Scydmoraphes yunnanensis, Jałoszyński, 2019

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2019, The first species of Scydmoraphes (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae) in China, Zootaxa 4559 (1), pp. 182-184 : 182-183

Scydmoraphes yunnanensis sp. n. ( Figs 1–5 )

Type material. Holotype: CHINA (Yunnan): ♂, three labels: " Huanxipo (1,950m) / Tengchong X., Yunnan / [SE- CHINA]" [white, printed]; " 14.x.1996, S. Nomura " and locality name repeated in Chinese characters [white, printed], " SCYDMORAPHES \ yunnanensis m. \ det. P. Jałoszyński, 2018 \ HOLOTYPUS " [red, printed] (NSMT).

Diagnosis. Frons conspicuously densely but finely punctate; aedeagus with parameres strongly curved ventrad, so that in ventral view their distal 3/4 are in front of median lobe; median lobe with a distinct, broad submedian constriction; ventral apical plate bifurcate; endophallus with four lightly sclerotized elongate bunches of sclerites, two long and two short ones.

Description. BL 0.88 mm. Body of male ( Fig. 1 ) strongly elongate and slightly flattened, yellowish-brown, covered with yellow vestiture.

Head broadest at large eyes, HL 0.13 mm, HW 0.20 mm; vertex weakly, evenly convex; frons between eyes distinctly flattened; supraantennal tubercles weakly raised. Punctures on frons small but distinct and conspicuously dense, separated by spaces narrower than diameters of punctures, those on vertex distinctly smaller and sparser, inconspicuous; setae short, sparse and suberect. Antennae slender and gradually thickened, AnL 0.38 mm, antennomeres I–II distinctly elongate, III–X slightly to distinctly transverse, XI much shorter than IX–X combined, only about 1.2 × as long as broad, with blunt apex.

Pronotum suboval, broadest near anterior third; PL 0.25 mm, PW 0.23 mm; anterior and posterior margins weakly arcuate, sides strongly rounded in anterior third, indistinctly concave just in front of only slightly obtuse-angled posterior pronotal corners; pronotal base with a transverse groove deepened at each end. Punctures on pronotal disc very small but distinct, much sparser than those on frons; setae short and sparse, suberect, additionally sides of pronotum densely covered with thick bristles.

Elytra oval, broadest slightly in front of middle; EL 0.50 mm, EW 0.38 mm, EI 1.33. Humeral calli distinct but small, elongate; basal impression on each elytron shallow and short. Punctures fine and superficial, inconspicuous; setae short, sparse, suberect. Hind wings well-developed.

Legs moderately long and slender, unmodified.

Aedeagus ( Figs 2–5 ) moderately slender; AeL 0.15 mm; in ventral view median lobe with rounded base; apical region broadly subtriangular and blunt, demarcated by a distinct but shallow submedian constriction; ventral diaphragm circular; ventral apical plate bifurcate, with a deep and broad distal emargination and lateral portions forming curved subtriangular apical lobes; endophallus with asymmetrical, elongate median component flanked by two groups of elongate sclerites, one very long and the other one half shorter; parameres slender, strongly curved ventrad, so that in ventral view their distal 3/4 are in front of median lobe, each paramere with one long apical seta.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution. SE China (Yunnan).

Etymology. Locotypical, after the province of China.

Remarks. Scydmoraphes yunnanensis clearly differs from all nominal species whose aedeagi have been illustrated in literature (some require revision, but those are restricted to the western part of Eurasia and are highly unlikely to be found in China) in a uniquely shaped aedeagus. The parameres curved so strongly that largely shifted to the ventral side of the median lobe are not known in any other Scydmoraphes , and also the bifurcate ventral apical plate and bunches of needle-like endophallic sclerites are unique for S. yunnanensis . The geographically closest species are S. gartneri ( Franz, 1979) ( Pakistan) , S. hastipes Vít, 1999 ( Pakistan) , S. minutus (Russian Far East and Europe) and S. japonicus Franz, 1976 ( Japan) . The two Pakistani species have simple, sac-like aedeagi, which are suboval in ventral view, and each has a darkly sclerotized, transverse subapical endophallic structure (illustrated in Vít 1999 and Jałoszyński 2008). Scydmoraphes minutus (aedeagus illustrated e.g., in Castellini (2007)) has a truncate apex of the median lobe and over a dozen elongate sclerites in the sub-basal region. Scydmoraphes japonicus (revised by Jałoszyński (2004)) has a subtriangular apex of median lobe with a pair of distolateral projections meeting at middle, and a pair of distinct 'palm leaf' structures in the endophallus (which can also be found in many European species).

Figures

FIGURES 1–5. Scydmoraphes yunnanensis sp. n., habitus of holotype male (1); aedeagus in ventral (2, 4) and lateral (3, 5) views.