Cretotyphlus hamatus 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 : 263-264

Cretotyphlus hamatus ASSING spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:EBE1B406-3145-411C-883D-A9499AEF52BA

( Figs 74–79 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “GR – Crete [56], NE Lassithi Plateau , 35°12'45"N, 25°31'53"E, 850 m, soil washing, 27.III.2018, V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Cretotyphlus hamatus sp. n. det. V. Assing 2019” (cAss) . Paratypes: 2 ♀♀: “GR – Crete [9], NE Lassithi Plateau, 35°12'45"N, 25°31'53"E, 850 m, soil washing, 26.XII.2017, V. Assing ” (cAss); 1 ♀: “GR – Crete [25], NE Lassithi Plateau, 35°12'45"N, 25°31'53"E, 850 m, soil washing, 30.XII.2018, V. Assing ” (cAss) .

Etymology: The specific epithet (Latin, adjective: hooked) alludes to the pronounced spine on the ventral process of the aedeagus.

Description: 1.3–1.5 mm (abdomen extended), length of forebody approximately 0.6 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 74 . Colour of body dark-yellowish.

Head ( Fig. 75 ) with sparse, barely visible punctation and with very shallow microsculpture; ventral aspect as in Fig. 76 . Pronotum ( Fig. 75 ) approximately as long as broad and slightly narrower than head, with moderately fine and rather sparse punctation. Elytra ( Fig. 75 ) without microsculpture and with very sparse, extremely fine punctation barely visible even at a magnification of 150 x.

Abdomen with microsculpture composed of large meshes only in anterior third to anterior half of tergites; punctation extremely fine and moderately dense; pubescence long, pale, sub-erect to erect, and moderately dense; posterior margin of tergite VIII truncate in both sexes.

♂: sternite VIII ( Fig. 77 ) symmetric and approximately as long as broad, with a cluster of moderately modified setae in the middle and with broadly concave posterior excision; aedeagus ( Figs 78–79 ) 0.28 mm long, weakly asymmetric; ventral process long, slender, and somewhat sinuate, with a pronounced ventral tooth approximately in the middle.

♀: sternite VIII longer than male sternite VIII, posteriorly angularly produced; segments IX–X with a pair of distinctly sclerotized structures of characteristic shapes ( Fig. 80 ).

Distribution and natural history: Despite extensive soil sampling, C. hamatus was found only in one locality to the northeast of the Lassithi plateau, Dikti range, East Crete. The species was reported as Gynotyphlus sp. by ASSING (2018b). The specimens were collected from soil in a ruderal dry temporary stream valley with Platanus orientalis , other deciduous trees, and Rubus undergrowth at an altitude of 850 m. When sampling the locality the first time in December 2017, only two females were found. Washing a significantly larger amount of soil (approximately five times as much as the first time) in March 2018 produced only a single specimen, fortunately a male. Another attempt at finding the species in the same locality in December 2018 yielded a single female. It is currently unclear if such a rarity is a seasonal phenomenon or if the species lives in very deep soil layers and is consequently collected only accidentally.

Figures

Figs 71–84: Kenotyphlus virgatus (71–73), Cretotyphlus hamatus (74–80), and C. idanus (81–84): male sternite VIII (71, 77); aedeagus in lateral and in ventral, or in latero-ventral view (72–73, 78–79, 83–84); habitus (74, 81); forebody in dorsal view (75); forebodyin ventral view (76); femalegenital segment (80);male meso-and metathorax and abdomen in ventralview (82). Scale bars: 74, 81–82: 0.5 mm; 71–73, 75–80, 83–84: 0.1 mm.