Anthobium portentum, 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 : 72-73

Anthobium portentum sp. nov.

( Figs 20 , 26 , 40, 41 )

Type material. Holotype ♂ ( Fig. 20 ; dissected; left antenna unclearly 10 segmented: antennomeres 6 and 7 strongly deformed, each consist of two conjoined antennomeres): NEPAL: ‘NEPAL Rasuwa Dis. | north slope abo- | ve Syabru 3600m | 18.IV.85 A. Smetana’ <printed>, ‘ HOLOTYPE | Anthobium | portentum sp. nov. | Shavrin A.V. des. 2025’ <red, printed> ( CNC).

Description. Measurements: HL: 0.45; HW: 0.72; AL: 1.43; OL: 0.20; LT: 0.05; PL: 0.57; PW: 1.15; ESL: 1.61; EW: 1.57; AW: 1.37; MTbL: 0.85; MTrL: 0.31 (MTrL 1–4: 0.20; MTrL 5: 0.11); AedL: 0.49; BL: 3.25.

Habitus as in Fig. 20 . Body reddish-brown, with slightly paler lateral portions of pronotum; antennomeres 3–11 brown; mouthparts, antennomeres 1–2 and legs yellowish. Forebody without microsculpture; abdominal tergites with fine transverse isodiametric meshes. Head with irregular punctation, larger and deeper in median part, denser and coarser on infraorbital portions; neck with sparse and fine punctation; punctation of pronotum dense, large and deep, denser in medioapical part, sparser in lateral, and sparser and finer in mediobasal portions, small oval area in mediobasal part without punctures; scutellum with fine and sparse punctation; punctation of elytra dense, about as that on pronotum, finer and sparser around scutellum, finer and sparser along suture, each elytron bearing six vague and tangled longitudinal rows of punctures; abdominal tergites with fine and sparse punctation.

Head 1.6 times as broad as long, with semicircular depression in mediobasal third in front of ocelli; anteocellar foveae narrow and deep, long, diagonally stretching anteriad toward level of anterior margins of eyes; postocular ridges acute. Ocelli located at level of postocular ridges of eyes. Apical maxillary palpomere about three times as long as preceding segment. Antennomere 3 slightly longer and distinctly narrower than 2, 4 significantly shorter and distinctly broader than 3, 5–6 slightly longer and broader than 4, 7–8 indistinctly shorter than 6, 9–10 slightly shorter and broader than 8, apical antennomere 1.3 times longer and slightly broader than 10.

Pronotum twice as broad as long, with widely rounded posterior angles; anterior angles widely rounded, slightly protruded anteriad; mediobasal part deeply and semicircularly impressed, laterobasal parts behind this impression distinctly elevated; medioapical part with shallow oval impression; lateral portions widely impressed, each with deep oval pit in about middle; each lateral edge with regular crenulation.

Elytra slightly longer than broad, slightly less than three times as long as pronotum, reaching apical margin of abdominal tergite IV; surface of each elytron with irregular elevations between punctures: diagonal in basal and apical parts, and longitudinal in middle; lateral edges with acute crenulation, flattened and reduced in middle.

Abdominal tergite V with a pair of round spots in middle of abdominal tergite V.

Male. Posterior margin of abdominal tergite VIII truncate. Posterior margin of abdominal sternite VIII slightly sinuate. Aedeagus narrow and long, from widest basal part slightly narrowed toward rounded apex; parameres significantly longer than apex of median lobe, broadened in preapical portions, each with three short apical setae; internal sac long and narrow ( Fig. 40 ). Lateral aspect of the aedeagus as in Fig. 41 .

Female unknown.

Comparative notes. Based on the general shape of the body, the sculpture of the surface of the pronotum and the elytra, and the lateral edges of the pronotum without projections, A. portentum sp. nov. is more similar to A. lakshmanai sp. nov. (see above), from which it can be distinguished by the smaller body, slightly more elevated pronotum and the elytra, the shape of the apical angles of the pronotum, distinctly less protruded anteriad, slightly narrower elytra, and the shape of narrow and long aedeagus, significantly longer parameres with narrower apical lobes, and other details of the morphology of the aedeagus. Form other species of the genus it differs by the shape of narrow and elongate aedeagus.

Distribution. Anthobium portentum sp. nov. is known only from the type locality in Bagmati, Nepal ( Fig. 26 ).

Bionomics. The specimen was collected at an elevation 3600 m a.s.l. The detailed bionomical data are unknown. It was collected together with A. lakshmanai sp. nov.

Etymology. The specific epithet is the Latin adjective portentus, - um, - a (monster, monstrous creature). It refers to the deformed right antennomere.

Figures

FIGURE 26. Distribution of Anthobium ampliatum (circle), A. aterrimum (squares), A. flavofasciatum (triangles) and A. portentum (diamond) in Nepal.

FIGURES 15–20. Habitus of Anthobium: 15—A. ampliatum (holotype), 16—A. anishchenkoi (Sichuan), 17—A. aterrimum (paratype), 18—A. flavofasciatum (holotype), 19—A. lakshmanai (holotype), 20—A. portentum (holotype). Scale bar: 1.0 mm.

FIGURES 38–43. Aedeagus of Anthobium (Figs 38–39—A. lakshmanai (holotype), Figs 40–41—A. portentum (holotype), 42– 43—A. curtulum (holotype)): 38, 40, 42—aedeagus, parameral view, 39, 41, 43—aedeagus, lateral view. Scale bar: 0.1 mm.