Afropselaphus doernfeldae BRACHAT, 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 : 279

Afropselaphus doernfeldae BRACHAT spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:96DFC249-A208-44CE-BC83-4BB829F6966B

( Fig. 152 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “ GR-Kreta , Bez. Chania, Samaria Schlucht , 28.3.1983, leg Brachat / Dörnfeld / Afropselaphus doernfeldae spec. nov. ♂, det. Brachat 2.2019 / Holotypus” ( cBra) . Paratypes: 1 ♂, 1 ♀: same data as holotype (cBra).

Etymology: This species is dedicated to Cornelia Dörnfeld, one of the collectors of the type series.

Description: Body length 1.75 mm. Body reddish-brown, glossy, smooth, with scattered long yellowish setae, these setae arranged in series on discs of elytra.

Head oblong, length 0.37 mm, width 0.26 mm; frons with pair of carinae reaching the distinct and tomentose frontal foveae, these foveae separated from each other by approximately their diameter; between frontal foveae and the posterior margin of the head with a concave impression. Eyes small, composed of only 7–8 ommatidia, but projecting from lateral contours of head, approximately half as long as the straight and posteriorly converging temples. Antenna 0.92 mm long, with three-jointed club; all antennomeres oblong; antennomere XI large, as long as the combined length of antennomeres VIII–X. Maxillary palpomere IV in apical half shaped like a slender club, narrowly sulcate.

Pronotum 0.31 mm long and 0.37 mm broad, as broad as, and slightly shorter than head, broadest in the middle, with two small lateral impressions; lateral margins convex.

Elytra approximately 1.5 times as broad as long (length 0.37 mm; width 0.57 mm); humeral angles obsolete; anteriorly with two basal foveae separated by a short keel; posterior margin with dense suberect pubescence. Hind wings completely reduced. Legs unmodified.

Abdomen with large tergite IV (length 0.50 mm; width 0.56 mm), basally with dense scaly pubescence and a shallow impression occupying the median three-fifths of tergite.

♂: metaventrite strongly convex; sternite IV in anterior half with a shallow triangular impression medially; aedeagus ( Fig. 152 ) 0.32 mm long, apico-medially narrower and slightly bent ventrad; parameres apically each with two setae; internal sac without sclerotized structures.

Comparative notes: Afropselaphus doernfeldi and the following species belong to a species group including several undescribed species from South Turkey and A. clavigeroides (REITTER, 1882) from Lebanon and Israel. The new species is distinguished from the latter by the internal structures of the aedeagus and the more distinct median impression near the base of the pronotum.

Distribution and natural history: This species is probably endemic to the Lefka Ori (West Crete). The specimens were sifted from litter.

Figures

Figs 143–155: Stenichnus creticus (143), S. hummleri (144), S. basimpressus (145), S. aegialioides (146), Leptomastax cretica (147–149), L. thriptica (150), L. bisetosa (151), Afropselaphus doernfeldae (152), A. assingi (153), A. diktianus (154), and A. thripticus (155): aedeagus in lateral and dorsal view (143–145, 148–150, 152–155); male profemur (146); labium (147, 151). Scale bars: 0.1 mm.