of median lobe slightly curved towards paramere, with characteristic tooth near apex (in lateral view), with paramere widest shortly before apex (in parameral view) and with four distinct groups of sensory peg setae: two apical and two lateral.

List of species

Quedius mutilatus Eppelsheim, 1888 ; Quedius kalabi Smetana, 1995 ; Quedius equus Smetana, 2014 and Quedius kungeicus sp. nov.; all species can be reliably separated from each other by the structure of the aedeagus only.

Distribution

All species of the group seem to be allopatric ( Fig. 1 ): Quedius mutilatus Eppelsheim, 1888 is restricted to the central part of Terskei Alatau, south of Issyk-Kul Lake; it is replaced eastwardly by Q. kalabi Smetana, 1995 and then Q. equus Smetana, 2014 , the latter probably being distributed throughout NE Terskei Alatau to Xinjiang Province in China. Quedius kungeicus sp. nov. is known from the type locality in eastern Kungei Alatau only. There is a single female from the high altitudes of Atbashi Mountain in Central Tien-Shan, which presumably belongs to the Q. mutilatus group, but cannot be further identified without associated males. Three ambiguous specimens from Toksanbai in Dzungarian Alatau, damaged by dermestids, are presumably mislabelled and in fact originate from Terskei Alatau, because a single fully preserved male among them displays an aedeagus of the Q. kalabi type. All specimens of the Q. mutilatus group with recorded bionomic data indicate a specialization to high elevations.

Systematics

Some authors affiliated Q. mutilatus with Q. przewalskii Reitter, 1887 ( Reitter 1887; Boháč 1988) or with the Q. przewalskii group ( Smetana 2014); the latter, however, lacks a clear definition ( Solodovnikov & Hansen 2016). For example, Smetana (2014) affiliated Q. mutilatus and Q. equus to the Q. przewalskii group, contrary to his (e.g., Smetana 2001) earlier opinion of the composition of this group. Based on body chaetotaxy and the shape of the aedeagus, it could be related to Q. puncticollis (Thomson, 1867) , as proposed by Coiffait (1978). The Q. puncticollis group of Coiffait (1978) is phylogenetically heterogeneous, based on the diverse morphology and scattered distributions of species. We establish the Q. mutilatus group here for Q. mutilatus and related species from Tien-Shan. Members of the group

markedly differ from Q. puncticollis and related species in a microphthalmous, brachypterous habitus, with weakly pigmented coloration and in the shape of the aedeagus, with a pointed apex of the median lobe and sensory peg setae arranged in apical and lateral groups. The Q. mutilatus group differs from the Q. przewalskii group, in the more restricted sense of Smetana (2001), in having three (contrary to one or two) punctures in the dorsal rows of the pronotum and in the structure of the aedeagus, which is symmetrical, with a median lobe having a pointed apex and a more basally positioned ventral tooth, and with wide parameres having two groups of sensory peg setae (apical and lateral).

All species of this group are individually treated below. In addition to the description of a new species, a redescription is provided for Q. mutilatus , the most commonly cited species of the group with which other, later described species have been compared.

Figures

Fig.1.DistributionandaedeagusvariabilityoftheQuediusmutilatusgroupintheTien-ShanMountains. Numbers are specified in Table 1. Empty symbols = typespcimens (for Q. kalabi precise locality of the holotype unknown);? = ambiguously labelled or undetermined material. Scale bar: 0.5 mm.