Pseudolathra superficiaria, Li, Xiao-Yan, Solodovnikov, Alexey & Zhou, Hong-Zhang, 2013

Li, Xiao-Yan, Solodovnikov, Alexey & Zhou, Hong-Zhang, 2013, The genus Pseudolathra Casey in China: new species and new records (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Paederinae), ZooKeys 356, pp. 1-9 : 4-6

Pseudolathra superficiaria sp. n. Figure 2

Type material.

Holotype, ♂, Yunnan, Mengla County, Township Yaoqu, 1030 m (21.73°N, 101.52°E), 4.X.2010, leg. Xi Zhang (IZCAS).

Description.

Length: 6.5 mm; length of forebody: 3.2 mm. Body black, glossy; abdomen with posterior and lateral margins slightly dark reddish; legs, antennae and mouthparts reddish.

Head (Fig. 2A) weakly transverse, approximately 1.1 times as wide as long; vertex slightly convex, posterior angles marked. Median area almost impunctate, lateral portions with coarse and very sparse punctures; punctures around eyes and along neck relatively fine and dense; interstices without microsculpture and micropunctation. Eyes large and bulging, HL/EyL = 1.7, approximately 1.5 times as long as postocular region in dorsal view. Antennae slender, about 1.85 mm long; antennomeres III-X with very narrow bases and broadened apices.

Pronotum (Fig. 2A) approximately as long as broad and as wide as head, anterior angles distinct and posterior angles round; on either side of the impunctate midline with series of 1+4 coarse punctures in dorsal view; lateral portions with very sparse and coarse punctures; some of those coarse punctures having additional smaller punctures.

Elytra with EL/EW = 8.7, slightly longer than pronotum, with fine epipleural ridge; punctures on dorsal surface arranged in 3 pronounced series on each elytron; interstices without microsculpture. Hind wings fully developed.

Abdomen approximately as broad as head or pronotum, but narrower than elytra; punctation on tergites III-V very coarse and dense, tergites VI-VIII with punctures relatively fine and dense; interstices without microsculpture; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.

Aedeagus about 1.1 mm long, length/width = 2.7, weakly sclerotized, shaped as in Fig. 2 C–E.

Malesternite VII (Fig. 2F) with posterior margin weakly and broadly concave, on either side of the middle with comb of stout, black, spine-like setae increasing in length and thickness laterad, margins of the concavity slightly depressed and glabrous; male sternite VIII (Fig. 2B) with semicircular, broad and relatively shallow posterior excision.

Females unknown.

Etymology.

The species name is the Latin adjective meaning superficial. It refers to the shallow posterior excision of the male sternite VIII of the new species.

Remarks.

Based the synapomorphic modifications of the male sternite VII (posterior margin bipectinate and notched in the middle) and the similar morphology of the aedeagus, the new species is closely allied to Pseudolathra bipectinata . For illustrations of Pseudolathra bipectinata see figures 17-18, 22-23 in Assing (2013). Like Pseudolathra bipectinata , Pseudolathra superficiaria belongs to the Pseudolathra nigerrima group and can easily be distinguished from other species of this group by the broad and shallow (not deep and narrow) excision of the male sternite VIII, and by the characteristic structure of the aedeagus.

In fact, the shallow and broad excision of the male sternite VIII was previously reported as a uniquecharacter of the monotypical Pseudolathra regularis group ( Assing 2012), however, the exact shape of this shallow excision is different in both species. Besides, Pseudolathra superficiaria sp. n. differs from Pseudolathra regularis by the more transverse head with larger eyes, the much more transverse pronotum, and the shape of the aedeagus.

Distribution.

The only known specimen of Pseudolathra superficiaria sp. n. was found in the leaf litter of the forest of rubber trees near the center of Yaoqu, a town in Mengla County, Yunnan. It was collected in October by sifting leaf litter at an altitude of 1030 m.