Orphnebius grandicollis, Assing, 2016

Assing, Volker, 2016, On some Lomechusini of the Palaearctic and Oriental regions (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 66 (1), pp. 13-111 : 48-49

Orphnebius grandicollis spec. nov.

( Fig. 17, 22 , 211–215 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “ Lao , Phongsaly prov., 21°41–2'N 102°06–8'E, 28.v.–20.vi.2003, Phongsaly env. , ~ 1500 m, Vít Kubáň leg. / Holotypus ♂ Orphnebius grandicollis sp. n., det. V. Assing 2015” ( NHMB).

Etymology: The specific epithet (Latin, adjective) alludes to the relatively large pronotum.

Description: Body length 4.8 mm; length of forebody 2.1 mm. Coloration: head black; pronotum and elytra blackish-brown; abdomen pale-reddish; legs with brown femora and reddish tibiae and tarsi; antennae with antennomeres I–V yellowish-red, VI dark-brown, and VII–XI blackish.

Head ( Fig. 22 ) strongly transverse, nearly 1.4 times as broad as long (length measured from anterior margin of sclerotized portion of clypeus); posterior angles completely obsolete; punctation fine and very sparse; median and posterior dorsal portions extensively impunctate; interstices without microsculpture. Clypeus with anterior margin of sclerotized portion distinctly concave in the middle. Eyes very large, reaching posterior margin of head. Antenna ( Fig. 17 ) 1.4 mm long, moderately incrassate, and weakly asymmetric; antennomere IV small and weakly transverse; antennomere V distinctly larger than IV and moderately transverse; antennomeres VI–X of gradually increasing width and increasingly transverse; X more than 1.5 times as broad as long; XI strongly elongate, approximately as long as the combined length of VIII–X.

Pronotum ( Fig. 22 ) large and strongly transverse, 1.4 times as broad as long and 1.26 times as broad as head, moderately convex in cross-section; posterior angles moderately marked; disc with an indistinct median pair of punctures, otherwise nearly impunctate; margins with additional punctures; lateral margins and anterior angles with five long, stout, and erect black setae.

Elytra ( Fig. 22 ) approximately 0.85 times as long as pronotum; suture distinctly gaping posteriorly; punctation moderately sparse and fine; pubescence pale, fine, long, and sub-erect to depressed on disc, stouter, denser, brown, and sub-erect at lateral margins. Hind wings fully developed. Metatarsomere I slightly shorter than the combined length of II and III.

Abdomen: tergites III–VI with two lateral setiferous punctures on either side; tergite VI with four additional setiferous punctures at posterior margin; tergite VII with dense striae of variable length in posterior twothirds and with a transverse row of eight setiferous punctures at posterior margin, posterior margin with palisade fringe; tergite VIII ( Fig. 211 ) with a marginal and a submarginal row of long setae, posterior margin broadly convex; sternite VIII with broadly convex posterior margin.

♂: hemi-tergites IX and tergite X with extremely dense and long pubescence; median lobe of aedeagus ( Figs 212–214 ) 0.85 mm long; ventral process short in relation to the conspicuously large basal portion, apically acute; internal sac with large and strongly sclerotized structures; paramere ( Fig. 215 ) 0.5 mm long, paramerite longer than condylite.

♀: unknown.

Comparative notes: Based on the modifications of the abdominal tergites IX and X, the shapes and chaetotaxy of tergite and sternite VIII, the coloration pattern of the body, the morphology of the aedeagus (large and bulbous capsule; shapes of internal structures), and particularly the shape of the paramere, O. grandicollis belongs to the O. hauseri subgroup. Among the species of this group, O. grandicollis is characterized by a large and strongly transverse pronotum, the antennal morphology, the median concavity of the anterior margin of the sclerotized portion of the clypeus, as well as the shapes of the median lobe and the parameres of the aedeagus.

Distribution and natural history: The holotype was collected in one locality in Phongsaly province, North Laos, at an altitude of approximately 1500 m, together with O. serratus , O. reductus , and O. baccillatus .

Figures

Figs 1–26. Antenna (1–21) and forebody (22–26) of Orphnebius spp. of the O. hauseri group: spinans (1, 23), cernens (2, 24), lunatus (3, 25), bakeri (4, 26), breviceps (5), extensus (6), serratus (7), integer (8), bicuspis, Laos (9), bicuspis, NE India (10), fusicollis (11), retunsus (12), fodens (13), opticus (14), dilatatus (15), fuscapicalis (16), grandicollis (17, 22), reductus (18), biformis, male (19), biformis, female (20), effeminatus (21). Scale bars: 22–26: 1.0 mm; 1–21: 0.5 mm.

Figs 197–215. Orphnebius spinans (197–201), O. cernens (202–206), O. lunatus (207–210), and O. grandicollis (211–215): male segments IX–X (197); median lobe of aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (198–199, 202–203, 208–209, 212); ventral process of aedeagus in ventral view (200, 214); paramere (201, 204, 210, 215); apex of paramere (205); spermatheca (206); tergite VIII (207, 211); ventral process of aedeagus in lateral view (213). Scale bars: 0.2 mm.