Anthobium flaviculum, Shavrin, 2025

Shavrin, Alexey V., 2025, A revision of eastern Palaearctic Anthobium Leach, 1819 (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Omaliinae: Anthophagini). IX. Thirteen new species and records from China and the Himalayan Region, Zootaxa 5728 (1), pp. 47-78 : 55-56

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5728.1.2
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:C986D1F2-ECC0-47C0-A2DA-E34D7AF77304
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17870081
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03F2AF1C-FF9B-0F7E-E880-FEE6C135FD17
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Anthobium flaviculum
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Anthobium flaviculum sp. nov.

( Figs 3 View FIGURES 1–6 , 11, 12 View FIGURES 7–12 , 14 View FIGURE 14 )

Description. Measurements (n=9): HL: 0.29–0.34; HW: 0.56–0.60; AL: 1.07 ( holotype); OL: 0.15–0.17; LT: 0.03–0.05; PL: 0.42–0.50; PW: 0.86–0.92; ESL: 1.17–1.25; EW: 1.21–1.30; AW: 0.86–1.09; MTbL: 0.55 ( holotype); MTrL ( holotype): 0.27 (MTrL 1–4: 0.17; MTrL 5: 0.10); AedL: 0.77; BL: 2.35–2.85 ( holotype: 2.55).

Body short and wide, convex ( Fig. 3 View FIGURES 1–6 ). Body yellow-brown, with slightly darker head; antennomeres 5–11 or 6–11 yellow-brown; mouthparts, antennomeres 1–4 or 1–5 and legs yellow. Head with irregular and fine microsculpture: indistinct and transverse in frontal and middle portions, and diagonal on infraorbital portions (some paratypes without visible meshes in middle); neck with sparse or dense transverse meshes, sometimes missing in middle; abdominal tergites with fine and dense isodiametric microreticulation. Head with irregular and fine punctation, denser and larger in middle and on infraorbital portions, sometimes with moderately wide impunctate parts in mediobasal part in front of ocelli; neck with regular, fine and relatively sparse punctation; punctation of pronotum dense, distinctly larger and deeper than that in middle part of head, sparser in lateral, and sparser and finer in mediobasal third; punctation of elytra dense, slightly larger and deeper than that on pronotum, coarser in mediobasal part, finer and sparser along scutellum, each elytron bearing six to eight tangled and vague longitudinal rows of punctures, more distinct in middle; abdominal tergites with fine and sparse punctation.

Head 1.7–1.9 times as broad as long; anteriomedian depressions distinct, suboval and relatively deep, reaching level of apical margins of eyes or slightly longer; mediobasal third with semicircular elevation, invisible in some specimens; anteocellar foveae missing or indistinct and short, about as long as longitudinal length of ocellus; postocular ridges distinct, obtuse; each anterior portion between antennal insertion and anterior margin of eye with small semicircular notch. Ocelli small, located at level of postocular ridges. Antennomere 3 about as long as and distinctly narrower than 2, 4–6 indistinctly longer and broader than 3, 7 slightly broader than 6, 8 distinctly shorter than 7, 9 slightly shorter and broader than 8, 10 distinctly shorter than 9, apical antennomere about twice as long 10.

Pronotum 1.8 times to twice as broad as long, from widest middle gradually narrowed both anteriad and posteriad; posterior angles rounded; apical angles widely rounded, slightly protruded anteriad; middle portion without depressions, but one paratype with indistinct semicircular impression in mediobasal third; lateral portions widely impressed and explanate, each with deep oval impression in about middle; each lateral edge with indistinct crenulation.

Elytra slightly broader than long, reaching apical margin of abdominal tergite IV–VI; mediobasal and median portions of each elytron with irregular diagonal and longitudinal elevations, with one or two elongate and sometimes indistinct longitudinal elevations; lateral edges with small acute crenulation, flattened and reduced about middle.

Metatarsi about twice as long as metatibia.

Abdomen strongly convex, without or with small oval tomentose spots in middle of abdominal tergite V.

Male. Posterior margins of abdominal tergite VIII and sternite VIII slightly sinuate. Aedeagus with wide basal part, gradually narrowed toward widely rounded apex; parameres distinctly exceeding apex of median lobe, narrowed apically, each with two short apical and one preapical setae; internal sac moderately wide and long, spirally folded in basal part, with row of several enlarged sclerotized spines ( Fig. 11 View FIGURES 7–12 ). Lateral aspect of the aedeagus as in Fig. 12 View FIGURES 7–12 .

Female. Posterior margins of abdominal tergite VIII and sternite VIII truncate.

Comparative notes. Based on the shape of the pronotum with apical angles slightly protruded anteriad and the shape of the elytra slightly broader than long, A. flaviculum sp. nov. is similar to Chinese A. transversale Shavrin & Smetana, 2019 and the Himalayan A. altivagans . From A. transversale it differs by the apical angles of the pronotum less protruded anteriad, narrower apical part of the median lobe, and shorter parameres with broader apical lobes. From A. altivagans it differs by the broader elytra and the median lobe, significantly narrower apical lobes of the parameres, and the absence of enlarged sclerotized spiculae in basal part of the internal sac. From both species it can be distinguished by the paler coloration of the smaller body, distinctly elongate antennomeres 7–8 and slightly transverse antennomeres 9–10, finer sculpture between punctures on the pronotum and the elytra, less pronounced mediobasal depression of the pronotum, and details of the morphology of the internal sac.

Distribution. Anthobium flaviculum sp. nov. is known from three localities in Emeishan Mts. in Sichuan, China ( Fig. 14 View FIGURE 14 ).

Bionomics. Specimens were collected at elevations from 1779 to 2765 m a.s.l. and were sifted from the leaf litter. The holotype and several paratypes were sifted from the litter around limestone rocks in mixed forest.

Etymology. The specific epithet is the Latin adjective flaviculus, -a, - um (small and yellow). It refers to the yellowish coloration and the body size.