Thaumastocephalus dahnae Hlaváč, Bregović & Jalžić, 2019

Hlaváč, Peter, Bregović, Petra & Jalžić, Branko, 2019, Endogean and cavernicolous Coleoptera of the Balkans. XVIII. Strong radiation in caves of the Central Dinarides: seven new species of Thaumastocephalus Poggi et al., 2001 (Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae), Zootaxa 4559 (1), pp. 90-110 : 98

Thaumastocephalus dahnae Hlaváč, Bregović & Jalžić , sp. n.

( Figs 7–9 , 29 )

Etymology. This species is named after the type locality, the cave Dahna, where the holotype specimen was collected.

Material studied. HOLOTYPE: Ƌ: BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: Tomislavgrad , Omerovići, Dahna (cave), 29.III.2012, M. Vasić lgt. (CNHM).

Description. Body shiny ( Fig. 29 ), yellowish-brown, abdomen darker, covered with dense, uneven setae, with long setae on posterior part of elytra; legs, antennae and maxillary palpi of same colour, length 1.95 mm, maximum width of elytra 0.66 mm. Head 1.30 times as long as wide, 0.83 times narrower than pronotum, rostrum twice as wide as long. Antennae about 0.79 mm long, scape twice as long as pedicel, antennomere III 1.5 times as long as IV, V slightly longer than IV, V–VII of same length, VIII slightly shorter than VII, VIII–X of same length, terminal antennomere 3.75 times as long as X, relative length of antennomeres: 1.00 / 0.50 / 0.33 / 0.27 / 0.30 / 0.30 / 0.30 / 0.27 / 0.27 / 0.27 / 1.00. Pronotum 1.08 as long as wide. Elytra 1.16 times as wide as long and 1.46 times as long as pronotum. Abdomen 1.05 times as long as elytra. Legs long, protibiae slightly modified ( Fig. 8 ), slightly depressed in apical half, median spine minuscule, mesotibiae simple, metatibiae simple. Aedeagus ( Fig. 7 ) 0.35 mm long, with basal bulb about 1.35 times as long as apical part, right paramere more robust than left, both with three preapical setae, internal sac with one large asymmetric structure, dorsal diaphragm present.

Sexual dimorphism. Female unknown.

Differential diagnosis. T. dahnae and T. folliculipalpis are readily separated from all other known species of the genus by the modified protibiae bearing a well-defined median tooth ( Fig. 8 ); from the latter species T. dahnae can be easily distinguished by its smaller size, 1.95 mm versus 2.2 mm, and by the head that is 1.3 times as long as wide versus more than 1.4 times as long as wide in the latter species.

Distribution and habitat. T. dahnae is known only from type locality, the cave Dahna ( Fig. 28 ), situated at 935 m a.s.l., near the village Omerovići in the western part of Duvanjsko polje ( Fig. 30 , red triangle). The cave is about 1100 m long. The air temperature measured on 29 th March 2012 was 9.1 °C; and the relative humidity was 92.2 % at the entrance chamber of the cave, and 6.4 °C in the deeper parts of the cave. The cave is the type locality for Coleoptera— Leptomeson dombrowskii pubipenne (Müller, 1941) , and it is also known in the literature as the cave Dana pećina or Bezdana pećina ( Lukić Bilela & Ozimec 2013, Pretner 2011). The following fauna is also recorded from the cave: Isopoda— Alpioniscus heroldi (Verhoeff, 1931) (det J. Bedek); Coleoptera— Haplotropidius pubescens as noted by Pretner (2011).

Figures

FIGURE 30. Distribution map of the species of the genus Thaumastocephalus mentioned in this work.

FIGURES 5–9. 5—Thaumatocephalus slavkoi sp. n., aedeagus, dorsal view (scale: 0.1 mm); 6—Thaumatocephalus troglavi sp. n., aedeagus, dorsal view (scale: 0.2 mm); Thaumatocephalus dahnae sp. n., 7—aedeagus, dorsal view (scale: 0.1 mm); 8— protibiae (scale: 0.1 mm); 9—maxillary palpomere (scale: 0.1 mm).

FIGURES 28–29. 28—entrance to Dahna (cave), type locality (photo Jana Bedek); 29—Thaumatocephalus dahnae sp. n., habitus in situ (photo Jana Bedek).