Leptomastax thriptica MEYBOHM, 2019

Assing, Volker, Brachat, Volker & Meybohm, Heinrich, 2019, Monograph of the Staphylinidae of Crete (Greece). Part II. Descriptions of new species (Insecta: Coleoptera), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 69 (2), pp. 239-289 : 278-279

Leptomastax thriptica MEYBOHM spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:5EA83082-7F64-4122-852C-AECB11BF6D01

( Fig. 150 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “ GR Ostkreta Thripti 1000 m N25°52' E25°33' leg. Meybohm 14.4.2000 / Leptomastax thriptica m. Meybohm 2018 det. / Holotypus” ( cMey).

Etymology: The specific epithet is an adjective derived from Thripti Oros, where this species may be endemic.

Description: Body length 1.63 mm. Body bright reddish brown. Head including the flat eyes 0.40 mm wide and 0.23 mm long; eyes large with about 14 ommatidia; subocular setiferous punctures and setae absent; postocular region in dorsal view anteriorly weakly and posteriorly more distinctly tapering. Antenna 0.83 mm long; antennomeres III slightly longer than broad, IV–X broader than long, VIII almost twice as broad as long. Length of mandibles 0.33 mm (measured from apex to external part of the base). Labial palpi moderately long, apical palpomere about 5 times as long as broad, setae of penultimate palpomere moderately long.

Pronotum 0.45 mm long and 0.39 mm broad, without basal foveae.

Elytra broadly oval, dorsally flattened between striae II, 0.95 mm long and 0.58 mm broad, without internal basal setae; striae I–III decreasing in depth from stria I to stria III and decreasingly distinct towards posterior portion of elytra, striae IV and V weakly indicated by few punctures and confined to anterior portion.

♂: metaventrite laterally sparsely and finely punctate, with pubescence directed posteriad, impunctate along middle, in posterior half with conspicuous impression with median keel, anteriorly with a keel-shaped elevation forming an angle at anterior margin of the posterior impression; aedeagus 0.31 mm long and 0.10 mm broad, shaped as in Fig. 150 .

Comparative notes: This species is similar to L. bipunctata REITTER, 1881 , especially in the structure of the male metaventrite, but distinguished by the internal structures of the aedeagus. It differs from L. cretica by the modifications of the male metaventrite, the absence of basal foveolae on the pronotum, the presence of internal basal setae on the elytra, and by the morphology of the aedeagus.

Distribution and natural history: Aside from the widespread L. bipunctata , the genus Leptomastax PIRAZZOLI, 1855 is represented in Crete by two named endemic species, with L. cretica distributed in Dikti Oros, Psiloritis, and Lefka Ori, and with L. thriptica confined to Oros Thripti. All the specimens were collected by sifting moist litter at elevations above 550 m. A female of a probably undescribed endemic species was found under a deeply embedded stone in a Quercus ilex forest near Kroustas at an altitude of 800 m.

Figures

Figs 143–155: Stenichnus creticus (143), S. hummleri (144), S. basimpressus (145), S. aegialioides (146), Leptomastax cretica (147–149), L. thriptica (150), L. bisetosa (151), Afropselaphus doernfeldae (152), A. assingi (153), A. diktianus (154), and A. thripticus (155): aedeagus in lateral and dorsal view (143–145, 148–150, 152–155); male profemur (146); labium (147, 151). Scale bars: 0.1 mm.