Microhoria rubriceps (Pic, 1896)

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 : 282-285

Microhoria rubriceps (Pic, 1896) ( Fig. 47 ) Anthicus rubriceps Pic, 1896b: 180 (description). Anthicus rubriceps – Pic 1897b: 222 (checklist); Pic 1899a: 176 (record – Lebanon); Pic 1911: 7 (checklist); Winkler 1927: 849 (checklist). Microhoria (Immicrohoria) rubriceps – Hariri 1968: 207 (checklist, general distribution).

Microhoria rubriceps – Uhmann 1996: 35 (new combination, record – Turkey); Nardi 2003: 62 (taxonomy); Uhmann et al. 2005: 5, 45 (biogeography, bibliography, general distribution, records – Turkey); Chandler et al. 2008: 442 (checklist); Kejval & Chandler 2020: 131 (assigned to the M. terminata species group); Telnov 2020a: 612 (checklist).

Type material Anthicus rubriceps . Lectotype male [here designated] MNHN: Syrie [printed] // 68Db [printed] // type [handwritten] // Krekich vidil [handwritten] // rubriceps Pic [handwritten].This specimen was remounted and dissected by P. Bonadona, the original mounting card is preserved . Paralectotypes 2 specimens MNHN: [small black square label with no text] // Ins. Creta Reitter. [printed, black frame] // Coll. Reitter [handwritten] // rubriceps Pic [handwritten] // type [handwritten] // TYPE [printed, label red] .

New material from E Mediterranean. 1 specimen HMNH: SYRIA, Prov. Latakia, SalahAddin citadel, oak­plane forest, netted from oaks, // 6.VI.2010, leg. Attila Kotán, Tamás Németh & Nikola Rahmé ; 2 specimens NME & 1 specimen DTC: LEBANON,~31 Km NE Beirut, above Yahshoush, near source of Nahr Ibrahim , ~ 500 m, 20.V.2016, leg. Reuter.

The lectotype designation is made to maintain the nomenclatural stability, since the identification of the syntypes from Crete was not verified during this study and is tentative (there was no opportunity to dissect them).

Supplementary description. Belongs to the M. terminata species group. Male lectotype. Forebody pale rufous, head darker than pronotum. Elytra brown. Antennae, palps and legs pale rufous, femora slightly darker than tibiae. Total body length 2.5 mm. Head barely longer than wide, head base rounded in one broad arc with tempora. Posterior temporal angles rounded. Compound eye moderate, about a third shorter than tempus, slightly protruding from lateral outline of head. Head dorsum glossy, punctures small, shallow, sparse. Intervening spaces smooth, generally twice as wide as punctures or wider. Dorsal cranial setae yellowish, sparse, subdecumbent.Antenna moderately thickened in apical half. Terminal antennomere bluntly pointed, elongate, about twice as long as penultimate antennomere, distinctly shorter than combined length of antennomeres 9–10. Pronotum barely longer than wide, distinctly narrower than head across eyes, moderately glossy, broadly rounded at anterior margin. Lateral margins strongly constricted in posterior half. Pronotal disc barely convex in dorsal aspect. Pronotal punctures, intervening spaces, and setation generally as those on head. Elytra about 1.5× as long as wide, laterally rounded, dorsally flattened. Humerus broadly rounded, not protruding. Elytral disc glossy, punctures stronger and denser than those on forebody. Intervening spaces glossy, generally twice as wide as punctures, smooth. Apex of elytron modified, shortly, triangularly projected at opening of gland channel. Elytral setae yellowish, appressed to subdecumbent, moderately dense, directed posteriad except along suture where some setae directed obliquely laterally (especially in scutellar area). Legs without modifications, tibial terminal spurs paired. Tergite VII and morphological sternite VII broadly rounded at posterior margin. Aedeagus as in Fig. 47 D–E , broad. Tegmen apex hooked, fused baculi inconspicuous; endophallic armature of an ovoid bunch of very dense spines and numerous smaller spinules around.

Ecology. Sampled in oak forest from green branches.

Distribution. Greece (Kríti / Crete Island, Cyclades Islands), Lebanon, Syria, Turkey. It is not impossible the paralectotypes from Crete are mislabelled of belong to a different species which was impossible to prove during this study. Presence of this species in Turkey was not verified within the present study, required further confirmation but is not impossible.

Chorotype. E­Mediterranean (3.03 EME), not in NE Africa.

Figures

Fig. 47. Microhoria rubriceps (Pic, 1896). A – Male lectotype, habitus, dorsal view; B – ditto, forebody, dorsal view; C – Female paralectotype from “Ins.Creta”, habitus, dorsal view; D – Male lectotype, aedeagus, lateral view with endophallic armature inverted; E – ditto, apical portion of aedeagus with endophallic armature inverted [not to scale].