Stomis jani, Sciaky, 2024

Sciaky, Riccardo, 2024, Review of the Chinese Stomis, with description of nine new taxa and a new key (Carabidae: Pterostichini), Zootaxa 5523 (1), pp. 1-34 : 18

Stomis jani sp. nov.

https://zoobank.org/5e0380b8-4d3a-4e0c-a3bb-96c3dc200edb

Diagnosis. A Stomis of medium length (10.2–10.4 mm), black, rather dull, convex. Head small, with markedly reduced eyes, pronotum almost as long as broad, with base sparsely punctate, elytra rather short and wide, with rounded shoulders and striae deep and punctate.

Description. Habitus as in Fig. 24 . Length 10.2–10.4 mm; integuments rather shiny, black, body rather convex; legs and antennae dark reddish-brown, rather short; tarsi paler; head of medium size, with shallow collar constriction right behind the eyes; mandibles rather long, longer than the rest of the head; the right one without notch; eyes very small and flat; antennae relatively long, reaching the elytral base with the 7th article. Pronotum almost as broad as long, rather convex at sides; lateral margins rather strongly dilated in the anterior half, constricted in regular curve towards the base, then gently sinuate in the posterior fourth; anterior margin advanced at middle; anterior angles projecting forward, very small; base almost straight; basal foveae well defined, linear, sparsely punctate; basal angles obtuse; lateral gutter very narrow all along. Elytra oval, evidently dilated in the posterior half, all striae deep and evidently but finely punctate, intervals feebly convex; shoulders not constricted, rounded, with a very small tooth. Ratios: El/Pl = 2.27; Ew/Pw = 1.43; El/Ew = 1.54.

Type-locality: China, SE Sichuan (now Chongqing), Jinfo Shan .

Type-series. Holotype ♀: China, Chongqing, Jinfo Shan , 90°01’N 107°14’E, 1700–1950 m, 24–29.VI.1998 (CFa). 1 paratype ♀ with the same data as holotype ( CS).

Etymology. This species is cordially dedicated to my friend Jan Farkač, of the Charles University of Praha, for his continuous help and encouragement.

Affinities. This species belongs to the group of S. robustus and within this group it seems more allied to S. robustus , from which it can be easily distinguished through the smaller size, shorter mandibles, flatter eyes and more pyriform elytra. The male is not known yet, but I am confident that its discovery will confirm its pertinence in this species-group.

Distribution. Known from a single locality in Chongqing (previously a part of southern Sichuan), in an area that had been explored for entomological purposes in the beginning of last century, but where very few recent expeditions have gone. On the Jinfu Shan near Chongqing 1 some species of Carabidae had been collected in the beginning of the ‘30 and described by the Czech carabidologist Arnost Jedlička, but since then no further specimens of carabid beetles have been collected by European entomologists on that mountain for a long time. This mountain, although rather isolated from the main chain (that goes from north to south in western Sichuan), has several endemic species clearly related to those that are found on the other side of the Sichuan plain.

Stomis jani is sympatric with S. chinensis Jedlička, 1932 , since the Jinfu Shan is the type locality and only locality known of both, but they belong to different species groups. They can be immediately distinguished through the absence in S. jani of the notch in the right mandible, that can be observed in S. chinensis .

1 In my previous work on Pterostichus subg. Morphohaptoderus ( Sciaky, 1994) I had erroneously considered another town called Chongking in north Sichuan as the type-locality of P. chungkingi Jedlička, 1932 . The same mistake occurred to me some years later ( Sciaky, 1996), when treating Pterostichus (Circinatus) baenningeri, Jedlička, 1931 . After examining material of recent expeditions I realized that the correct locality where these two species live is the Jinfu Shan near Chongqing, formerly in south-eastern Sichuan, but since 1997 pertaining to the Chongqing autonomous municipality.

Figures

FIGURES 21–24. Habitus of: (21) S. bousqueti HT (8.1 mm); (22) S. magrinii HT (10.1 mm); (23) S. dilaticollis HT (8.2 mm); (24) S. jani HT (10.2 mm).