Oxypoda (Atlantoxypoda) bistirpata ASSING, 2016

Assing, Volker, 2016, On the Staphylinidae of the Greek island Karpathos (Insecta Coleoptera), Linzer biologische Beiträge 48 (1), pp. 235-263 : 258-260

Oxypoda (Atlantoxypoda) bistirpata ASSING nov.sp. (Figs 41-50)

T y p e m a t e r i a l: Holotype 3: "TR - Niğde, ca. 10 km N Pozanti , 870 m, No. 5, 37°30'02N, 34°49'26E, Salix wood near stream, 26.12.2000, V. Assing / Holotypus 3 Oxypoda bistirpata sp.n. det. V. Assing 2015" (cAss). Paratypes: 233, 1♀ [slightly teneral]: "TR Nigde N Pozanti, ca. 20 km S Camardi, N 37°39'30 E 34°59'30, l. Meybohm 21.5.2009 " (cAss); 13: "TR - Mersin, public park near Tarsus Baraji , 36°57'N, 34°54'E, 16.IV.2014, Rossi & Kutlay " (cAss); 13 [teneral]: "TR [14] - Mersin, NW Silifke, Mut-Ermenek , 36°37'42N, 33°01'10E, 1030 m, 20.IV.2005, Brachat & Meybohm " (cAss); 13 [slightly teneral]: "TR - Antalya, No. 29, 60 km SSW Antalya, Çiralı , grassland, 40 m, 36°24'34N, 30°28'05E, 4.IV.2002, V. Assing " (cAss); 13: "TR Gaziantep (13), S Birecik 340 m, Westufer Euphrat / 37°0'31N 37°57'39E, (13) leg. 24.4.2004, Brachat & Meybohm" (cAss) ; 1♀: "TR - Adana, Eglence Çayı near Eglence , 37°17'N, 35°17'E, 12.IV.2014, Rossi & Kutlay " (cAss); 1♀: "N 37°50' E 36°48'48 (26), Kahramanmaras, Süleymanli 5 km S 690 m, Brachat & Meybohm 29.4.2007 " (cAss) .

E t y m o l o g y: The specific epithet is an adjective derived from the Latin noun stirps (stump, trunk) and alludes to the pair of short processes at the base of the ventral process of the aedeagus.

D e s c r i p t i o n: Body length 3.0- 3.6 mm; length of forebody 1.3-1.6 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 41. Coloration: head dark-brown to black; pronotum and elytra brown to blackish-brown; abdomen blackish, with the posterior margins of tergites III-VII and all of segments VIII-X usually reddish to reddish-brown; legs yellowish to pale-reddish; antennae dark-brown with the basal 1-2 antennomeres dark-yellowish; maxillary palpi dark-yellowish with palpomere III more or less distinctly infuscate.

Head ( Fig. 42 ) approximately as long as broad, of suborbicular shape; punctation fine and dense; interstices with distinct microreticulation. Eyes of moderate size, weakly convex, as long as, or longer than postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna 0.9-1.0 mm long and shaped as in Fig. 43 . Maxillary palpus elongate, palpomere III approximately four times as long as broad.

Pronotum ( Figs 42, 44 ) approximately 1.3 times as broad as long and 1.45-1.55 times as broad as head, widest behind middle; posterior angles nearly obsolete; punctation fine and very dense; interstices with distinct microreticulation.

Elytra ( Fig. 42 ) 0.9-1.0 times as long as pronotum; punctation dense and fine; interstices with microreticulation. Hind wings fully developed. Metatarsomere I as long as, or slightly longer than, the combined length of II-IV.

Abdomen narrower than elytra; segments III-V of subequal width, VI slightly narrower than V; punctation fine and very dense, as dense on tergite VII as on tergite V ( Fig. 45 ); interstices mostly without microsculpture (indistinct traces may be visible at high magnification in posterior portions of tergites VI-VIII); posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.

3: middle of sternite VIII strongly convex; median lobe of aedeagus ( Figs 46-48 ) 0.42- 0.44 mm long, at base of ventral process with a pair of short processes; crista apicalis moderately prominent in lateral view; parameres ( Fig. 49 ) enormous (approximately 0.9 mm), approximately twice as long as median lobe, with moderately long apical lobe and with pronounced velum.

♀: posterior margin of sternite VIII broadly convex, in the middle weakly concave; spermatheca ( Fig. 50 ) with very long and slender proximal portion.

C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s: Based on several evident synapomorphies (maxillary palpus elongate; median lobe of aedeagus with a pair of processes and a median carina at the base of the ventral process, and with a prominent crista apicalis; parameres enormous and with a pronounced velum; spermatheca with long and slender proximal portion), O. bistirpata is closely allied to O. bicornuta , from which it differs by longer antennae, larger eyes, finer and much denser punctation of the pronotum, elytra, and abdomen, on average slightly longer elytra, the absence of a brachypterous morph, the posteriorly less produced male sternite VIII, the shape of the median lobe of the aedeagus (processes at the base of the ventral process shorter; crista apical less prominent; ventral process of different shape both in lateral and in ventral view), the shape of the female sternite VIII (concave in the middle), and the morphology of the spermatheca (proximal portion much longer; distal portion truncate, less slender, and with sclerotized invagination of different shape. From East Mediterranean specimens of the common, widespread, and sympatric O. lurida , O. bistirpata is distinguished by larger average size, a somewhat broader body, usually darker coloration, and the shape of the spermatheca (proximal portion of capsule longer; distal portion less slender; cuticular invagination much larger).

Like O. bicornuta , O. bistirpata is closely allied to O. lurida and consequently assigned to the subgenus Atlantoxypoda .

D i s t r i b u t i o n a n d n a t u r a l h i s t o r y: The known distribution extends across southern Anatolia from western Antalya in the west to Gaziantep in the east. The specimens collected by myself were sifted from Salix litter near a stream and from grass roots and moss in a lowland grassland. The altitudes range from 40 to 1030 m.

Figures

Figs 42-50: Oxypoda bistirpata nov.sp.: (41) habitus; (42) forebody; (43) antenna; (44) posteromedian portion of pronotum; (45) median portion of abdominal tergites VI-VII; (46-47) median lobe of aedeagus in lateral view; (48) median lobe of aedeagus in ventral view; (49) paramere; (50) spermatheca. Scale bars: 41: 1.0 mm; 42: 0.5 mm; 43-45, 49: 0.2 mm; 46-48, 50: 0.1 mm.