Lathrobium blandum Peng & Li

Peng, Zhong, Li, Li-Zhen & Zhao, Mei-Jun, 2013, Eight new apterous Lathrobium species (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) from Sichuan, Southwest China, ZooKeys 303, pp. 1-21 : 5-7

Lathrobium blandum Peng & Li sp. n. Figs 2B, 4, 14

Type material.

(1 ♂). Holotype: ♂, labelled 'CHINA: Sichuan Prov., Tianquan County Labahe N. R., 30°10'N, 102°25'E, 12.vii.2012 alt. 2,200-2,300 m, Dai, Peng & Yin leg.' (SNUC).

Description.

Measurements (in mm) and ratios: BL 8.62, FL 3.39, HL 0.98, HW 0.94, PL 1.31, PW 0.98, EL 0.70, AL 1.72, HL/HW 1.04, HW/PW 0.96, HL/PL 0.75, PL/PW 1.34, EL/PL 0.53.

Habitus as in Fig. 2B. Body light brown with paler apex, legs yellowish brown, antennae light brown.

Head weakly oblong; punctation moderately coarse and sparse, sparser in median dorsal portion; interstices with shallow microreticulation; eyes 1/5 times as long as postocular region in dorsal view.

Pronotum slender; punctation similar to that of head; impunctate midline moderately broad; interstices without microsculpture.

Elytra 0.53 times as long as pronotum; punctation shallow, moderately dense, and rather weakly defined. Hind wings completely reduced.

Abdomen with fine and dense punctation, that of tergite VII sparser than that of anterior tergites; interstices with fine microsculpture; posterior margin of tergite VII without palisade fringe.

Male. Sternites III-VI unmodified; sternite VII (Fig. 4A) transverse and with shallow postero-median impression, this impression with weakly modified setae, posterior margin concave in the middle; sternite VIII (Fig. 4B) transverse and impressed along the middle, on either side of this impression with short setae posteriorly, posterior margin broadly concave; sternite IX (Fig. 4D) nearly symmetric; aedeagus as in Figs 4C, 4E; ventral process evenly curved, slender, and apically acute in lateral view; dorsal plate (Fig. 4F) moderately sclerotized and with long apical portion, apically acute in dorsal view; basal portion short and thin; internal sac with long and slender sclerotized spine.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution and biological notes.

The species is known only from one locality in the Labahe Natural Reserve, Sichuan. The holotype was collected by sifting leaf litter and weeds from the floor of the hardwood forest with Morus cathayana and Lonicera on a westward slope at an altitude of 2,200-2,300 m (Fig. 14).

Etymology.

The specific epithet (Latin, adjective: seductive) alludes to the long and slender internal spine of the aedeagus.

Comparative notes.

The morphology of the aedeagus suggests that Lathrobium blandum belongs to the Lathrobium curvatissimum group (Assing, in press a), which previously included five species from Yunnan ( Assing, in press a) and two species from Sichuan ( Assing, in press b, c), with which the new species shares the elongated and curved ventral process, and the long apical portion of the dorsal plate of the aedeagus. It is distinguished from the other representatives of this group by the less slender head, the shape and chaetotaxy of the male sternites VIII, as well as by the long and slender sclerotized spine in the internal sac of aedeagus.