Oedichirus philippinus, Rougemont, 2018

Rougemont, Guillaume de, 2018, New oriental Oedichirus (Staphylinidae, Paederinae, Pinophilini), Linzer biologische Beiträge 50 (1), pp. 461-536 : 496-497

Oedichirus philippinus nov.sp.

(Figs 37)

Material studied: ♂ Holotype: Subaan Mindoro / PHILIPPINEN COLL. BOETTCHER DON STAUDINGER / philippinus Bnh. Typus / Chicago NHMus M. Bernhauer Collection / HOLOTYPE Oedichirus philippinus Des. 2016 G. de Rougemont [ AMNH].

Description: length: ca. 9.5 mm; length of fore-body: 3.7; length of head: 0.95; breadth of head: 1.05; length of antenna: 2.7; length of pronotum: 1.32; breadth of pronotum: 1.1; length of elytron: 1.2; breadth of elytra: 1.2. Body dark brown, all appendages testacsous. Dorsal surfaces devoid of microsculpture. Pubescence (mostly rubbed off) short, semi-erect. Habitus: Fig. 37h.

Head moderately transverse; post-ocular carina extending anteriad to below posterior margin of eye, forming an angle at some distance from eye; puncturation consisting of seven large punctures disposed in a transverse ellipse on anterior part of vertex, leaving the frons and posterior part of vertex impunctate, a couple of ocular punctures, a pair of punctures further removed from eyes, and four small punctures disposed in a transverse arc before base, as well as the usual small punctures in post-ocular groove. Pronotum strongly elongate, broader than head, the sides strongly retracted to narrow base; lateral margins without evident border; puncturation of disc consisting of a pair of discal series of seven punctures each, 5-6 punctures before this, several irregularly disposed lateral punctures, and smaller punctures along lateral and posterior margins. Micropterous, humeral angles completely obsolete; puncturation of disc moderately coarse and dense, denser in anterior ¼ where the interstices tend to form transverse wrinkles, sparser on rest of disc where the interstices are mostly wider than diameter of punctures. Punctures of abdominal tergites arranged in three discrete transverse rows behind the anterior row of long keels on each tergite.

Male: sernite VII unmodified; sternite VIII: Fig. 37s8, the surface of sternite with two divergent, asymmetrical dentiform keels which are shorter than those of O. palawanensis and do not extend beyond the level of the postero-lateral margins of sternite, the right keel bearing 4-5 short stout pale setae on its inner margin, the posterior margin of sternite with a small triangular emargination between the keels; aedoeagus: not illustrated; the specimen is somewhat teneral and the structures of the aedoeagus possibly deformed and difficult to interpret.

This species is very similar to the three species now known from Palawan. It is of a comparable size to O. palawanensis nov.sp. from which it is distinguished by its brown colour, its pronotal discal series of seven instead of four punctures, and the male sexual characters; it is considerably larger than the other two species, O. mutilus nov.sp. and O. sp. P1.

The specimen bears BERNHAUER’ s type label but no description was published. Four species of Oedichirus are now known from the Philippine Republic, but the other three are confined to Palawan, which is part of the Sunda subregion. O. philippinus is therefore the only species known from the Philippine subregion.