Paramaurops zagoricus, Hlaváč & Baňař & Davranoglou & Kempton, 2021

Hlaváč, Peter, Baňař, Petr, Davranoglou, Leonidas-Romanos & Kempton, James, 2021, Endogean and Cavernicolous Coleoptera of the Balkans. XXIII. A new species of Paramaurops J. Müller (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae) from Greece, Zootaxa 4970 (1), pp. 195-200 : 196-198

Paramaurops zagoricus sp. n.

( Figs 1–6 )

Material studied: HOLOTYPE: GREECE: ♂: two labels: „GREECE, Epirus / Mikro Papingo , 23.VII. 2020, 870 m / 39°58’7.23N 20°43’31.51E / Davranoglou & Kempton leg.” [white, printed], “ Acer-Fagus-Platanus litter / large leaf-litter accumulation / next to stream” [white, printed], “HOLOTYPE / PARAMAUROPS / zagoricus sp.n. / P. Hlaváč det., 2020” ( NMPC).

Description. Body shiny ( Fig. 1 ), light reddish-brown, with sparse pubescence, covered with golden setae of medium length; legs, antennae, and maxillary palpi slightly lighter. Length 2.45 mm; maximum width of elytra 0.70 mm.

Head slightly longer than wide, ratio 1.13; each eye composed of four ommatidia located above robust ocular spine; labrum large, rounded, bearing few long, golden setae; frons with well-defined rhomboidal impression between prominent supra-antennal tubercules; rear edge of rhombus in middle convex posteriorly, disc and vertex slightly convex, with well-defined median carina, median carina remote from occipital constriction and reaching convex edge of rhomboidal impression; lateral carinae well-defined, reaching posterior third of head length; vertexal foveae minuscule, distance between each fovea and median carina subequal to 1/3 of that between foveae and lateral margin of head; surface of disc and vertex wrinkly, with few long setae.

Antennae ( Fig. 2 ) 1.14 mm long; scape cylindrical, 1.55 × as long as wide and 1.05 × as long as pedicel; pedicel longer than wide, 1.13 × as long as antennomere III; antennomeres III, IV, VI and VII equal in length, V 1.25 × as long as III, antennomere VIII shortest, VI 1.15 × as long as VIII, IX and X strongly transverse, equal in length, 1.3 × as long as VIII; IX 1.22 × as wide as long; X 1.56 × as wide as long; terminal antennomere 2.7 × as long as X and 1.5 × as long as wide.

Pronotum slightly constricted before posterior margin, about 1.07 × as long as wide, slightly shorter than head; ratio length of pronotum / length of head ratio = 0.91; lacking median sulcus and carinae, median antebasal and lateral foveae well-defined, lacking transversal sulcus connecting foveae; with two short dorsal spines in posterior fourth.

Elytra lacking foveae and striae, about as wide as long, 1.39 × as long as pronotum.

Abdomen slightly narrower than elytra, first visible tergite (IV) large, slightly widening posteriad, lateral carinae parallel to lateral tergal margin, located closely to lateral margin, short, almost reaching half of tergal length, about twice as long as median carinae, median carinae parallel to each other, short, 0.23 of length of tergite, distance between them 0.28 of basal width of abdomen; with three, subequal basal depressions; tergite VIII slightly longer than sternite VIII, sternite VIII with median excavation and with long macroseta on each side ( Figs 3, 4 ).

Legs long and slender, mesotibiae slightly curved in distal third.

Aedeagus ( Figs 5–6 ) 0.45 mm long, moderately sclerotized, asymmetrical, with long and slender apical lobe, basal capsule oval.

Female unknown.

Differential diagnosis. Males of Paramaurops zagoricus can be readily separated from its congeners by the following combination of characters: 1) strongly transverse antennomeres IX and X; 2) pronotum with two short spines in posterior fourth, lacking sulci and carinae; 3) abdomen with short lateral carinae parallel to lateral tergal margin and located closely to lateral margin, almost reaching half of tergal length; and 4) abdomen with short median carinae parallel to each other, almost as long as anterior fourth of length of tergite.

Etymology. The new species is named after the Zagori region of Epirus in northwestern Greece, a complex of 46 outstandingly beautiful villages (Zagorochoria), one of which is Mikro Papingo, the type locality. The etymology of Zagori stems from Slavic “ zagore ”, which means “beyond the mountains”, referring to the location of the Zagorochoria in the Pindus mountain range and around the Vikos Gorge.

Habitat. Paramaurops zagoricus is known only from the holotype which was collected by sifting in Acer- Fagus-Platanus deciduous forest near a shallow stream ( Fig. 7 ). The forest is dense, humid and, during the day, the canopy does not allow much light to reach the understorey ( Fig. 8 ). These conditions allow pselaphines to persist in such sheltered microhabitats, even when their surroundings are scorching hot. Finding such microhabitats has allowed us to collect pselaphines from across Greece even during the peak of summer (Davranoglou, personal observation).

Distribution: Only known from northern Greece (Epirus). Given the fairly close proximity of Zagori to Albania (a straight line of about 30km), it is likely that the new species lives in the latter country as well.

Figures

FIGURES 1–6. Paramaurops zagoricus sp. n., male holotype; 1, dorsal habitus; 2, right antenna in dorsal view, 3, tergite VIII; 4, sternite VIII; 5, aedeagus in lateral view; 6, aedeagus in ventral view. Scale bars in mm.

FIGURES 7–8. Habitats in Mikro Papingo, Zagori from which Paramaurops zagoricus sp. n. was collected. 7, Habitat surrounding type locality; 8, Leaf-litter microhabitat at the type locality in which the new species was collected from.