Dictyon hlavaci, Assing, 2010

Assing, V., 2010, The second species of Dictyon FAUVEL from the Western Palaearctic region, with additional records of D. pumilio (EPPELSHEIM) (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 42 (1), pp. 485-488 : 486-488

Dictyon hlavaci nov.sp. ( Figs 1-3 , Map 1 )

T y p e m a t e r i a l: Holotype: " Morocco, Khénifra , Aguelmane Azigza, under rocks around lake, 10.V.2009, leg. P. Hlavá / Holotypus Dictyon hlavaci sp.n. det. V. Assing 2009" (cAss).

D e s c r i p t i o n: Body length 1.5 mm. Coloration: forebody pale brown; abdomen slightly darker brown, with the posterior margins of the segments and the apex (segments VIII-X) reddish-yellow; legs and antennae yellowish.

Head distinctly transverse; punctation very fine and rather dense. Eyes conspicuously small, slightly larger than antennomere I in cross-section and approximately 1/3 the length of postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna with antennomeres I and II relatively large and of subequal width, II slightly longer than I; III weakly oblong and much narrower than I and II; IV-V approximately as wide as long and as wide as III; VI-X of increasing width, increasingly transverse and increasingly flattened; X more than twice as wide as long.

Pronotum approximately 1.8 times as wide as long and 1.8 times as wide as head, widest at posterior margin; punctation fine and dense.

Elytra at suture approximately 0.85 times as long as pronotum. Hind wings apparently reduced to short rudiments. Metatarsomere I slightly longer than the combined length of II-IV.

Abdomen wedge-shaped, widest at base and strongly tapering posteriad; punctation fine and dense; posterior margin of tergite VII with fine palisade fringe.

: posterior margin of tergite VIII concave in the middle; posterior margin of sternite VIII almost truncate; median lobe of aedeagus shaped as in Figs 1-2 , little more than half as long as parameres, 0.24 mm from apex of ventral process to base of median lobe (parameres: 0.42 mm); paramere as in Fig. 3 .

: unknown.

E t y m o l o g y: This remarkable species is dedicated to my colleague and friend Peter Hlavá, Košice, who collected the holotype.

C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s: The new species is distinguished from the externally highly similar D. pumilio by the much smaller eyes ( D. pumilio : much larger than antennomere I in cross-section, distinctly more than half as long as postocular region in dorsal view), the apparently reduced length of the hind wings (fully developed in D. pumilio ), and by the shape of the ventral process of the aedeagus ( D. pumilio : strongly curved in lateral view). For illustrations of the male primary sexual characters and the habitus of D. pumilio see ASSING (2005).

D i s t r i b u t i o n a n d b i o n o m i c s: The type locality is situated in the Moyen Atlas , to the east of Khenifra, Morocco. The holotype was found under a stone near a lake ; additonal data are not available.

Figures

Map 1: Distributions of Dictyon pumilio (EPPELSHEIM) (filled circles) and D. hlavaci nov.sp. (open circles) in the Western Palaearctic region.

Figs 1-3: Dictyon hlavaci nov.sp. (holotype): (1) median lobe of aedeagus in lateral view; (2) apical portion of median lobe in ventral view; (3) paramere. Scale bars: 0.1 mm.