Oedichirus kanak, Rougemont, 2018

Rougemont, Guillaume de, 2018, The genus Oedichirus in New Caledonia (Staphylinidae: Paederinae: Pinophilini), Linzer biologische Beiträge 50 (1), pp. 537-586 : 551

Oedichirus kanak nov. sp. (Figs 10)

Material studied: ♀ Holotype: New Caledonia, Sarraméa: trail to Plateau Dogny , 700- 900 m, 23.X.98, I. Löbl, wood & leaf litter ♀ HOLOTYPE Oedichirus kanak des. 2017 G. de Rougemont [ MHNG].

Description: length: 11.7 mm; length of fore-body: 4.1; length of head: 0.75; breadth of head: 1.2; length of pronotum: 1.58; breadth of pronotum: 1.32; length of elytron: 1.35; breadth of elytra: 1.3. Body black; palpi, antennae and legs testaceous, knees very slightly darker. Head with fine micro-reticulation, producing a greasylustrous appearance, pronotum and elytra devoid of microsculpture, all abdominal tergites with transverse micro-striation. Pubescence pale, short, very sparse, denser on posterior abdominal segments. Habitus: Fig. 10h.

Head appearing scarcely transverse; eyes relatively small, one third the length of temples; temples gently, evenly rounded to neck; post-ocular border obsolete; puncturation very sparse, the punctures small, shallow, irregularly scattered. Pronotum moderately elongate, behind anterior angles broader than head, the sides slightly rounded to base; lateral margins entirely bordered; puncturation coarse, irregular, denser on centre of disc, sparser laterad, not forming longitudinal series, leaving a small elongate impunctate surface before base. Elytra exceptionally long for a micropterous species, with obsolete humeral angles, about as broad as pronotum, broadest at mid-length, the sides rounded, the joint posterior margins shallowly arcuately concave; puncturation comparable to that of pronotum, coarse, denser near suture where interstices are narrower than the diameter of punctures, sparser on sides. Keels and grooves of anterior margins of abdominal tergites short, obsolescent; puncturation of tergites rather sparse and very irregular, the punctures progressively finer on successive tergites.

Female: sternite IX: Fig. 10vp, the vulvar plate large and elongate.

This species is very similar to O. theryi nov.sp. from which it differs by its narrower and more strongly microsculptate head and the conformation of the female ninth sternite.