Lobrathium atanggei Lue & Li

Lue, Ze-Kan & Li, Li-Zhen, 2014, Two new species of Lobrathium Mulsant & Rey (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Paederinae) from China, ZooKeys 447, pp. 125-131 : 126-128

Taxon classification Animalia Coleoptera Staphylinidae

Lobrathium atanggei Lue & Li sp. n. Fig. 2

Type material.

Holotype: ♂, labelled 'China: Yunnan Prov., Xishuangbanna, Nabanhe N. R., alt. 700 m, 22°10'00"N, 100°39'38"E, 1.VII.2004, Liang Tang leg. / HOLOTYPE [red], Lobrathium atanggei sp. n., Lü & Li det. 2014, SNUC’.

Description.

Body length 6.56 mm; length of forebody 3.11 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 2A. Coloration: body black, elytra with pronounced blue hue and small subcircular yellow spot, this spot reaching neither suture, nor lateral or posterior margins; legs black with paler tarsi, antennae blackish brown to dark yellow.

Head almost as broad as long (HW/HL 1.05), posterior angles broadly rounded, weakly marked; punctation dense and coarse, sparser in median dorsal portion; interstices without microsculpture. Eyes large, more than half as long as distance from posterior margin of eye to neck in dorsal view. Antenna slender, 2.0 mm long.

Pronotum 1.24 times as long as broad and 0.94 times as wide as head, lateral margins weakly convex in dorsal view; punctation dense and coarser than that of head, midline with broad and complete impunctate band; interstices without microsculpture.

Elytra distinctly broader and longer than pronotum (EW/PW 1.42; EL/PL 1.55), humeral angles marked; punctation dense and coarse; interstices without microsculpture and glossy. Hind wings fully developed.

Abdomen narrower than elytra; punctation very fine and dense, dorsal surface matt; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.

Male: Sternites III–VI unmodified; sternite VII (Fig. 2D) strongly transverse, with pronounced median impression posteriorly, with sparse unmodified pubescence, and with broadly concave posterior margin; sternite VIII (Fig. 2E) weakly oblong, with deep median impression posteriorly, this impression with numerous modified, very short and stout black setae, posterior excision deep and almost U-shaped; aedeagus (Figs 2B, C) 1.10 mm long, ventral process somewhat asymmetric and of distinctive shape.

Female: unknown.

Distribution and natural history.

The type locality is situated in the Nabanhe Natural Reserve, to the northwest of Xishuangbanna, southwestern Yunnan. The holotype was found on the bank of a stream at an altitude of 700 m.

Etymology.

The species is named after Liang Tang (nickname “Atangge”), who collected the holotype.

Remarks.

In external characters (black body, weakly transverse head, slender pronotum, elytra with small subcircular spot), as well as the shape and chaetotaxy of the male sternites VII and VIII, Lobrathium atanggei is similar to Lobrathium ablectum Assing, 2012 from Hubei. The new species is readily distinguished from Lobrathium ablectum by the somewhat smaller size, the pronounced blue hue of the body and a stout ventral process of the aedeagus. Regarding the morphology of the aedeagus (robust and with short ventral process), however, the new species is most similar to Lobrathium quadrum Li, Solodovinikov & Zhou, 2013 from Sichuan. It is distinguished from Lobrathium quadrum by the pronounced blue hue of the body; the yellowish spot on elytra, reaching neither suture, nor lateral or posterior margins; the modifications of the male sternites VII–VIII (sternite VII with pronounced median impression posteriorly, sternite VIII with numerous modified, very short and stout black setae; deep posterior excision). For illustrations of Lobrathium ablectum and Lobrathium quadrum see Assing (2012) and X.-Y. Li et al. (2013), respectively.