Cephennodes (Cephennodes) monolaminatus, Jałoszyński, 2017

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2017, Ant-like stone beetles on the roof of the world. Cephenniini of Nepal and Bhutan (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 4349 (1), pp. 1-120 : 47-48

Cephennodes (Cephennodes) monolaminatus sp. n.

( Figs 98 , 108 , 128–129 , 146 )

Type material. Holotype: NEPAL (Lalitpur District): ♂, " NEPAL: distr. / Kathmandu: Phulcoki / 2500 m, 28– 30.IV.84 / Löbl - Smetana " [white, printed] ( MHNG) . Paratypes (12 exx): 1 ♂, 3 ♀♀, same data as for holotype ; 1 ♀, " NEPAL: distr. / Kathmandu: Phulcoki / 2550 m, 29.IV.84 / Löbl - Smetana " [white, printed] ; 4 ♂♂, " NEPAL Lalitpur / Distr. Phulcoki / 2650m, 15.X.83 / Smetana & Löbl" [white, printed] ; 1 ♂, 1 ♀, " NEPAL Lalitpur / Distr. Phulcoki / 2600–2700m, 15.X. / 83 Smetana & Löbl" [white, printed] ; 1 ♂, "E. NEPAL: KOSI / Forêt S Mangsingma / 2200 m, 11.IV.84 / Löbl - Smetana " [white, printed] (paratypes in MHNG and cPJ).

Diagnosis. BL 1.45–1.58 mm; body stout, with elytra weakly narrowing behind the broadest site; distal portion of metatibia strongly thickened, with oval subapical porous field about as long as broad and with one remarkably long bristle within short setal fringe of apical margin; abdomen in ventral view with sternite III bearing broadly rounded median lobe; apical portion of median lobe of aedeagus nearly subrectangular with rounded corners, its longitudinal axis forming about 30°-angle with long axis of aedeagus; apical projection with sinuate distal margin.

Description. Body of male ( Fig. 98 ) dark brown, with shallow constriction between pronotum and elytra, strongly convex, covered with light brown setae; BL 1.48–1.60 mm (mean 1.52 mm).

Head subtrapezoidal, HL 0.20–0.25 mm (mean 0.21 mm), HW 0.38–0.43 mm (mean 0.38 mm); vertex and frons confluent, evenly and weakly convex; frons with a pair of tiny tubercles; supraantennal tubercles small and weakly elevated; eyes large, strongly convex, coarsely faceted. Punctures on frons and vertex small but distinct, relatively sharply marked, densely and unevenly distributed, sparser at middle and denser on sides, those in middle of frons between eyes separated by spaces 1–2 × as wide as diameters of punctures; setae short, moderately dense, suberect to erect. Antennae relatively short and moderately slender, AnL 0.75–0.83 mm (mean 0.81 mm), pentamerous club indistinctly delimited; antennomere I 1.5 × as long as broad; II slightly narrower but not shorter than I, nearly twice as long as broad; III–VI similar in shape, each slightly narrower and much shorter than II, about 1.1–1.2 × as long as broad, VII slightly broader and longer than VI, about 1.2 × as long as broad; VIII slightly broader but distinctly shorter than VII, slightly transverse; IX and X each distinctly larger than preceding one, each slightly transverse, XI much broader than X, about as long as IX–X together, about twice as long as broad.

Pronotum in dorsal view nearly semicircular, broadest near middle or slightly behind middle, but very indistinctly narrowing posteriorly, PL 0.44–0.58 mm (mean 0.46 mm), PW 0.68–0.78 mm (mean 0.73 mm); anterior margin broadly and weakly rounded; lateral margins not serrate, strongly rounded in anterior half, nearly straight and very weakly rounded in posterior half; posterior corners nearly right-angled; posterior margin shallowly bisinuate; lateral carinae narrow and fused with lateral margins; antebasal pits small and very shallow, each located distinctly closer to posterior than to lateral margin of pronotum. Punctures on disc very small and shallow, inconspicuous; setae dense, short, suberect.

Elytra short, oval, broadest between middle and anterior third, EL 0.83–0.88 mm (mean 0.85 mm), EW 0.75– 0.83 mm (mean 0.79 mm), EI 1.03–1.17. Humeral calli weakly elevated; subhumeral lines distinct, equal to about 0.4 EL, each developed as sharp stepwise border between more convex humeral region and less convex adsutural area; basal pit on each elytron large and connected to short, slightly arcuate impression extending posteromesally; apices of elytra separately rounded. Punctures on elytra more distinct than those on pronotum but superficial, diffuse and inconspicuous; setae about as dense and short as those on pronotum.

Hind wings not studied.

Metaventrite with large and sharply delimited postmesocoxal impressions, median part covered with very fine punctures.

Hind legs with strongly modified tibiae ( Fig. 108 ); in dorsal view lateral (external) tibial margin weakly recurved and spatulate portion of tibia moderately rapidly narrowed distally, with rounded, not angulate external margin; dorsodistal porous field about as long as broad; distal fringe of setae with one outstanding long bristle.

Abdomen ( Figs 128–129 ) with sternite III bearing broadly rounded, short median lobe ( Fig. 129 ).

Aedeagus ( Figs 130–131 ) moderately slender; AeL 0.23 mm, apical portion of median lobe subrectangular with rounded corners, its longitudinal axis forming about 30°-angle with the long axis of aedeagus; apical projection with sinuate distal margin; parameres long and slender, not exceeding apex of median lobe, each bearing one apical seta.

Female. Very similar to male but with unmodified metatibiae; BL 1.50–1.58 mm (mean 1.55 mm); HL 0.20– 0.23 mm (mean 0.21 mm), HW 0.38–0.43 mm (mean 0.40 mm), AnL 0.78–0.80 mm (mean 0.79 mm); PL 0.48– 0.50 mm (mean 0.49 mm), PW 0.76–0.83 mm (mean 0.79 mm), EI 1.02–1.06.

Distribution ( Fig. 146 ). Central-eastern and eastern Nepal.

Etymology. The name monolaminatus refers to a single lamina on abdominal sternites.

Remarks. This species is very similar to C. martensi and C. paramartensi ; they share a similarly large and stout body and elytra less narrowed behind the broadest site than those in C. dolakhanus . Cephennodes monolaminatus can be distinguished from C. martensi and C. paramartensi on the basis of a distinctly longer porous field on metatibia; the field is not strongly transverse, as that in the two latter species, but about as long as broad, and the external margin of the porous field in C. monolaminatus is more evenly rounded. The abdomen in ventral view has only a broad rounded median posterior lamina on the sternite III in C. monolaminatus ; in C. martensi the posterior margin of both sternite II and III is projected into a broad and rounded lamina; and in C. paramartensi the sternite II has a broad and short microserrate carina near its posterior margin. The aedeagus of C. monolaminatus clearly differs from that of C. paramartensi , it is more slender, with the apical portion of median lobe much less curved outwards from the long axis of aedeagus. Differences between the aedeagi of C. monolaminatus and C. martensi are more subtle; they can be seen in the shape of the apical portion of median lobe in ventral view (rounded subtriangular in C. martensi vs. subrectangular in C. monolaminatus ) and the shape of the apex of apical projection in ventral view (in C. martensi forming a large rounded subtriangular lobe slightly curved toward the apex of median lobe; in C. monolaminatus the apex is subtriangular and much less rounded). These species require a molecular analysis to clarify their status; they may turn out to be only populations of one broadly distributed species that differ slightly in some morphological characters (see Discussion).

Figures

FIGURES 94 – 101. Dorsal habitus of Cephennodes (s. str.) dolakhanus s sp. n. (94), C. (s. str.) manangensis sp. n. (95), C. (s. str.) martensi sp. n. (96), C. (s. str.) paramartensi sp. n. (97), C. (s. str.) monolaminatus sp. n. (98), C. (s. str.) thakanus sp. n. (99), C. (s. str.) annapurnaensis sp. n. (100), and C. (s. str.) parbatensis sp. n. (101).

FIGURES 102 – 111. Right metatibia of male in dorsal view. Cephennodes (s. str.) dolakhanus s sp. n. (102, 104), C. (s. str.) manangensis sp. n. (103, 105), C. (s. str.) martensi sp. n. (106), C. (s. str.) paramartensi sp. n. (107), C. (s. str.) monolaminatus sp. n. (108), C. (s. str.) thakanus sp. n. (109), C. (s. str.) annapurnaensis sp. n. (110), and C. (s. str.) parbatensis sp. n. (111). 104 – 111 not to the same scale.

FIGURES 128 – 143. Abdomen of male in right lateral (128, 132, 136, 140) and ventral (129, 133, 137, 141) views and aedeagus in ventral (130, 134, 138, 142) and lateral (131, 135, 139, 143) views. Cephennodes C. (s. str.) monolaminatus sp. n. (128 – 131), C. (s. str.) thakanus sp. n. (132 – 135), C. (s. str.) annapurnaensis sp. n. (136 – 139), and C. (s. str.) parbatensis sp. n. (140 – 143). Abbreviations: aml, apex of median lobe; ap, apical projection.

FIGURES 146 – 147. Distribution of Cephennodes (s. str.) monolaminatus sp. n. (146, circle), C. (s. str.) thakanus sp. n. (144, triangle), C. (s. str.) annapurnaensis sp. n. (147, circle), C. (s. str.) parbatensis sp. n. (147, triangle).