Tychus altivagus Besuchet

Sabella, Giorgio, Besuchet, Claude & Kurbatov, Sergey A., 2011, New species of Tychini from Turkey and Japan (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae), Zootaxa 2764, pp. 22-34 : 30-31

Tychus altivagus Besuchet , sp. n.

( Figs. 7–8 , 20–21 )

Type material. Holotype: TURKEY: Antalya Prov.: ɗ, environs of Antalya, Saklikent, 1900 m, under stones, 10.V.2000 (H. Meybohm) ( MHNG). Paratypes: TURKEY: Antalya Prov.: 2ΨΨ, same data as holotype but (H. Meybohm & V. Brachat) ( MHNG, PCVB).

Description. Body length 1.5–1.55 mm. Winged. Body uniformly dark brown with darker abdomen, reddish antennae and legs and yellow palpi.

Head slightly wider (0.275–0.28 mm) than long (0.25–0.26 mm), frontal rostrum 0.14–0.15 mm wide and 0.06 mm long, a small tooth in front. Eyes with 20–24 ommatidia. Last segment of maxillary palpi 0.16 mm long and 0.075 mm wide.

Pronotum wider (0.325–0.335 mm) than long (0.30 mm) with small and slightly impressed lateral antebasal foveae.

Elytra wider (0.58–0.60 mm) than long (0.46–0.47 mm) with humeri not very protruding. Discal fovea extended posteriorly in discal stria reaching about half elytral length.

Abdomen with 1st tergite 0.185–0.2 mm long, basal impression extending more than 1/3 of tergite width.

Male. Occipital region of head more convex than in female, antennae (fig. 7) 0.75 mm long, club 0.31 mm long; scapus longer than wide; segments 2 and 3 distinctly longer than wide; segments 4–8 wider than long, segment 5 longer and wider than others segments of funicle. Metasternum with slight median impression. Femora and tibiae of all legs slightly thickened. All abdominal sternites apparently not modified. Aedeagus (figs. 20–21) 0.24 mm long, dorsal apophysis of median lobe sinuate and canaliculate, with medial margin at middle prolonged into short spine-like process extended medially and in distal third prolonged into longer spine-like process extended medially. Ventral portion of median lobe shorter than dorsal apophysis, in basal third curved medially and with spine-like apex.

Female. Antennae (fig. 8) 0.69–0.70 mm long, club 0.275–0.28 mm long, similar to these of male, only barely shorter and thinner.

Comparative notes. Based on external characters (especially the shape of antennae and secondary sexual characters of male) T. altivagus looks similar to the species of the dalmatinus group, but the peculiar morphology of the dorsal apophysis of the median lobe of aedeagus, with medial margin prolonged into two spine-like process extended medially, makes attribution of T. altivagus to this group questionable.

Figures

FIGURES 5 – 9. Antennae of Tychus and Tainochus. 5 — Tychus spurius sp. n., holotype, male from Bektas (Sinop). 6 — Tychus grassator sp. n., holotype, male from Kemalpasa (Izmir). 7 — Tychus altivagus sp. n., holotype, male from Saklikent (Antalya). 8 — Tychus latebrosus sp. n., paratype, female from Saklikent (Antalya). 9 — Tainochus bastardus sp. n., holotype, male from Fuji-Yoshida (Yamanashi). Scale bar 0.1 mm.

FIGURES 20 – 21. Aedeagus of Tychus altivagus sp. n., holotype, male from Saklikent (Antalya). 20 — Ventral view. 21 — Lateral view. Scale bar 0.1 mm.