Microhoria rufescens (Pic, 1893)

Telnov, Dmitry, 2022, Revisional notes on the genus Microhoria Chevrolat, 1877 (Insecta: Coleoptera: Anthicidae) from the Eastern Mediterranean and Turkey, with new descriptions, an annotated catalogue, and a key, Baltic Journal of Coleopterology 22 (2), pp. 195-312 : 287-288

Microhoria rufescens (Pic, 1893) ( Fig. 48 ) Anthicus rufescens Pic, 1893d: 74 (description). Anthicus rufescens – Pic 1894: 56 (checklist); Winkler 1927: 849 (checklist).

Anthicus (Immicrohoria) rufescens – Pic 1911: 71 (checklist).

Microhoria rufescens – Bonadona 1952: 234 (new combination); Chandler et al. 2004: 137 (taxonomy); Chandler et al. 2008: 442 (checklist); Kejval & Chandler 2020: 131 (assigned to the M. terminata species group); Telnov 2020a: 612 (checklist).

Type material. Syntype 1 male MNHN:? … [handwritten, in part unreadable] // type [handwritten] // TYPE [printed, label red] // rufescens Pic [handwritten] .

New material. Not available.

Supplementary description. Belongs to the M. terminata species group. Male syntype. Total body length 3.2 mm. Dorsum and venter brown, forebody darker than elytra. Antennae, palps and legs pale rufous, femora slightly darker than tibiae. Head about 1.1–1.2× as long as wide,

head base rounded in one broad arc with tempora. Compound eye moderate, about as long as tempus, moderately protruding from lateral outline of head. Head dorsum glossy, punctures moderate, shallow, rather sparse. Intervening spaces smooth, generally as wide as to twice as wide as punctures. Dorsal cranial setae yellowish, rather sparse, subdecumbent. Antenna moderately thickened in apical half. Terminal antennomere acutely pointed, elongate, about twice as long as penultimate antennomere, as long as combined length of antennomeres 9–10. Pronotum as long as wide, narrower than head across eyes, moderately glossy, broadly rounded at anterior margin. Lateral margins moderately constricted in posterior half. Latero­basal pronotal fovea moderately broad and deep, with yellowish setation. Pronotal disc slightly convex in dorsal aspect. Pronotal punctures, intervening spaces, and setation generally as those on head. Elytra about 1.5× as long as wide, laterally subparallel, dorsally flattened and glossy. Humerus broadly rounded, not protruding. Intervening spaces smooth, generally twice as wide as punctures. Apex of elytron without process. Elytral setae whitish, appressed to subdecumbent, moderately dense, directed posteriad. Legs without modifications, tibial terminal spurs paired. Tergite VII broadly rounded at posterior margin. Posterior margin of morphological sternite VII rounded and medially protruding posteriad. Aedeagus as in Fig. 48C–D , elongate. Tegmen with a long, apically hooked process, fused baculi distinct, rather short; endophallic armature of numerous, small, subtriangular spines and plentiful smaller spinules.

Ecology. Unknown.

Distribution. Turkey? I was unable to read the original label of the studied syntype. In the original description no data on the type locality is given ( Pic 1893d: 74). A year later in his checklist Pic (1894: 56) gives “Asie mérid.” as general distribution for M. rufescens followed by “Kleinasien” in Pic (1911: 71). The distribution of M. rufescens remains not fully clarified.

Chorotype. Supposedly SW­Asiatic (1.13 SWA).

Figures

Fig. 48. Microhoria rufescens (Pic, 1893) male lectotype.A– Habitus, dorsal view; B – Forebody, dorsal view; C – Aedeagus, lateral view [tip of tegmen broken]; D – Apical portion of aedeagus [tip of tegmen broken] [not to scale].