Guizhaphaenopsodes Tian & X.Huang, 2021

Tian, Mingyi, Huang, Xinglong & Li, Chenliang, 2021, Contribution to the knowledge of subterranean ground beetles from eastern Wuling Mountains, China (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Trechinae), Zootaxa 4926 (4), pp. 521-534 : 527

Guizhaphaenopsodes Tian & X.Huang , n. gen.

Type species: Guizhaphaenopsodes solidior Tian & Huang , n. sp. (the cave Tangle Dong, Jishou , Hunan)

Generic characteristics. Medium-sized beetle for cavernicolous trechines, semi-aphaenopsian, but more or less pigmented; body stout, appendages moderate long, antennae robust; dorsal surface smooth and glabrous, moderately shining. Head subquadrate, longer than wide excluding mandibles; frontal furrows well-defined, only posterior pair of supra-orbital present; right mandible bidentate; labial suture completely disappeared; mentum bisetose, base largely and deeply concave; submentum with a row of 12 setae which are very long; the 2 nd labial palpomere without additional setae apart from the two ones on inner margin; antennae moderately long, but much stouter for cavernicolous trechines, scape as long as pedicel. Prothorax not tumid at sides and so invisible from above; pronotum quadrate, evidently longer than wide, only a pair of anterior latero-marginal setae present, hind angles broadly reflexed. Elytra stout though distinctly longer than fore body including mandibles, slightly expanded at sides, widest at about middle, strongly convex, shoulders distinct, humeral angles widely rounded, lateral margins ciliate throughout, apices almost rounded; elytral striae more or less obliterated but still notable; two dorsal pores present on the 3 rd stria, the preapical dorsal pores absent; apical striole moderately defined, ended at the apex of the 5 th stria; humeral group (the 1 st to 4 th pores) of marginal umbilicate series not aggregated, 1 st inwardly and a bit backwardly shifted, 2 nd close to the marginal gutter, median group (the 5 th and 6 th pores) close from each other, both far from 4 th pore. Only the 1 st protarsomere modified in male, widened and distinctly denticulate inwards at apex; the 1 st tarsomere shorter than, as long as, and longer than 2 nd to 4 th ones combined in fore, middle and hind legs respectively. Ventrite VII with one pair of apical setae in male. Male genitalia very short and small, weakly sclerotized.

Remarks. This new genus is probably close to the genus Guizhaphaenops Vigna Taglianti, 1997 , especially the subgenus Semiaphaenops Deuve, 1999 since they share the following main characteristics ( Vigna Taglianti 1997, Uéno 2000b): similar body shape with moderately elongated appendages, bidentate right mandibular tooth, completely fused mentum and submentum, base of mentum widely and deeply concave, ventrite VII bisetose and male with only the 1 st protarsomere modified. However, they differ in many character states, e.g.: (1) Only posterior pair of supraorbital pores present in Guizhaphaenopsodes , versus two pairs present in Semiaphaenops , and only the anterior ones present in several species of Guizhaphaenops (s. str.) ( Vigna Taglianti 1997, Uéno 2000b, Uéno & Ran 2004); (2) Fore body more or less pigmented in Guizhaphaenopsodes , versus depigmented in Guizhaphaenops ; (3) Antennae sturdier and shorter in Guizhaphaenopsodes , whereas thinner and slenderer in Guizhaphaenops ; (4) Pronotum more elongated in Guizhaphaenopsodes than in the latter; and, in particular, (5) Male genitalia shorter and stouter in Guizhaphaenopsodes , versus much longer and thinner in Guizhaphaenops .

Furthermore, there is a large gap in distribution between the two genera Guizhaphaenops and Guizhaphaenopsodes: The cave Tangle Dong, locality of Guizhaphaenopsodes , is about 400 km in linear distance from Longyan Dong in Zunyi, Guizhou, the type locality of Guizhaphaenops lipsorum zunyiensis Deuve & Tian, 2018 which is the easternmost locality of Guizhaphaenops species ( Deuve & Tian 2018).

Guizhaphaenopsodes is also easily separated from Qianaphaenops Uéno, 2000 , which is distributed in eastern Guizhou and might be relative to this new genus, by the absence of labial suture (present in the latter genus), the bidentate right mandibular tooth (tridentate in Qianaphaenops ), the absence of anterior pair of supraorbital pores (present in Qianaphaenops ), only the 1 st protarsomere modified in male (1 st and 2 nd protarsomeres modified in Qianaphaenops ) and the absence of the preapical dorsal pores on elytra (present in Qianaphaenops ).

Etymology. To indicate the similarity of this new genus to Guizhaphaenops . Gender masculine.

Generic range. China (Hunan) ( Fig. 1 ).

Figures

FIGURE 1. A distribution map showing the locality caves of the three new species described in the present paper (Tangle Dong: Xiangxius jiangi Tian & X. Huang, n. gen., n. sp. and Guizhaphaenopsodes solidior Tian & X. Huang, n. gen., n. sp.; Qizimei Dong: Sinotroglodytes hefengensis Tian & Li, n. sp.).