Rugilus (Rugilus) rectus, Assing, 2013

Assing, V., 2013, A revision of Palaearctic and Oriental Rugilus. III. Five new species from the Palaearctic region and additional records (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 45 (1), pp. 171-190 : 174-176

Rugilus (Rugilus) rectus nov.sp.

( Figs 1-6 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: " Nepal Himalaya, SE Annapurna mts. , lg. Jäger, 1997 / Telbrung Danda near Gangpokhara, 2700 m, 12.-13.VI. / Holotypus ♂ Rugilus rectus sp. n., det. V. Assing 2012" ( SNSD) . Paratypes: 1♀: same data as holotype ( cAss) ; 1♀: " Nepal Annapurna '97, 13.6. Telbrung Danda, 26-2800 m, l. Schmidt / Ankauf A. Dobbertin, Rostock 2001, Museum Dresden" ( SNSD) .

Etymology: The specific epithet (Latin, adjective: straight) refers to the shape of the ventral process of the aedeagus in lateral view.

Description: Body length 5.7-6.2 mm; length of forebody 3.1-3.3 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 1 . Coloration: body blackish with very weak bronze hue; legs brown, with reddish tarsi and with apical halves of femora more or less distinctly infuscate; antennae uniformly reddish or with antennomere I somewhat darker.

Head ( Fig. 2 ) approximately as broad as long or indistinctly transverse, broadest across eyes; margins behind eyes smoothly curving towards posterior constriction in dorsal view, posterior angles obsolete; punctation coarse and areolate, largely longitudinally confluent, and very dense; interstices reduced to very narrow ridges; surface almost matt. Eyes large and bulging, but somewhat shorter than distance from posterior margin of eyes to posterior constriction. Anterior margin of labrum with two pronounced, basally fused teeth on either side of median incision.

Pronotum ( Fig. 2 ) approximately 1.2 times as long as broad and approximately 0.7 times as wide as head; midline with relatively broad, but short impunctate and glossy band in posterior half; punctation similar to that of head, but somewhat less defined.

Elytra ( Fig. 2 ) short, 0.80-0.85 times as long as pronotum, somewhat dilated posteriad; punctation coarse, but shallow and not very defined; interstices glossy. Metatarsomere I approximately as long as the combined length of II and III, or nearly so.

Abdomen broader than elytra; tergites III-VI with shallow impressions anteriorly, these impressions with rather coarse punctation; punctation of remaining tergal surfaces fine and moderately dense; interstices with very shallow microsculpture on tergites III-VI and more distinct microsculpture on tergite VII; posterior margin of tergite VII without palisade fringe.

♂: sternite VII ( Fig. 3 ) not distinctly modified; sternite VIII ( Fig. 4 ) with moderately deep and broadly V-shaped posterior excision; aedeagus ( Figs 5-6 ) 0.7 mm long; ventral process almost straight and subapically with small tooth in lateral view, apically acute in ventral view.

Comparative notes: This species is distinguished from all other micropterous Himalayan representatives particularly by the male sexual characters. In the externally highly similar and geographically close R. quadridentatus (Dhaulagiri) , the posterior margin of the male sternite VII is distinctly excised in the middle ( Fig. 7 ), the posterior excision of the male sternite VIII is shallower and less acute basally, and the ventral process of the aedeagus is much shorter and strongly curved in lateral view. For an illustration of the aedeagus of R. quadridentus see figure 9 in ASSING (2012a).

Distribution and natural history The type specimens were collected in the Telbrung Danda, a mountain in the southeastern Annapurna range, some 30-35 km to the northeast of Pokhara, at an altitude of 2600-2800 m.

Figures

Figs 1-7: Rugilus rectus nov.sp. (1-6) and R. quadridentatus (COIFFAIT) (7): (1) habitus; (2) forebody; (3, 7) male sternite VII; (4) male sternite VIII; (5) aedeagus in lateral view; (6) ventral process of aedeagus in ventral view. Scale bars: 1-2: 1.0 mm; 3-7: 0.2 mm.