Lobrathium flexum, Assing, 2014

Assing, V., 2014, A revision of Palaearctic Lobrathium. V. Three new species from the Himalaya and China, a new synonymy, and additional records (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 46 (1), pp. 429-441 : 436-437

Lobrathium flexum nov.sp. ( Figs 12-16 )

T y p e m a t e r i a l Holotype 6: " CHINA: Jiangxi prov. [ MF13 ], Jinggangshan Mts., Pingshuishan, 26°30.4'N, 114°06.9'E, 1590 m 28.iv.2011, lgt. Fikáček, Hájek, Kubeček, Jia, Song, Zhao / sifting: moist leaf litter in a sparse forest with bamboo + of mosses (partly Sphagnum) in a dried up fen in a low Azalea forest / Holotypus 6 Lobrathium flexum sp. n., det. V. Assing 2013" ( NMNHP).

E t y m o l o g y: The specific epithet is the past participle of the Latin verb flectere (to bend) and alludes to the shape of the ventral process of the aedeagus in lateral view.

D e s c r i p t i o n: Body length 7.6 mm; length of forebody 4.0 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 12 . Coloration: forebody black with weak bluish hue, elytra each with rather large yellowish spot posteriorly, this spot not reaching suture, lateral, and posterior margins; abdomen black; legs blackish with reddish-brown tarsi; antennae dark-brown with blackish antennomere I and somewhat paler apical antennomeres.

Head ( Fig. 13 ) transverse, 1.08 times as broad as long; posterior angles rounded, weakly marked; punctation rather coarse, umbilicae, and very dense, somewhat sparser in median dorsal portion. Eyes large, their length distinctly more than half the distance from posterior margin of eye to neck in dorsal view. Antenna 2.6 mm long.

Pronotum ( Fig. 13 ) moderately slender, 1.23 times as long as broad and 0.96 times as broad as head; punctation less dense and on average slightly coarser than that of head; interstices on average narrower than diameter of punctures; impunctate midline moderately broad.

Elytra ( Fig. 13 ) 0.95 times as long as pronotum; humeral angles marked; punctation distinctly coarser than that of pronotum, arranged in irregular series in anterior two thirds; interstices without microsculpture. Hind wings not examined.

Abdomen approximately as broad as elytra; punctation fine and very dense; anterior impressions of tergites III-VII with coarse, but not very dense punctation; interstices with fine and distinct microsculpture; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.

6: protarsomeres I-IV strongly dilated; tergite VIII with posterior margin obtusely angled in the middle; sternite VII ( Fig. 14 ) distinctly transverse and with long median impression, this impression without setae and semi-transparent posteriorly, on either side of this impression with rather long setae, posterior margin broadly and weakly concave; sternite VIII ( Fig. 15 ) approximately as long as broad and with long median impression, this impression without setae posteriorly, with strongly modified short and stout black setae anteriorly and laterally, semi-transparent posteriorly, posterior excision U-shaped, on either side of this excision with dense dark pubescence; aedeagus ( Fig. 16 ) 1.1 mm long; ventral process spine-shaped, stout, strongly sclerotized, strongly bent subapically in lateral view, and with acute apex; dorsal plate with large, distinctly sclerotized, lamellate apical portion and with small, weakly sclerotized basal portion.

C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s: Based on the similar modifications of the male sternites VII and VIII, as well as on the similar morphology of the aedeagus, L. flexum is most closely related to L. fuscoguttatum W.-R. LI et al. 2013 from Guangxi, from which it differs by the shape and chaetotaxy of the male sternite VII (less transverse; posteriorly with longer setae; posterior margin not concave in the middle), by the slightly deeper and broader posterior excision of the male sternite VIII, and by the shorter, stouter, and more strongly bent ventral process of the aedeagus in lateral view. For illustrations of L. fuscoguttatum see W.-R. LI et al. (2013a).

D i s t r i b u t i o n a n d n a t u r a l h i s t o r y:Thetypelocalityissituatedin the Jinggang Shan in the west of Jiangxi province, close to the border with Hunan, in southeastern China. The holotype was sifted from moist leaf litter and moss in an Azalea forest at an altitude of 1590 m.

Figures

Figs 12-16: Lobrathium flexum nov.sp.: (12) habitus; (13) forebody; (14) male sternite VII; (15) male sternite VIII; (15) aedeagus in lateral view. Scale bars: 12-13: 1.0 mm; 14-16: 0.5 mm.