Aloconota pseudogregaria Klimaszewski, Brunke & Pentinsaari, 2021

Brunke, Adam J., Pentinsaari, Mikko & Klimaszewski, Jan, 2021, Integrative taxonomy of Nearctic and Palaearctic Aleocharinae: new species, synonymies, and records (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae), ZooKeys 1041, pp. 27-99 : 27

Aloconota pseudogregaria Klimaszewski, Brunke & Pentinsaari sp. nov. Fig. 28A-G

Type material.

Holotype (male) (CNC): Canada: ON: Waterloo County, Cambridge, Rare Charitable Research Reserve, 43.390, -80.374, soybean field, pitfall trap, 29.VI.2010, A. Brunke [white printed label] / HOLOTYPE Aloconota pseudogregaria Klimaszewski, Brunke & Pentinsaari sp. nov., des A. Brunke 2020 [red printed label]. Paratypes (1 NMNH, 6 DEBU, 1 CNC): Canada: ON: Wellington County, Eramosa, 43.616, -80.215, soybean field, pitfall trap, 13.VII.2010, A. Brunke [white printed label] / PARATYPE Aloconota pseudogregaria Klimaszewski, Brunke & Pentinsaari sp. nov., des A. Brunke 2020 [yellow printed label] [CNC, DEBU, 7 specimens]. United States: VA: Arlington County, Marcey Creek, 38.9087, -77.1083, 70 m, suburban backyard, Malaise trap, 14-21.VI.2015, S. Miller [white printed label] / Barcode of life, DNA voucher specimen, Sample ID: BIOUG42376-E12, Process ID: GMUAF1698-18 [yellow printed label] / PARATYPE Aloconota pseudogregaria Klimaszewski, Brunke & Pentinsaari, sp. nov., des A. Brunke 2020 [yellow printed label] [NMNH, 1 specimen].

Non-type material

(barcoded specimens). Canada: Ontario: Guelph, 25 Division St., 43.554, -80.264, Malaise trap, 14.VII.2010, A. Smith (1, CBG); Guelph, John F. Ross CVI, 43.5621, -80.247, Malaise trap, 22.IV-03.V.2013, G. Staines (1, CBG); Milverton, Milverton Public School, 43.568, -80.928, Malaise trap, 22.IV-03.V.2013, J. Van Bakel (1, CBG); Collingwood, Collingwood Collegiate Institute, 44.489, -80.215, 188 m, Malaise trap, 22.IV-05.V.2014, A. Breton (1, CBG); Cambridge, rare Charitable Research Reserve, 43.3736, -80.3652, 304 m, 04-11.VI.2015, BIO Collections Staff (1, CBG).

Etymology.

The species epithet refers to the similarity to related species A. gregaria (Erichson), which was originally treated separately from other Aloconota under subgenus Aloconota Glossola Fowler (e.g., Benick 1954) because it lacks obvious male secondary sexual characters.

Diagnosis.

Aloconota pseudogregaria can be easily distinguished from all other species of the genus occurring in eastern North America by the distinctly bicolored abdomen (Fig. 28A ). Among Central European species, the spermatheca of A. pseudogregaria is most similar to that of Palaearctic A. gregaria but in the latter the apex is distally truncate, median lobe is distinctly sinuate and only weakly projected ventrad, the abdomen is darker and not distinctly bicolored, and the microsculpture of the forebody is much stronger, creating a dull reflection.

Description.

Body length 2.4-2.7 mm, moderately flattened (stronger so on elytra), narrowly subparallel, colour of head, pronotum, scutellar region of elytra, apical part of abdomen and antennomeres 5-11 dark brown to dark reddish brown, elytra and antennomeres 1-3 paler, red-brown and legs yellow; forebody finely and densely punctate, microsculpture shallow, consisting of meshes; head slightly elongate and with small, shallow impression medially, head slightly narrower than pronotum, postocular region elongate, ca. as long as maximum diameter of eye, tempora with carinae dorsally only; antennae slender, as long as pronotum and elytra combined, basal three antennomeres strongly elongate, 4 subquadrate, 5-10 subquadrate to slightly transverse, and terminal one strongly elongate and ca. as long as two preceding antennomeres combined; pronotum slightly transverse (width/length ratio 1.3), trapezoidal in shape, flattened, pubescence directed straight posteriad in central part of disc and obliquely posteriad laterally; elytra at suture ca. as long as pronotum along midline, flat, distinctly transverse (width/length ratio 1.5), ~ 1/3 broader than pronotum, humeri angular, posterior margins slightly sinuate laterally, pubescence directed straight posteriad forming slightly arcuate lines in sutural region of disc; abdomen subparallel, tergites III-VI distinctly impressed at base; basal metatarsomere ~ 1/3 longer than the following one. MALE. Tergite VIII rounded apically with minute median emargination, lacking apical teeth (Fig. 28D ); sternite VIII rounded apically (Fig. 28E ); tubus of median lobe of aedeagus long, ventrally ca. straight in basal two-thirds and moderately projecting ventrad apically in lateral view (Fig. 28B ). FEMALE. Tergite VIII rounded apically and slightly pointed medially (Fig. 28F ); sternite VIII rounded apically (Fig. 28G ); spermatheca S-shaped, capsule pitcher-shaped with short neck, stem strongly sinuate and swollen apically (Fig. 28C ).

Distribution.

Origin: Nearctic. Canada: ON. United States: VA.

Bionomics.

This species has only been collected by passive traps, including malaise and pitfall traps. All specimens have been collected from at least partly disturbed habitats, such as forest edges, agricultural fields, and suburban environments. This species corresponds to ' Aleocharinae sp. 5' in Brunke et al. (2014), which was collected in both soybean fields and adjacent forest edges by pitfall traps.

Comments.

Aloconota pseudogregaria is probably broadly distributed in northeastern North America. We have compared the male and female genitalia of A. pseudogregaria with all Central European and Nearctic species of Aloconota , and are confident that this taxon has not been previously described from Europe or North America, despite its occurrence in disturbed habitats in North America, which is typical for introduced species. Although Aloconota pseudogregaria clustered most closely with A. gregaria (BOLD:ABU6164) in our barcode dataset, its BIN is ~ 8% different from that of the latter. Based on morphology of the aedeagus and spermatheca, Aloconota pseudogregaria is probably even more closely related to East Palaearctic Aloconota described from Japan and Korea (e.g., Sawada 1970 [as Tomoglossa ], Lee and Ahn 2017) rather than to A. gregaria . However, the described species all differ markedly in external morphology.

Figures

Figure 28. Aloconota pseudogregaria Klimaszewski, Brunke & Pentinsaari, sp. nov. A habitus B median lobe of aedeagus in lateral view C spermatheca D male tergite VIII E male sternite VIII (structure accidentally over-cleared in balsam preparation) F female tergite VIII G female sternite VIII. Scale bars: 1 mm (A); 0.2 mm (B-G).