Kieneriella Yin & Hlavac

Yin, Zi-Wei & Hlavac, Peter, 2016, The Pselaphinae (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) of New Caledonia and Loyalty Islands. III. Kieneriella, a new genus of the tribe Brachyglutini, Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 63 (1), pp. 149-154 : 149

Taxon classification Animalia Coleoptera Staphylinidae

Kieneriella Yin & Hlavac gen. n. Figs 1, 2, 3

Type species.

Kieneriella novaecaledoniae sp. n., here designated.

Diagnosis.

Head with large nude vertexal foveae and small frontal fovea; antennal club loosely formed by two apical antennomeres; median gular ridge prominent and broad. Pronotum globular, with setose median and lateral antebasal foveae, lacking transverse antebasal sulcus connecting these foveae. Each elytron with two large basal foveae, lacking discal stria. Tergite IV (first visible tergite) with two basolateral foveae in transverse basal sulcus; sternite IV (second visible sternite) with deep basolateral sulci.

Description.

Length 2.72 mm. Head with large, nude vertexal foveae (Fig. 1B, vf); lacking frontal rostrum, with small frontal fovea (Fig. 1B, ff); antennal tubercles moderately prominent; lateral margins lacking postantennal notches; with eleven antennomeres, antennal club weakly formed by two apical antennomeres (Fig. 1A); ocular-mandibular carinae (Fig. 3B, omc) present; gular plate (Fig. 1C, gp) large, with well-defined gular suture (Fig. 1C, gs) demarcating ventrally 'neck region’ from anterior part of head, median gular ridge (Fig. 1C, mgr) prominent and large, edges of gular ridge divergent, merging medially anterior to fused gular tentorial pits (Fig. 1C, gtp); maxillary palpus (Fig. 3C) greatly elongate, with short palpomere I, II elongate, more than twice as long as of III, palpomere III briefly pedunculate at base, semi-triangular, IV about twice as long as III, slightly curved through entire length, with long palpal cone.

Pronotum globular (Fig. 1B), disc strongly convex, finely punctate; with setose median and lateral antebasal foveae (Fig. 1B, maf, laf), lacking antebasal sulcus connecting foveae; paranotal sulci slightly curved, extending from base to half of pronotal length.

Each elytron with two large basal foveae (Fig. 3F, bef), with indistinct subbasal fovea (Fig. 3F, sef); sutural striae (Fig. 3F, ss) entire and deep, lacking discal striae, subhumeral foveae, and marginal striae.

Prosternum with large, setose procoxal foveae widely separated. Mesoventrite (Fig. 2A) lacking median fovea, with lateral mesoventral and lateral mesocoxal foveae (Fig. 2A, lmsf, lmcf); metaventrite with lateral foveae (Fig. 2A, lmtf) moving medially and close, metaventral process broadly emarginate at middle, with two distinct lateral projections.

Abdomen (Fig. 2 B–D) with tergite IV (first visible tergite) about as long as V; tergite IV with basal sulcus (Fig. 2C, bs) covered by elytra in natural position (Fig. 1A), with two basolateral foveae (Fig. 2C, blf); tergites IV–VII each with adjacent paratergites. Sternite IV (second visible sternite) with deep basolateral sulci (Fig. 2D, bls), with mediobasal and basolateral foveae in sulci (Fig. 2D, mbf, blf).

Legs with tarsomeres II and III subequal in length.

Male with spinose protibia (Fig. 3E). Aedeagus (Fig. 3 G– 3H) with almost symmetric median lobe except dextrally oriented apical hook, and pair of broad, flattened, and nearly symmetric parameres (Fig. 3I, detached from median lobe). Female with simple protibiae.

Comparative notes.

The short dorsal margin of the mesotrochanters (Fig. 3D), barely visible short abdominal sternite III, and separated metacoxae (Fig. 2D) place Kieneriella in the subtribe Brachyglutina ( Goniaceritae: Brachyglutini ), near the Rybaxis group of genera whose median gular ridge is well-defined, prominent, and large ( Chandler 2001: 292). At present, four genera and ten species of Goniaceritae are known from New Caledonia: Anasopsis Raffray (3 spp.), Baraxina Raffray (1 sp.), Eupines King (5 spp.), and Physoplectus Reitter (1 sp.) ( Hlaváč et al. 2006). Kieneriella is morphologically similar to the only New Caledonian member of the Rybaxis group, Baraxina , by the same foveal pattern of the head and pronotum, more or less elongate maxillary palpi, and similar length of the abdominal segments. Kieneriella can be readily separated from Baraxina by the maxillary palpi with much more elongate and slender palpomeres II and IV, and basally pedunculate and semi-triangular palpomeres III, presence of two basal elytral foveae, deep sutural striae of the elytra, and fused gular tentorial pits. Baraxina also have relatively elongate palpomeres II and IV, but they are more robust and less extended than in Kieneriella . Also, in Baraxina , the palpomeres III are roundly triangular, three basal foveae are present on each elytron, the sutural striae on the elytra are indistinct, and the gular tentorial pits are well-separated.

The strongly extended maxillary palpi is an unusual character state for Brachyglutini . A similar condition can be find only in a limited number of genera, e.g. Triomicrus Sharp, and an undescribed genus near Triomicrus from Sri Lanka (preserved in MHNG). Kieneriella can be separated from Triomicrus by the unmodified male antennomeres XI and sternite VII, much more constricted pronotal and elytral bases, lack of discal striae on the elytra, relatively shorter tergite IV, and structures of the aedeagus.

Etymology.

The generic name is dedicated to the Swiss entomologist Severino Kiener (1955-1998), who collected the holotype during his 1986 trip to New Caledonia ( Marggi 2003). The gender of Kieneriella is feminine.