Cousya candica ASSING, 2019

Assing, Volker, Brachat, Volker & Meybohm, Heinrich, 2019, Monograph of the Staphylinidae of Crete (Greece). Part II. Descriptions of new species (Insecta: Coleoptera), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 69 (2), pp. 239-289 : 257-258

Cousya candica ASSING spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:44B00621-3DA4-462B-9491-AD4B45476F2E

( Figs 39–43 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “GR – Crete [18], S Kritsa , SW Kroustas , 35°07'03"N, 25°38'10"E, 780 m, litter sifted, 28.XII.2018, V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Cousya candica sp. n. det. V. Assing 2019” (cAss) . Paratypes: 2 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀ [partly teneral]: same data as holotype (cAss); 1 ♀: “GR – Kreta; Lassithi (6), N35°07'03 E25°38'10, Kroustas sw 770 m, 11.3.2018, leg. Meybohm & Brachat” (cAss); 1 ♀: “GR – Kreta; Lassithi (8), N35°07'02 E25°37'55, Kroustas sw 800 m, 12.3.2018, leg. Meybohm & Brachat” (cAss) .

Etymology: The specific epithet is an adjective derived from Candia, the Latin and Venetian name for Crete.

Description: Body length 2.4–2.7 mm; length of forebody 0.9–1.1 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 39 . Coloration: head blackish-brown to blackish; pronotum and elytra reddish-brown to dark-brown; abdomen blackish with the posterior portion of tergite VII and the anterior and posterior portions of tergite VIII pale-brown; legs yellow; antennae dark-brown to blackish with the basal two antennomeres yellowish.

Head approximately as broad as long; punctation fine and sparse; interstices with shallow microreticulation. Eyes shorter than postocular portion in dorsal view. Antenna short and incrassate, approximately 0.6 mm long; antennomeres III weakly oblong, IV–X distinctly transverse, approximately twice as broad as long, and gradually increasing in width, XI of ovoid shape, slightly shorter than the combined length of IX and X.

Pronotum moderately convex in cross-section, approximately 1.15 times as broad as long and 1.2 times as broad as head; posterior angles weakly marked; punctation very fine and moderately dense; interstices with shallow microreticulation.

Elytra 0.80–0.85 times as long as pronotum; punctation fine, but more distinct than that of head and pronotum. Hind wings vestigial; wing rudiments slightly longer than elytra. Metatarsomere I approximately as long as the combined length of II and III.

Abdomen narrower than elytra; anterior impressions of tergites III–V rather shallow; punctation fine and moderately dense; interstices with distinct microreticulation; posterior margin of tergite VII with narrow palisade fringe.

♂: tergite VIII with strongly convex posterior margin; median lobe of aedeagus 0.3 mm long and shaped as in Figs 40–41 ; paramere ( Fig. 42 ) nearly twice as long as median lobe and with rather short apical lobe.

♀: sternite VIII with weakly convex posterior margin; spermatheca shaped as in Fig. 43 .

Comparative notes: Based on external and sexual characters, C. candica belongs to the C. crocea group, whose representatives have very local distributions (exception: C. crocea ASSING, 2004 ). Among the species of this group, it is characterized particularly by the morphology of the median lobe of the aedeagus. It is additionally distinguished from other Greek representatives of this group as follows: from C. kelecsenyi (BERNHAUER, 1914) (Paxos island; male unknown) by darker coloration and by the shape of the spermatheca ( C. kelecsenyi : proximal portion shorter; apical invagination of different shape); from C. sufflata ASSING, 2018 (Pelopónnisos) by the shape of the spermatheca ( C. sufflata : spermatheca proximally strongly dilated); from C. dimorpha ASSING, 2006 (North Greece) by paler coloration ( C. dimorpha : body black; legs dark-brown) and the shape of the spermatheca ( C. dimorpha : proximal shorter; apical invagination larger). For illustrations of external and sexual characters of other Cousya species see ASSING (2018a).

Distribution and natural history: The known distribution is confined to an old oak forest to the southwest of Kroustas in the eastern slopes of Dikti Oros, East Crete. The specimens were sifted from litter at altitudes of 770– 780 m. Some of the type specimens collected in December are teneral.

Figures

Figs 39–56: Cousya candica (39–43), Oxypoda bimontium (44–46), and O. retunsa (47–56): habitus (39, 44, 47); median lobe of aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (40–41, 51–53); paramere (42, 54); spermatheca (43, 46, 56); forebody (45, 48); antenna (49); male sternite VIII (50); female sternite VIII (55). Scale bars: 39, 44, 47: 1.0 mm; 45, 48: 0.5 mm; 49–50, 55: 0.2 mm; 40–43, 46, 51–54, 56: 0.1 mm.