Sunius claviceps (REITTER, 1908)

Assing, Volker, 2008, Four new species and additional records of Palaearctic Sunius, with two new synonymies (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 58 (2), pp. 455-470 : 469-470

Sunius claviceps (REITTER, 1908)

? Medon nidicola KASTCHEEV, 1982: 537 .

Sunius bogdoensis GREBENNIKOV, 2001: 443 f., syn. n.

Type material examined:

M. nidicola : Paratype ♀ [with heads of 4 additional specimens attached to the same pin]: [locality in Cyrillic], 30.10.78 / Paratypus Medon nidicola Kastcheev / Sunius cf. claviceps (Reitter) det. V. Assing 2008 (cKas).

S. bogdoensis : Holotype ♂: Baskuntshak bl. gory, Bol. Bogdo [in Cyrillic], 14.IX.1996, K. A. Grebennikov / Holotypus Sunius bogdensis [sic] sp. n. K. Grebennikov det., 2000 / Zoological Institute RAS St. Petersburg / Sunius claviceps (Reitter) det. V. Assing 2008 ( ZIN).

Additional material examined:

Uzbekistan: 1 ex., Tashkent ( NHMW) .

In external morphology, the examined paratype of S. nidicola (KASTCHEEV) resembles S. claviceps , suggesting that the former may be a synonym of the latter. However, since the holotype is a male and may be available for study in the future, a formal synonymisation is not proposed herein.

The original description of S. bogdoensis is based on a holotype male collected near Lake Baskuntshak (48°12'N, 46°53'E; close to the border of Kazakhstan), Astrakhan province, in the lower Volga region. Its external and sexual characters are identical to those of S. claviceps , with which S. bogdoensis is herein synonymised.

Sunius claviceps is apparently rather widespread in Middle Asia; it was previously known from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan ( ASSING 2008) and is herein reported from Russia for the first time.