Pheidologitonetes CAMERON, 1939

Assing, Volker, 2017, On the Lomechusini fauna of the East Palaearctic and Oriental regions, with a focus on the genera Orphnebius and Amaurodera (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 67 (1), pp. 63-106 : 89

3.5 Genus Pheidologitonetes CAMERON, 1939

Comment: Pheidologitonetes was described by CAMERON (1939) to include only P. setifer CAMERON, 1939 from “Nilgiri Hills” (South India), the type species by monotypy. CAMERON (1939) already observed an interesting character shared with species of Orphnebius , the extensive non-setiferous punctation on tergite VII. Two additional species, P. nilgiriensis and P. bartolozzii , were described by PACE (2001a), both from Nilgiri Hills, too. However, it can be inferred from external (pronotum with completely different sculpture and punctation; tergite VII without non-setiferous punctation) and the sexual characters (aedeagus of completely different morphology) that these species do not belong to Pheidologitonetes , but probably to Drusilla . On the other hand, Drusilla franzi PACE, 1992 from Nepal ( PACE 1992) and above all Zyras (Zyrastilbus) adesi PACE, 1998 from Hong Kong ( PACE 1998) probably belong to Pheidologitonetes , as is suggested by the similar external and sexual characters.

Based on the morphology of the aedeagus and on the modifications of the abdominal tergites VII and VIII, the genus is closely allied to Orphnebius .