Cephennium vellicans, Assing, 2021

Assing, Volker, 2021, On the Cephennium fauna of Greece (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 52 (2), pp. 869-889 : 876

Cephennium vellicans nov.sp. ( Figs 26-27 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: "GR. [9] N-Pindos, ca. 40 km NNE Konitsa , S Oros Arénes , 1650 m, 40°17´34N, 20°53´21E, 25.V.2005 V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Cephennium vellicans sp. n. det. V. Assing 2020" ( cAss).

Etymology: The specific epithet is the present participle of the Latin verb vellicare (to pinch). It alludes to the rather massive claw-shaped internal structures of the aedeagus.

Description: Body length 1.3 mm. External and male secondary sexual characters as in C. vitsiense .

♂: aedeagus 0.35 mm long; median lobe apically acute in ventral view; internal sac with a pair of large claw-shaped structures; parameres thin, straight, not reaching apex of median lobe, and with rather long apical seta.

Comparative notes: This species is distinguished from the similar and evidently closely allied C. vitsiense by a larger and slightly differently shaped aedeagus with more massive claw-shaped internal structures.

Distribution and natural history: The type locality is situated in the Oros Gramos range, to the south of Oros Arénes (SE Aetomilitsa) in Northwest Greece, close to the border with Albania. The holotype was sifted from leaf litter in a beech forest at an altitude of 1650 m.

Figures

Figs 20-29: Cephennium pellucidum (20-22), C. brachati (23), C. vitsiense (24-25), C. vellicans (26-27), and C. catax (28-29): (20-24, 26, 28-29) aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view; (25, 27) internal structures of aedeagus. Scale bars: 20-24, 26, 28-29: 0.1 mm; 25, 27: 0.05 mm.