Microhoria muehlei Telnov & Degiovanni sp., 2022

Telnov, Dmitry, 2022, Revisional notes on the genus Microhoria Chevrolat, 1877 (Insecta: Coleoptera: Anthicidae) from the Eastern Mediterranean and Turkey, with new descriptions, an annotated catalogue, and a key, Baltic Journal of Coleopterology 22 (2), pp. 195-312 : 263-265

Microhoria muehlei Telnov & Degiovanni sp.

nov. ( Fig. 36 ) urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:891FDB2D­3A50­4AC4­802F­AF4891B77720

Type material designated. Holotype male NME: Iran / Yazd, Kuh­e­Hamameh 15 km N Hamameh 24.5.2008 2200 m leg. Mühle 981 [printed].

Paratypes 37 males & females. 7 specimens NME, 7 BMNH, 4 NMP, 2 HMC & 4 DTC: same label as holotype ; 3 specimens NME, 2 BMNH, 1 HMC & 2 DTC: Iran / Yazd , Shur Kuh 5 km S Taft 23.5.2008 1600­ 1700 m leg. Mühle 978 [printed] ; 1 male & 1 female NME: Iran /

Khorasan, Birjand , 10 km S Mud, Kahi 26.5. 2008 2400­ 2500 m leg. Mühle 986 [printed]; 1 male DTC: Iran / Khorasan, Kuh­e­Sorkh (West), 40 km N Bardeskan (Pass) 28.5.2008 1800­ 1900 m leg. Mühle 993 [printed]; 2 malesADC: IRAN: (Yazd) Shir Kuh, Deh Bala, 2800 m 26.V.2011 leg. D. Baiocchi [printed] .

Etymology. Patronymic. Named for Dr. Hans Mühle (HMC), one of the collectors of the type series.

Description. Holotype male, total body length 2.8 mm. Head 0.65 mm long, across compound eyes 0.55 mm wide, pronotum 0.5 mm long, maximum width 0.5 mm, elytra 1.6 mm long, maximum combined width 0.9 mm. Selected male paratypes 2.7–3.4 mm, selected female paratypes 3.2–3.4 mm long. Dorsum and venter uniformly black, elytra with indistinct ore shine. Tibiae and tarsi, antennomeres 2–5 yellowish brown. Head ovoid, about 1.3× as long as wide, tempora subparallel, head base rounded in one broad arc, posterior temporal angles rounded. Compound eye moderate, about as long as tempus, moderately protruding from lateral outline of head. Head dorsum moderately glossy, punctures distinct, moderately deep. Intervening spaces generally smooth and glossy, as wide as to twice as wide as punctures. Dorsal cranial setae greyish, sparse, inconspicuous. Antennae slightly enlarged in apical third. Penultimate antennomere cylindrical, distinctly longer than wide. Terminal antennomere elongate, nearly acutely pointed, about 2.5× as long as penultimate antennomere, as long combined length of antennomeres 9–10. Pronotum barely longer than wide, narrower than head across eyes, broadly rounded at anterior margin. Pronotal disc moderately glossy, flattened in dorsal aspect. Lateral margins moderately converging in posterior half. Latero­basal pronotal fovea broad, not supplemented with dense setae. Punctures and dorsal setae similar as those on head. Intervening spaces narrower than to about as wide as punctures. Elytra elongate, about 1.8– 1.9× as long as wide, laterally parallel­sided, subtruncate at apex, dorsally flattened. Humerus obsolete.Apex of elytron modified, with elongate, acutely pointed, narrowly triangular denticle at opening of gland channel. Surface glossy and smooth, punctures larger and deeper than those on forebody. Intervening spaces generally as wide as punctures, in part microscopically wrinkled. Elytral setae greyish, moderately long, rather dense, generally slightly subdecumbent to appressed, directed posteriad. Metathoracic wings fully developed. Legs without modifications, tibial terminal spurs paired. Tergite VII truncate at posterior margin. Morphological sternite VII broadly rounded at posterior margin. Aedeagus ( Fig. 36C–F ) strongly elongate, tegmen apex with a long, rod­like, apically variably strongly hooked process; fused baculi well­developed, extending apicad to about half length of tegmen; endophallic armature of three long, narrow, apically slightly curved spines and another three short, irregularly sinuous, narrow spines.

Sexual dimorphism. Female is generally less slender than male, elytron apex subtruncate, without modifications.

Differential diagnosis. Microhoria muehlei Telnov & Degiovanni sp. nov. belongs to the M. terminata species group and is externally very similar to a number of uniformly dark congeners. The aedeagus resembles that of M. luristanica (Pic, 1911) ( Iran, Iraq, Turkey) and M. pahlavi Kejval in Kejval & Chandler, 2020 ( Iran) but is specifically different in the structure of the endophallic armature (the presence of the three short, irregularly sinuous spines), the shape of the apical hook of the tegmen, and the regularly rounded male morphological sternite VII (subtruncate in M. luristanica , slightly emarginate in M. pahlavi ).

Ecology. Collected at elevation 16­ 2500 m.

Distribution. Iran (Khorasan and Yazd provinces).

Figures

Fig. 36. Microhoria muehlei Telnov & Degiovanni sp. nov. male paratypes. A – Habitus, dorsal view; B – Forebody, dorsal view; C – Aedeagus, lateral view; D – Endophallic armature; E – Another paratype, aedeagus, ventral view; F – ditto, apical portion of tegmen [not to scale; images E–F courtesy Augusto Degiovanni, Bubano, Italy].