Lathrobium micangense Peng & Li

Peng, Zhong, Li, Li-Zhen & Zhao, Mei-Jun, 2013, Eight new apterous Lathrobium species (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) from Sichuan, Southwest China, ZooKeys 303, pp. 1-21 : 16-17

Lathrobium micangense Peng & Li sp. n. Figs 10A, 11, 16

Type material.

(1 ♂). Holotype: ♂, labelled 'CHINA: Sichuan Prov., Nanjiang County Mt. Micangshan, 32°39'N, 107°01'E, 27.iv.2008 alt. 1,800 m, Huang & Xu leg.' (SNUC).

Description.

Measurements (in mm) and ratios: BL 6.78, FL 2.68, HL 0.83, HW 0.85, PL 1.11, PW 0.93, EL 0.56, AL 1.46, HL/HW 0.98, HW/PW 0.91, HL/PL 0.75, PL/PW 1.19, EL/PL 0.50.

Habitus as in Fig. 10A. Body reddish brown with paler apex, legs light brown, antennae reddish brown to yellowish brown.

Head subquadrate; punctation moderately coarse and sparse, sparser in median dorsal portion; interstices with fine microreticulation; eyes 1/4 times as long as postocular region in dorsal view.

Pronotum nearly parallel-sided; punctation somewhat denser than that of head; impunctate midline broad; interstices without microsculpture.

Elytra 0.50 times as long as pronotum; punctation moderately dense, defined or weakly defined. Hind wings completely reduced.

Abdomen with fine and dense punctation, that of tergite VII sparser than that of anterior tergites; interstices with shallow microsculpture; posterior margin of tergite VII without palisade fringe.

Male. Sternites III-VI unmodified; sternite VII (Fig. 11A) transverse and deeply impressed in postero-median portion, this impression with several long dark setae, posterior margin weakly concave in the middle; sternite VIII (Fig. 11B) distinctly asymmetric and broadly impressed in postero-median portion, this impression with dense dark long setae, posterior margin broadly concave; sternite IX (Fig. 11G) asymmetric; aedeagus as in Figs 11D, 11E; ventral process long and asymmetric in ventral view; dorsal plate long and thin; internal sac with straight moderately sclerotized spine.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution and biological notes.

The species is known only from one locality in Micang Shan, Sichuan. The holotype was collected by sifting dry leaf litter and moss on a southward slope with Prunus at an altitude of 1,800 m (Fig. 16).

Etymology.

The species is named after its type locality: "Micang Shan".

Comparative notes.

Based on the morphology of the aedeagus (the shapes and chaetotaxy of the male sternites VII and VIII, presence of a moderately sclerotized spine in the internal sac, asymmetric ventral process), Lathrobium micangense belongs to the Lathrobium fissispinosum group. The morphology of the ventral process and the similar shape, the chaetotaxy of the male sternite VII and the asymmetric male sternite VIII suggest that it is closely related to Lathrobium longispinosum , from which Lathrobium micangense differs by the smaller body, the arrangement of the modified setae of the male sternite VIII, the shapes of the ventral process and the dorsal plate of the aedeagus, and the straight moderately sclerotized internal spine of the aedeagus ( Lathrobium longispinosum : spine weakly curved).