Stilicoderus turacus, Assing, 2013

Assing, V., 2013, Three new species and new records of Stilicoderus and Stiliderus (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 45 (2), pp. 1571-1585 : 1582-1584

Stilicoderus turacus nov.sp.

( Figs 16-21 , Map 3 )

Type material: Holotype: " India: Meghalaya #2b, West Garo Hills dist., Trail Tura - Tura Peak summit, 800 m, 14.X.2004, 25°30'12''N, 90°14'07''E / Leg. G. Cuccodoro, C. Carlton, R. Leschen & D. Erne / Holotypus Stilicoderus turacus sp.n. det. V. Assing 2013" ( MHNG) . Paratype: same data as holotype ( cAss) .

Etymology: The specific epithet is an adjective derived from the name of the mountain where the type locality is situated.

Description: Body length 5.3-5.8 mm; length of forebody 3.0- 3.1 mm. Coloration: forebody blackish; abdomen blackish-brown; legs reddish to blackish-brown; antennae brown.

Head ( Fig. 16 ) weakly transverse, 1.02-1.04 times as broad as long, weakly dilated behind eyes; posterior angles broadly rounded; punctation very dense and relatively fine; interstices composed of narrow ridges, without microsculpture. Eyes large and bulging, nearly half as long as postocular region from posterior margin of eye to posterior constriction. Antenna 1.6-1.7 mm long; preapical antennomeres weakly transverse. Anterior margin of labrum concave, with five short teeth.

Pronotum ( Fig. 16 ) approximately 1.05 times as long as broad and 0.95 times as broad as head, strongly convex in cross-section; anterior and posterior angles weakly marked; punctation extremely dense, moderately coarse, and granulose; whole surface matt, except for an indistinct, very narrow line in posterior half of midline.

Elytra ( Fig. 16 ) nearly 0.95 times as long as pronotum and with marked humeral angles; surface distinctly more glossy than that of pronotum, with dense and granulose micropunctation, and with interspersed, moderately dense macropunctures. Hind wings fully developed. Tarsi rather short; metatarsomere I approximately as long as combined length of II and III.

Abdomen slightly narrower than elytra; punctation extremely fine and extremely dense; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.

: sternite VII ( Fig. 17 ) strongly transverse, posterior margin broadly concave, with numerous long marginal setae; sternite VIII ( Fig. 18 ) distinctly transverse, with sparse and short pubescence, median portion with conspicuous longitudinal sculpture ( Fig. 19 ), posterior excision broad and shallow; aedeagus ( Figs 20-21 ) approximately 0.85 mm long; ventral process very slender and sinuate in lateral view; with pair of large, sclerotized, and apically acute latero-apical structures, and with stout and long dorsal plate.

Comparative notes: Both in external and the male sexual characters, S. turacus is most similar to S. variolosus COIFFAIT 1975 , from which it differs by slightly larger eyes, the absence of a distinct impunctate midline of the pronotum, the much denser, granulose, and more pronounced micropunctation of the elytra, the less transverse male sternite VIII with a deeper posterior excision, and by the morphology of the aedeagus, particularly the much longer dorsal plate. The aedeagus of S. variolosus is illustrated by ROUGEMONT (1986a).

Distribution and natural history: The type locality is situated in Meghalaya, Northeast India ( Map 3 ), at an altitude of 800 m. The specimens were found together with S. separandus .

Figures

Map 3: Distributions of Stilicoderus separandus (white and black circles) and S. turacus (black circle) in Northeast India.

Figs 16-21: Stilicoderus turacus: (16) forebody; (17) male sternite VII; (18) male sternite VIII; (19) postero-median portion of male sternite VIII; (20) aedeagus in lateral view; (21) apical structure of aedeagus in lateral view. Scale bars: 16: 1.0 mm; 17-21: 0.2 mm.