Turkonalassus mavi M. Nabozhenko & B. Keskin, 2021

Nabozhenko, Maxim V., Keskin, Bekir, Keskin, Nurşen Alpagut, Gagarina, Ludmila V. & Nabozhenko, Svetlana, 2021, Two new species and new records of lichen-feeding darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Helopini) from Turkey with notes on bionomics and trophic relations, Zootaxa 5057 (1), pp. 69-86 : 71-73

Turkonalassus mavi M. Nabozhenko & B. Keskin , sp. n.

( Fig. 1 )

Material. Holotype, ♂ ( ZDEU) and five paratypes (1♂ and 1♀ in ZIN, and 3♀ in ZDEU): Turkey, Kahramanmaraş Prov., Başkonuş Yaylası , 37°34ʹ12.47ʺN / 36°34ʹ58.79ʺE, 1300 m, 18.04.2021 (leg. S. & M. Nabozhenko, B. Keskin).

Description. Male. Body robust, weakly shine dorsally; elytra dark-bluish, pronotum black, with bluish and greenish tint; head black, with very slight greenish tint; scutellar shield weakly bronze; legs, antennae, mouthparts, and ventral side of body brown ( Figs. 1A, B ).

Measurements: Y—1.57; PH —1.66; P w P l —1.25; E l E w —1.4; EH w —2.1; EP w —1.28; EP l —2.26.

Head. Widest at eye level. Eyes moderately large, strongly convex. Lateral margin of genae weakly regularly rounded. Lateral margin of head with weak and short sinuation between gena and epistoma. Anterior margin of epistoma straight. Punctation of head coarse and dense, double (small punctures among large foveolate round punctation). Ventral side of head with transverse coarse wrinkles before gula. Antennae comparatively long, with 3 antennomeres extending beyond base of pronotum. Middle antennomeres not strongly thickened, antennae regularly widened from proximal to distal antennomeres, but ultimate antennomere 11 narrower than penultimate one. Ratio of length: width of antennomeres 2–11: 2: 1.1, 5.3: 2, 4.4: 2, 4: 2, 4: 2, 4: 2.2, 4.5: 2.4, 4: 2.7, 3.8: 2.6, 4: 2.5.

Prothorax. Pronotum transverse, widest before middle. Lateral margins of pronotum weakly rounded, but slightly sinuate in basal quarter; anterior margin rounded at middle and sinuated near lateral sides; base weakly bisinuate. Anterior corners widely rounded, weakly projected, posterior ones straight, pointed. All margins (except for middle of anterior one) narrowly beaded; base with wider bead at middle. Disc slightly widely flattened on lateral sides, punctation of disc the same as on head. Prothoracic hypomera with flattened lateral margins, coarsely longitudinally wrinkled. Prosternum with coarse and dense punctation, raduliform in middle. Prosternal process weakly convex, not beaded apically.

Pterothorax. Scutellar shield triangle, with slightly rounded lateral margins, finely and densely punctated, but with smooth midline. Elytra widest at middle. Lateral carina (dorsal surface of epipleura) and humeral angles very wide, completely visible dorsally. Punctures in striae elongate merged in interrupted deep furrows. Interstriae flat, with simple and weak transverse wrinkles coming from strial punctures, but not coriaceous, without dense irregular micro-wrinkles among punctation. Epipleura not reaching, and epipleural inner carina reaching elytra apex. Punctation of interstriae fine and sparse. Suture finely beaded at apical third of elytra. Eighth interstria convex, connected with lateral elytral margin, dorsal epipleural carina reaching only eighth interstria. Mesoventrite and its sclerites with coarse and dense rugose punctation; metepisterna with dense and coarse simple punctation; metaventrite with fine and sparse punctation and fine recumbent setae.

Legs. Trochanters with one long yellow seta. Femora with sparse recumbent setation; pro- and metatibiae straight, mesotibiae weakly bent; tibiae with denser setation of yellow setae. Tarsi long. Mesotarsi slightly shorter than mesotibiae.

Abdomen. Abdominal ventrites 1 and 2 with simple fine and sparse punctation; ventrites 3–5 with the same, but double punctation (very small punctures among small ones); ventrite 5 beaded only laterally. Genitalia ( Figs. 1D–F ). Aedeagus ‘nalassoid’ ( Nabozhenko 2005); baculi of median lobe wide, connected ( Fig. 1D ). Inner sternite VIII with rounded blades and dense setation of long setae. Spiculum gastrale with thin rods and long common stem; blades (derivates of tergite IX) triangle, with sclerotized outer margins.

Body length 8–11 mm, width 4–4.3 mm.

Female ( Fig. 1B ). Measurements: PH —1.67; P w P l —1.15; E l E w —1.47; EH w —2.23; EP w —1.33; EP l —2.26. Body robuster, more bluish, pronotum with greenish-violet tint, disc of pronotum more flattened, elytra longer, protarsi slightly narrower than in male. Body length 11–11.2 mm, width 4.5 mm.

Etymology. The name derives from Turkish “mavi” (blue) and emphasizes the bluish colouration of the dorsum of the new species.

Differential diagnosis. This new species differs from all congeners by the bluish dorsal surface of the body ( Figs. 1A,B ), the pronotum widest at anterior half ( Figs. 1A,B ) (at middle or behind the middle in other congeners), and wide merged baculi of the median lobe of the aedeagus ( Fig. 1E ). It is similar to T. pentheri (Reitter, 1905) and T. petrophilus Keskin, Nabozhenko & Alpagut Keskin, 2017, which also have the punctation of elytral intervals fine and sparse, with the puncture diameter 3–5 times as less as interpuncture distance. Turkonalassus mavi sp. n. additionally differs from the first species by not thickened male antennomeres 4–8 (which are thicker than three apical antennomeres in T. pentheri) and strial punctures merged in furrows (separate in T. pentheri). The new species additionally differs from the latter taxon by much denser and coarser punctation of round punctures (punctures smaller, sparse and elongated on lateral sides in T. petrophilus).

Bionomics and trophic relations. The species was collected in old Pinus nigra J.F. Arnold forest with shrub undergrowth of Juniperus communis L. The presence of this juniper shrub undergrowth is crucial factor for all species of Turkonalassus . Usually, beetles hide in thickets of J. communis , and at night they go out on tree trunks or stones. Adult beetles of T. mavi sp. n. were active at night since 20:30 on trunks of Pinus nigra . Host lichen is Pseudevernia furfuraceae (L.) Zopf ( Parmeliaceae Zenker ) ( Fig. 2 ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Turkonalassus mavi sp. n., habitus and details of structure: A—habitus dorsally, male; B—habitus dorsally, female; C—habitus ventrally, male; D—male inner sternite VIII; E—aedeagus (bml—baculi of median lobe, apa—apical piece apophises); F—spiculum gastrale.

FIGURE 2. Pseudevernia furfuraceae, host lichen (on Pinus nigra) of Turkonalassus mavi sp. n.: A—general view of tallus; B—damage of isidia from beetles (shown by arrows).