Phelister chilicola Marseul, 1870

Caterino, Michael S. & Tishechkin, Alexey K., 2019, A revision of the Phelisterhaemorrhous species group (Coleoptera, Histeridae, Exosternini), ZooKeys 854, pp. 41-88 : 76-78

Phelister chilicola Marseul, 1870 Figs 2, 9; Map 7

Phelister chilicola Marseul, 1870: 79.

Type material.

Lectotype, hereby designated: "Phelister chilicola, Chili, [?????] 68" / "Museum Paris, Coll. de Marseul 2842-90"/ “Type” / "Lectotype Phelister chilicola Marseul, 1870, M.S. Caterino & A.K. Tishechkin des. 2010", MNHN.

Diagnostic description.

Length: 1.73-2.17 mm (avg. 2.02 mm); width: 1.50-1.81 mm (avg. 1.66 mm). Body elongate oval, widest behind humeri, piceous with the apices of the elytra and the legs typically castaneous to rufescent, the ground punctation fine but distinct; frons depressed along midline, lacking secondary punctures; supraorbital stria complete, frontal stria fine, interrupted at middle for ca. width of labrum, inner ends weakly recurved dorsad; labrum weakly emarginate; mandibles both with distinct inner marginal tooth, that of left mandible slightly larger; pronotal disk with few coarser secondary punctures at sides and row of coarse punctures along posterior margin; prescutellar impression present but weak; marginal pronotal stria complete along sides and front, not distinctly crenulate anteriorly; submarginal pronotal stria absent; elytra with single, complete epipleural stria, outer subhumeral stria present in apical half, inner subhumeral stria absent; dorsal striae 1-4 complete, 4th rarely abbreviated at base, 1 and 2 weaker apically, 5th stria present in apical half, sutural stria present in apical two-thirds; propygidium with small, sparse secondary punctures, mainly in basal half; pygidium with ground punctation only; prosternal lobe evenly rounded, with complete marginal stria; prosternal lobe with two complete striae converging slightly toward front, the intervening punctures not sexually dimorphic in density; mesoventrite weakly projecting, with complete marginal stria, continued at sides by postmesocoxal stria which diverges to sides, ending freely before reaching middle of metepisternum; mesometaventral stria straight to angulate at middle, often reaching middle of mesoventrite, continued at sides by well-impressed lateral metaventral stria which reaches middle of metacoxa; 1st abdominal ventrite with complete inner lateral stria, the outer generally abbreviated from both base and apex; protibia with outer margin distinctly rounded, widest near middle, with five weakly developed teeth bearing marginal spines; protarsal claws of both sexes strongly bent at base, then straight; meso- and metatibiae evenly widened to apices, with few weak marginal spines confined to apical halves; basal piece of aedeagus ca. one-fourth entire aedeagus length; tegmen dorsoventrally flattened, with weak ventral process ca. one-third from base, tegmen widening toward apex, sides rounded, apices bluntly rounded, with narrow, rather shallow apical emargination; median lobe a little over one-half tegmen length, proximal apodemes thin at bases, thicker over apical two-thirds.

Remarks.

This species is superficially similar to other red-marked species, such as P. haemorrhous , P. rufinotus , and P. thiemei . However, it is clearly and easily distinguished from any of these by its thin elytral striae, modified protarsal claws (in both sexes), and more diffuse reddish coloration of the elytra only. The aedeagus is also quite distinct from any of these, particularly in the obvious ventral process of the tegmen, and in the short proximal apodemes of the median lobe.

Biology.

None of the specimens we have seen include any biological data.

Distribution.

This species is known only from Central Chile, ranging from Santiago Province in the north to Valdivia in the south. CHILE: Cautín, Concepción, Nuble, Osorno, Santiago, Valdivia.