Microhoria taurica ( Pic, 1904 )

Telnov, Dmitry, 2022, Revisional notes on the genus Microhoria Chevrolat, 1877 (Insecta: Coleoptera: Anthicidae) from the Eastern Mediterranean and Turkey, with new descriptions, an annotated catalogue, and a key, Baltic Journal of Coleopterology 22 (2), pp. 195-312 : 290-291

Microhoria taurica ( Pic, 1904) ( Fig. 50 ) Anthicus tauricus Pic, 1904: 74 (description). Anthicus tauricus – Pic 1911a: 76 (checklist); Winkler 1927: 849 (checklist).

Microhoria taurica – Uhmann 1990: 593 (record – Turkey); Chandler et al. 2008: 443 (checklist); Kejval & Chandler 2020: 131 (assigned to the M. terminata species group); Telnov 2020a: 613 (checklist).

Type material. Holotype male [monotypy] MNHN: Bulgar Dagh (Taurus) [handwritten] // type [handwritten] // tauricus Pic [handwritten].

New material. Not available.

Supplementary description. Belongs to the M. terminata species group. Syntype male. Total body length about 2.5 mm.Dorsum black­brown, prebasal and basal area of pronotum narrowly pale rufous. Antennae, palps, tibiae and tarsi yellowish brown, femora distinctly darker than tibiae. Antennomeres 7–11 darkened. Head about 1.2× as long as wide, head base broadly rounded, tempora long, subparallel. Compound eye moderate, shorter than tempus, moderately protruding from lateral outline of head. Head dorsum slightly glossy, punctures distinct, rather deep, moderately dense. Intervening spaces smooth, generally as wide as to slightly wider than punctures. Dorsal cranial setae yellowish, moderately long and dense, generally appressed. Antenna moderately thickened in apical half. Terminal antennomere bluntly pointed, elongate, about 2.5–2.7× as long as penultimate antennomere, as long as combined length of antennomeres 9–10. Pronotum slightly longer than wide, distinctly narrower than head across eyes, dorsally subopaque, subtruncate at anterior margin. Lateral margins rather strongly rounded in anterior and strongly constricted in posterior half. Latero­basal pronotal fovea broad and shallow. Pronotal disc flattened in dorsal aspect. Pronotal punctures, especially those on basal two thirds, comparatively denser and larger than dorsal punctures on head. Intervening spaces generally narrower to strongly narrower than punctures. Pronotal setation generally as on head, several setae directed obliquely towards midline. Elytra about 1.4× as long as wide, laterally broadly rounded, dorsally barely convex. Humerus obsolete. Elytral disc moderately glossy, punctures smaller than those on pronotum, dense. Intervening spaces smooth, generally as wide as to twice as wide as punctures.Apex of elytron modified, shortly, broadly triangularly projected at opening of gland channel. Elytral setae whitish, subdecumbent, moderately long and dense, directed posteriad. Brachypterous or apterous. Legs without modifications, tibial terminal spurs paired. Tergite VII truncate at posterior margin. Posterior margin of morphological sternite VII with deep median emargination ( Fig. 50C ). Aedeagus as in Fig. 50D , elongate. Tegmen with long, rod­like, apically slightly hooked process; endophallic armature of two strong, strongly Clike curved and a few smaller, straight spines and numerous spinules.

Ecology. Unknown.

Distribution. Southern Turkey.

Chorotype. SW­Asiatic (1.13 SWA), possible S­Anatolian (= Taurian) endemic (9000.08 ANAS).

Figures

Fig. 50. Microhoria taurica (Pic, 1904) male holotype. A – Habitus, dorsal view; B – Forebody, dorsal view; C – Morphological sternite VII, ventral view; D – Aedeagus, lateral view [not to scale].