Agaricochara pulchra Klimaszewski & Larson

Klimaszewski, Jan, Larson, David J., Labrecque, Myriam & Bourdon, Caroline, 2016, Twelve new species and fifty-three new provincial distribution records of Aleocharinae rove beetles of Saskatchewan, Canada (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae), ZooKeys 610, pp. 45-112 : 76-77

Taxon classification Animalia Coleoptera Staphylinidae

Agaricochara pulchra Klimaszewski & Larson sp. n. Figs 73-79

Holotype (male).

Canada, Saskatchewan, Larson Ranch, Hwy 21, 16 km S Maple Creek, 12-IX-2013, mouldy aspen log, D. Larson (LFC). Paratypes. Canada, Saskatchewan, Larson Ranch, Hwy 21, 16 km S Maple Creek, 12-IX-2013, mouldy aspen log, D. Larson (DLC, LFC) 1 male, 2 females, 11 sex undetermined; Cypress Hills Pk., Center Block, Hidden Valley, 1-VI-1999, D. Larson (DLC) 1 female; Cypress Hills Pk., Center Block, Sucker Cr., 18-VII-2012, sifting aspen litter, D. Larson (DLC) 1 female.

Etymology.

A Latin feminine adjective pulchra, meaning beautiful, in reference to the body shape and beautiful colour of this species.

Diagnosis.

Body minute, narrowly oval, moderately convex, length 1.4-1.6 mm (Fig. 73); head and abdomen (except for apex) piceous, pronotum and elytra reddish-yellow, elytra with darker scuteller and posterior angle sections, legs and antennae except for the last article yellow (Fig. 73); punctation on forebody fine and sparse, those on elytra asperate; pubescence on pronotum directed posteriad (Fig. 73); abdomen tapering apically with scale-like sculpture (Fig. 73); antennae gradually broadening apically, articles V-X transverse (Fig. 73). MALE. Tergite VIII emarginate medially and with two lateral teeth (Fig. 75); sternite VIII rounded apically (Fig. 76); median lobe of aedeagus with subapical process angular subapically (Fig. 74). FEMALE. Tergite and sternite VIII shallowly concave apically (Fig. 77); sternite VIII transverse and broadly arcuate apically (Fig. 78); spermatheca small, capsule spherical (Fig. 79).

Distribution.

Known only from SK. This constitutes new genus record for Canadian fauna.

Natural history.

Adults were collected from mouldy aspen logs in September and by sifting aspen litter in July.

Comments.

Seevers (1951) considered Agaricochara Kraatz

as a subgenus of Gyrophaena Mannerheim, but Ashe (1984) elevated it to the generic rank. We have followed Ashe (1984) in treating this taxon as a genus. There are two species of Agaricochara in Europe and six in North America ( Seevers 1951). No member of either group of species matches our new species from SK, which has very distinctively shaped tubus of the median lobe of the aedeagus with ventral process-like projection angularly bent subapically and directed dorsally (Fig. 74).