Ischnosoma cuspidatum nov.sp. (Figs 2, 47-51, Map 2)

T y p e m a t e r i a l: Holotype ♂: " N42°12'19 E45°27'45, GG Kakheti Lechuri N, 830 m 9.5.2019, Brachat & Meybohm (2) / Holotypus ♂ Ischnosoma cuspidatum sp. n. det. V. Assing 2019" (cAss).

E t y m o l o g y: The specific epithet (Latin, adjective: acute) alludes to the sharply acute apex of the ventral process of the aedeagus in ventral view.

D e s c r i p t i o n: Body length 4.3 mm; length of forebody 1.9 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 2. Coloration: body reddish, with the antero-median portions of tergite IV-VI slightly darker; legs dark-yellow; antennae pale-reddish.

Eyes (Fig. 47) slightly longer than postocular region in lateral view, composed of some 40-50 ommatidia. Antenna 1.45 mm long.

Pronotum 1.15 times as broad as long and 1.83 times as broad as head; disc with moderately dense micropunctation, mostly without microsculpture (nearly obsolete traces of microsculpture visible only near anterior margin).

Elytra 0.82 times as long as pronotum, without microsculpture; sutural and lateral series each composed of six punctures.

Abdomen with rather coarse and dense punctation, punctures somewhat sparser in postero-median portions of tergites; posterior margin of tergite VII without palisade fringe.

♂: sternite VII (Fig. 48) weakly transverse, with a distinct cluster of dense setae in postero-median portion; sternite VIII (Fig. 49) distinctly oblong, in postero-median portion with a cluster of moderately dense and rather short setae, posterior margin strongly concave; aedeagus (Figs 50-51) 0.68 mm long; ventral process apically extremely acute in ventral view; parameres with numerous setae in apical half.

C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s: Ischnosoma cuspidatum is distinguished from I. major, its geographically closest micropterous congener (see map 2 in ASSING & SCHÜLKE 2017) by slightly larger body size, the (near) absence of microsculpture on the pronotum and the elytra, a male sternite VII with a truncate posterior margin and with a less extensive cluster of setae in the postero-median portion, a more slender male sternite VIII with a more deeply concave posterior margin and a distinct cluster of dense setae in the postero-median portion, and by a more acute and differently shaped apex of the ventral process of the aedeagus. For illustrations of I. major see KOCIAN (1997).

D i s t r i b u t i o n a n d n a t u r a l h i s t o r y: The type locality is situated to the north of Lechuri in the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus, Kakheti region, Northeast Georgia (Map 2). The holotype was sifted from leaf litter in a stream valley with deciduous forest at an altitude of 830 m (MEYBOHM pers. comm.).