Typhlocyptus SAULCY, 1878

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 : 260

Genus Typhlocyptus SAULCY, 1878

Typhlocyptus previously included two valid species, the type species T. pandellei SAULCY, 1878 (South Europe) and T. loebli PACE, 1985 (North India) ( SCHÜLKE & SMETANA 2015). Typhlocyptus pandellei has two junior synonyms T. atomus REY, 1882 (described from Southeast France) and T. halleri MATCHA, 1916 (described from Montenegro). According to SCHÜLKE & SMETANA (2015), the species is widespread from France, Switzerland, and Italy across the Balkans ( Croatia, Greece) eastwards to Azerbaijan. It was recently reported from Montenegro and tentatively from Crete ( ASSING 2018b).

Typhlocyptus pandellei is a minute beetle (length of forebody 0.4–0.5 mm; b ody length 0.6–0.9 mm, dep ending on how much the abdomen is extended). It is anophthalmous, apterous, and weakly pigmented and, based on personal observations, lives in a subterranean habitat. A winged morph is unknown. Against this background, both a wide distribution and its presence in Crete would appear most remarkable and implausible.

A major problem for a taxonomic approach to this problem based on morphological characters is the uniformity not only of external, but also of the male sexual characters. The aedeagus of Typhlocyptus is of a unique and highly derived morphology: the minute, depigmented, and structurally simple ventral process and parameres are conspicuously separated from the basal capsule; both are connected only by a long transparent tube ( Figs 57–58 ). In consequence, a dissection of a complete aedeagus is possible only in fresh and soft specimens. The basal portion of the aedeagus is of uniform shape in all the examined material. Slight differences, however, were found in the shape of the ventral process between populations from Crete and from the mainland. Whether or not the mainland populations all belong to the same species can be assessed only using a DNA-based approach.

Figures

Figs 57–70: Typhlocyptus creticus (57–60), T. pandellei (61–62), Geomitopsis cretica (63–64), and Allotyphlus foedatus (65–70): aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (57–58, 61–64, 67–70); ventral process of aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (59–60); male sternites VI–VIII (65); male sternite VIII (66). Scale bars: 0.1 mm.