Geostiba (Sipalotricha) inexsecta ASSING, 2019

Assing, Volker, Brachat, Volker & Meybohm, Heinrich, 2019, Monograph of the Staphylinidae of Crete (Greece). Part II. Descriptions of new species (Insecta: Coleoptera), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 69 (2), pp. 239-289 : 244-257

Geostiba (Sipalotricha) inexsecta ASSING spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:35864FAC-C639-4F3A-B0CA-AAB83AEBFD36 ( Figs 32–38 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “GR – Crete [12], ESE Rethimno , S Roupes , 35°19'26"N, 24°38'53"E, 400 m, soil washing, 26.XII.2018, V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Geostiba inexsecta sp. n. det. V. Assing 2019 ” (cAss) . Paratypes: 4 ♂♂, 6 ♀♀: same data as holotype (cAss); 1 ♀: “GR – Crete [13], ESE Rethimno , S Arkadi M., 35°17'51"N, 24°38'08"E, 520 m, soil washing, 26.XII.2018, V. Assing ” (cAss) .

Etymology: The specific epithet (Latin, adjective) alludes to the absence of a distinct posterior excision of the male tergite VIII.

of Cretotyphlus idanus , Cephennium idanum , and C. latius near Livadia, Psiloritis, Central Crete (below).

Description: Body length 2.0–3.0 mm; length of forebody 1.0– 1.2 mm. Coloration: head and pronotum yellowishbrown to dark-brown; elytra yellow to yellowish-brown; abdomen yellowish to pale-brown with segments IV–VI more or less extensively and more or less distinctly infuscate; legs yellow; antennae yellow to yellowish-brown, usually with the basal two antennomeres slightly paler.

External characters as in other Cretan representatives of Sipalotricha SCHEERPELTZ, 1931; distinguished only by the primary and secondary sexual characters:

♂: posterior margin of tergite VIII ( Fig. 32 ) smoothly convex or with very shallow median concavity; sternite VIII ( Fig. 33 ) with convex posterior margin; median lobe of aedeagus ( Figs 34–35 ) 0.3 mm long; internal sac with several moderately sclerotized spines of different lengths.

♀: posterior margin of tergite VIII ( Fig. 36 ) smoothly convex; sternite VIII ( Fig. 37 ) posteriorly convex and with transverse row of rather long and stout marginal setae; spermatheca as in Fig. 38 .

Comparative notes: Eight locally endemic species of Sipalotricha were previously known from Crete. The new species is distinguished from them by the (near) absence of a posterior excision of the male tergite VIII and additionally as follows: from G. idaea (Psiloritis) by the shape of the crista apicalis and the ventral process of the aedeagus ( G. idaea : ventral process curved in lateral view and apically abruptly narrowed in ventral view); from G. exsecta (Psiloritis) by the absence of posterior concavities of the female tergite VIII and sternite VIII, by a much smaller crista apicalis, a differently shaped ventral process, the presence of spines in the internal sac of the aedeagus, and by the shape of the spermatheca; from G. paulexsecta (Psiloritis) by the shape of the ventral process of the aedeagus both in lateral and in ventral view, and by the presence of distinct spines in the internal sac of the aedeagus; from G. icaria (Lefka Ori) by a narrower (ventral view) and straight (lateral view) ventral process of the aedeagus, the presence of distinct spines in the internal sac, and by a much smaller distal portion of the spermatheca; from G. albimontis (eastern Lefka Ori) by a straight (lateral view) and more slender (ventral view) ventral process of the aedeagus and by a spermatheca with a shorter and less slender proximal portion; from G. meybohmi (Dikti) by the shape of the crista apicalis and a more slender ventral process of the aedeagus (ventral view), and by a shorter apical invagination of the spermatheca; from G. diktiana (Dikti) by the shape of the ventral process of the aedeagus both in lateral and in ventral view, the presence of distinct spines in the internal sac, and by a much smaller distal portion of the spermatheca; from G. thryptisensis (Orno Thripti) by the shapes of the crista apicalis and of the ventral process of the aedeagus (more slender and apically gradually narrowed), shorter spines in the internal sac, a smoothly convex posterior margin of the female tergite VIII ( G. thryptisensis : posterior margin with median concavity), and by the shape of the spermatheca.

For illustrations of the Sipalotricha species previously known from Crete see ASSING (1999, 2000, 2001, 2007, 2013, 2015).

Distribution and natural history: The currently known distribution is confined to two localities in the region to the east southeast of Rethimno, Central Crete. The specimens were washed from soil taken in a gallery forest with oak and alder and in a calcareous pasture with old oak trees at altitudes of 500 and 520 m.

Figures

Figs 20–38: Hydrosmecta insularum (20–31) and Geostiba inexsecta (32–38): habitus (20); forebody (21); antenna (22); male tergite VIII (23, 32); male sternite VIII (24, 33); median lobe of aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (25–27, 34–35); paramere (28); female tergite VIII (29, 36); female sternite VIII (30, 37); spermatheca (31, 38). Scale bars: 20: 1.0 mm; 21: 0.5 mm; 22–24, 29–30, 32–33, 36–37: 0.2 mm; 25–28, 31, 34–35, 38: 0.1 mm.