Cephennium arcuatum 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 : 267

Cephennium arcuatum ASSING spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:7A3212BC-0311-49F7-A2AB-C529B6CD42A9

( Figs 102–103 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “GR – Crete [24], SW Malia , SW Gonies , 35°12'38"N, 25°26'42"E, 510 m, soil washing, 1.I.2018, V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Cephennium arcuatum sp. n. det. V. Assing 2018” ( cAss) . Paratype ♀: “GR – Crete [26], SW Malia, Gonies env., 35°14'09"N, 25°26'37"E, 290 m, soil washing, 1.I.2018, V. Assing ” (cAss) .

Etymology: The specific epithet (Latin, adjective: bent, shaped like a bow) alludes to one of the apical internal structures of the aedeagus, which somewhat resembles a coat hanger.

Description: Body length 1.0 mm; width of pronotum 0.38–0.39 mm; width of elytra 0.42 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 102 . Coloration: body yellowish-red; legs, antennae, and maxillary palpi yellow. Eyes reduced, composed of approximately five ommatidia without pigmentation. Head, pronotum, and elytra without microsculpture. Pubescence very sparse on head and rather dense on pronotum and elytra, moderately long, suberect, pale, and directed predominantly posteriad on head, elytra, and most of pronotum, obliquely postero-mediad in postero-lateral portions and at posterior margin of pronotum. Punctation of head and elytra extremely fine, barely noticeable at a magnification of 150 x, that of pronotum fine, but more distinct than that of elytra; median portion of head impunctate. Tibiae moderately clubshaped, dilated in distal two-thirds. Antenna 0.4 mm long, with distinct club formed by the large antennomeres IX–XI; antennomere VIII much smaller than the neighbouring antennomeres VII and IX; antennomere XI approximately 1.5 times as long as broad. Pronotum distinctly transverse, nearly 1.2 times as broad as long. Elytra basally with a pronounced antero-lateral process or fold and with a distinct oblique humeral sulcus or fold, respectively, on either side.

♂: aedeagus 0.26 mm long; ventral process apically convex in ventral view; internal sac with sclerotized structures of distinctive shapes ( Fig. 103 ).

Comparative notes: Cephennium arcuatum is reliably distinguished from other Cretan congeners by the shape and internal structures of the aedeagus.

Distribution and natural history: The known distribution is confined to the environs of Gonies to the Southwest of Malia, East Crete. The holotype was collected in a steep rocky slope with Quercus ilex at an altitude of 510 m, the paratype in a dry ruderal stream valley with Platanus orientalis , olive trees, and undergrowth at an altitude of 290 m, both of them by washing soil.

Figures

Figs 100–113: Gabrius candicus (100–101) and Cephennium spp. of the C. arcuatum group: C. arcuatum (102–103), C. thripticum (104–105), C. selinonum (106–108), C. meybohmi (109–110), and C. idanum (111–113): male sternite VIII (100); female abdominal segments IX–X (101); habitus (102, 106); aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (103–105, 107–113). Scale bars: 102, 106: 0.5 mm; 100–101: 0.2 mm; 103–105, 107–113: 0.1 mm.