Oxypoda (Deropoda) gontarenkoi, Assing, 2012

Assing, V., 2012, On the taxonomy and zoogeography of some Oxypoda species of the West Palaearctic region (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 44 (1), pp. 365-399 : 380-381

Oxypoda (Deropoda) gontarenkoi nov.sp.

( Figs 20-23 )

Type material: Holotype [with worker of Messor sp. attached to the same pin]: " Mykolayiv obl., Berzany distr. , vic. Vasilevka, 1.04.011, leg. Gontarenko A. V. / under stone / Holotypus Oxypoda gontarenkoi sp.n. det. V. Assing 2011 " (cAss).

Description: Body length 3.0 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 20 . Coloration: head blackish-brown, distinctly constrasting with the bright reddish pronotum and elytra; abdomen bright reddish, with segment VI and anterior portion of segment VII blackish; legs yellowish; antennae pale-reddish.

Head ( Fig. 21 ) 1.05 times as long as broad; punctation very dense and moderately shallow. Eyes slightly longer than postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna gradually incrassate apically (somewhat more massive than in O. mutata ) and with contiguous antennomeres; antennomere III distinctly shorter than II; IV weakly transverse; IV-X of gradually increasing width; X barely 1.5 times as broad as long; XI nearly as long as the combined length of VIII-X. Maxillary palpus slender, preapical palpomere approximately 3.5 times as long as broad.

Pronotum ( Fig. 21 ) 1.22 times as broad as long and 1.5 times as broad as head, maximal width approximately in the middle; posterior margin weakly concave near posterior angles; punctation slightly coarser than that of head.

Elytra 0.75 times as long as pronotum ( Fig. 21 ); posterior margin distinctly sinuate near postero-lateral angles; lateral margins moderately bulging and separated from disc by shallow impression in posterior 2/3; punctation dense, coarser than that of head and pronotum. Hind wings reduced. Legs slender; metatarsomere I approximately as long as the combined length of II-IV.

Abdomen approximately as wide as elytra; punctation dense on anterior tergites, gradually becoming less dense towards abdominal apex, moderately sparse on tergite VII; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe; posterior margin of tergite VIII distinctly convex.

: sternite VIII posteriorly strongly convex; median lobe of aedeagus ( Fig. 22 ) 0.51 mm long, with conspicuously slender apical portion, a small crista apicalis, and a rather large crista proximalis; apical lobe of paramere with moderately dilated base ( Fig. 23 ), slightly less than half the length of basal portion.

: unknown.

Etymology: The species is dedicated to Andrej Gontarenko, Odessa, who collected the holotype.

Comparative notes: Oxypoda gontarenkoi is distinguished from all its consubgeners by the morphology of the aedeagus. It is additionally separated from the widespread O. mutata by the paler and more distinctly bicoloured body, the much more slender habitus, the contiguous antennomeres, the differently shaped pronotum (more slender and less strongly narrowed anteriorly), the distinctly shorter, narrower, and more depressed elytra, the reduced hind wings, the more convex posterior margin of the abdominal tergite VII, and the shape of the male sternite VIII (obtusely angled in O. mutata ). For illustrations of the male sexual characters of O. mutata see Figs 24-30 . The only species of fairly similar habitus from Turkey is O. schminkei , which is of uniformly pale-reddish coloration (except for the weakly infuscate middle of the abdominal tergite VI), and which has much more depressed elytra and the antennomeres not contiguous.

Distribution and natural history: The species is currently known only from the type locality and the first representative of the subgenus to be recorded from Ukraine. The holotype was found under a stone together with Messor sp. ( Formicidae ). The contiguous antennomeres, a morphological adaptation to myrmecophily known from many aleocharines, provide additional, morphological evidence that O. gontarenkoi may be associated with these ants.

Figures

Figs 20-23: Oxypoda gontarenkoi nov.sp.: (20) habitus; (21) forebody; (22) median lobe of aedeagus in lateral view; (23) apical lobe of paramere. Scale bars: 20: 1.0 mm; 21: 0.5 mm; 22-23: 0.1 mm.

Figs 24-34: Oxypoda mutata SHARP (24-30) from Germany (24-25, 27, 30) and Italy (26, 28-29), and O. pungens nov.sp. (31-34): (24-26, 31) median lobe of aedeagus in lateral view; (27-28, 32) paramere; (29-30) apical lobe of paramere; (33-34) spermatheca. Scale bars: 0.1 mm.