Oedichirus ohausi Wendeler

Herman, Lee H., 2013, Revision Of The New World Species Of Oedichirus (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae: Pinophilini: Procirrina), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2013 (375), pp. 1-137 : 105-107

Oedichirus ohausi Wendeler

Figures 40 , 186–187

Oedichirus ohausi Wendeler, 1930: 185 .

— Scheerpeltz, 1933: 1218 (catalog). — Blackwelder, 1944: 131 (checklist).

TYPE MATERIAL: One Syntype. The Wendeler collection in the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, includes only one specimen of the species. The locality data on the label are the same as those published by Wendeler and his identification label is attached to the specimen. Although a red ‘‘Holotype’’ label is one of four attached to the specimen, the holotype designation was not published nor did Wendeler state or imply that he had studied only one specimen, so the specimen is a syntype. To stabilize the name a lectotype is hereby designated.

LECTOTYPE: Designated here. Female. ‘‘ Brasilien Sao Paulo, Bosque de Saude, 19. X. 26 Dr. Fr. Ohaus, S. /Ganz isolierte kleine Waldinseln im Kamp / Oedichirus ohausi n.sp. Wendeler det. / Holotypus / Lectotype Oedichirus ohausi Wendeler des. L. Herman, 2011.’’ Deposited in the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin. (Antennomeres 3–11 of both antennae, both mesotarsi, the right metatarsus, and the left metatarsomere 5 are missing. The head and prothorax are separated from the pterothorax and abdomen, but are glued to the card).

TYPE LOCALITY: Brazil: São Paulo: Bosque de[da] Saude (23 ° 379S, 46 ° 379W). (The coordinates and other information for this locality were supplied by Angelico Asenjo [personal commun.] at the Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil, who wrote that Bosque da Saude was a large park with many trees in the center of the city of São Paulo and was well-known to collectors in the early years of the 20th century. The remains of that large park now are a small garden known as ‘‘ Jardim da Saude. ’’ Prior to corresponding with Angelica Asenjo and searching only ‘‘Saude’’ using Google Earth, Avenida Bosque da Saude was found in São Paulo city; the end point coordinates of the avenue are about: 23 ° 379S, 46 ° 389 and 23 ° 379, 46 ° 379, so it appears that the avenue traverses what was formerly the Bosque da Saude. I also found a Bosque da Saude (22 ° 449S, 47 ° 199W) in the state of São Paulo within the city of Americana near a small park, about 113 km NNW of São Paulo city.)

DIAGNOSIS: The species is known only from the female holotype. The anteroventral angles of tergum IX of the female are fused to form a strap or bridge that covers the narrow anterior edge of the median gonocoxal plate the median portion of which is joined to the fused anteroventral angles of IX (figs. 186, 187). The right side of the anterior vulvar lobe is sclerotized (figs. 186, 187). The elytral length is about a tenth greater than the width.

Among the species with known females, the anteroventral angles of tergum IX are fused for only O. ohausi , O. dilophus (fig. 108), O. distortus (fig. 116), O. lunatus (fig. 169), and O. procerus (fig. 197), but the partially sclerotized anterior vulvar lobe of O. ohausi (figs. 186, 187) will separate it from the others. Furthermore, among these five species, the elytra disc of O. ohausi and O. procerus is concave; the disc of the others is flat to convex. The median gonocoxal plate is present anterior to the vulvar plate for O. ohausi (figs. 186, 187), but absent anteriorly in O. dilophus (fig. 108). The lobes of the vulvar plate for each of the other four species differ significantly from those of O. ohausi (cf. fig. 187 to figs. 110, 118, 171, and 198).

DESCRIPTION: Length: 7.2 mm. Length of head: 0.9 mm. Width of head: 1.0 mm. Pronotal length: 1.3 mm. Pronotal width: 1.0 mm. Elytral length: 1.1 mm. Elytral width: 1.0 mm.

Body concolorous black. Legs concolorous yellowish brown.

Head wider than long (HW/HL: 1.1). Frontoclypeal ridge short, incomplete, and separated medially. Dorsal surface without V-shaped depression; surface polished and with coarse, dense punctation middorsally and more sparsely punctate anteriorly and posteriorly. Labrum quadridentate; surface without tubercle near submedial denticle.

Pronotum longer than wide (PL/PW: 1.3). Pronotal surface with scattered polished, impunctate spots and with coarse punctation arranged in scattered clusters and irregular rows; submedial punctate groove extending posteriorly from near middle. Elytra length and width subequal, length slightly greater than width (EW/EL: 1.0); surface of disc broadly concave and with coarse punctation.

Abdomen irregularly punctate, punctures not arranged in transverse rows. Segment III without paratergite; paratergal carina present for most of length of segment; lateral surface with shallow groove extending from apex of paratergal carina to posterior margin of segment. Tergum III without median point extending from transverse basal ridge. Tergum VIII with broadly rounded posterior margin; transverse basal ridge irregularly sinuate, slightly curved anteriorly, and without median point. Tergum IX with lateroapical process one and a half times as long as midbasal length of tergum (LLaP/L9 5 1.5), slightly bent ventrally, and approximately parallel to other process; ventromedial margin without posteriorly directed spur (cf. fig. 158).

MALE: Unknown.

FEMALE: Tergum IX with anteroventral angles fused medially (fig. 186). Median gonocoxal plate anteriad of vulvar plate reduced to narrow strap and fused anteromedially to tergum IX (fig. 186); gonocoxal plate posteriad of vulvar plate large and gradually tapered to sinuate posterior margin (fig. 186). Vulvar plate embedded in basal half of gonocoxal plate. Anterior vulvar lobe embracing anterior and both lateral sides of posterior vulvar lobe; right side lightly sclerotized, smooth and unadorned; remain- der of surface wrinkled, but otherwise unadorned (fig. 187). Posterior vulvar lobe with cobbled surface and with a few folds (fig. 187). Vulva of indeterminant orientation.

DISTRIBUTION: Known only from the state of São Paulo, Brazil (fig. 40).

REMARKS: The species was collected in a small, isolated forest-island in October ( Wendeler, 1930: 186).

Abdominal segment III of O. ohausi apparently has a paratergal carina in place of a paratergite, but as only one specimen is available it is difficult to be certain which of the two structures it is because the abdomen cannot be removed and segment III cleared. The structure on the lateral side of III is larger and longer than the paratergal carina is for other species and although there may be a suture on the inner base of the ridge that separates it from the tergum there is no suture visible on the outer edge of the ridge that separates it from the sternum. The ridge tapers as it extends posteriorly toward the posterior margin of the segment. The structure is interpreted as a paratergal carina because it is short of the posterior margin of the segment and, apparently, is fused to the tergum and sternum.

However, if the structure interpreted here as a paratergal carina is paratergite III, then O. ohausi can be separated from O. batillus , O. bicristatus , O. hamatus , O. isthmus , O. optatus , and O. sinuous , which also have paratergite III as follows. Among the seven species, only O. ohausi has a concave elytra surface, but the elytral disc of O. hamatus is slightly concave and the bicolored legs of O. hamatus will separate it from O. ohausi , which lacks the dark femorotibial maculations.

The position of the vulva is indeterminant. It may be in a short diagonal fold on the right side of the posterior vulvar lobe (fig. 187, ‘‘vulva(?)’’), but I was unable to find a spermathecal duct leading to it or to any other spot on the posterior vulvar lobe.

Figures

Figs. 39–40. Oedichirus species. Distribution. 39. Mesoamerica and the Caribbean. 40. South America. (Species described prior to present work preceded with *. Symbols ³ or ♀ signify species known only by the sex indicated. Open circle denotes multiple collecting sites.)

Figs. 186–187. Oedichirus ohausi. 186. Segment IX, ventral, female. 187. Segment IX, ventral, vulvar plate, enlarged (CLSM).