Cephennodes excavatus

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2015, The Cephenniini of China. VII. New species and new records of Cephennodes Reitter of Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 4033 (3), pp. 393-410 : 394

Cephennodes excavatus species group

This relatively large group of species is characterized by moderately to strongly convex body, often with the head and pronotum darker than the elytra; the aedeagus representing a modified variant of the latus form, with large and elongate median lobe, which is suboval in shape and nearly symmetrical or slightly asymmetrical in ventral view, the diaphragm large and exposed (i.e., not concealed by the ventral wall of the median lobe) and approximately perpendicular to the long axis of the aedeagus or oblique, the apical projections subtriangular in shape; and in most species males have modified elytra (with apical or subapical flattenings, projections, impressions or deep excavations often accompanied by modified setae or lateral impressions covered with modified setae) and, less frequently, antennae (enlarged antennomere VII, curved antennomere VI), legs (protibial tooth, projection on the protarsomere V, curved metatibiae) or the last visible abdominal sternite (median mucro). Typically only one of the body parts is modified (most often the elytra), but in some cases multiple modifications occur.

This species group currently comprises 11 species, all occurring in China: C. bicolor Jałoszyński, 2007a , C. excavatus Jałoszyński, 2007a , C. hamatus Jałoszyński, 2007a , C. spinosus Jałoszyński, 2007a , C. superlatus Jałoszyński, 2007a , C. baculifer Jałoszyński, 2007b , C. caudatus Jałoszyński, 2007b , C. nigricollis Jałoszyński, 2007b , C. scolytoides Jałoszyński, 2007b , C. subcaudatus Jałoszyński, 2007b and C. uenoi Jałoszyński, 2007b . Two new species are described below.