Aenictobia fergusoni Kistner

Maruyama, Munetoshi, Matsumoto, Takashi & Itioka, Takao, 2011, Rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) associated with Aenictus laeviceps (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Sarawak, Malaysia: Strict host specificity, and first myrmecoid Aleocharini, Zootaxa 3102, pp. 1-26 : 9-10

Aenictobia fergusoni Kistner

(Figs. 29–31)

Aenictobia fergusoni Kistner , in Kistner et al. 1997: 181 (original description).

Materials examined. 1, Lambir Hills National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia, 13 X 2004, T. Matsumoto leg. (no. 394); 2, same data but 15 V 2004 (no. 408); 1, ditto, 16 V 2004 (no. 414); 3, ditto, 16 V 2004 (no. 418); 6, ditto, 8 XI 2004 (no. 502); 1, ditto, 7 XI 2004 (no. 541); 6, ditto, 13 X 2004 (no. 572); 1, ditto, 12 X 2004 (no. 575); 5, ditto, 18 V 2004 (no. 590). See, Table 1 for detailed collecting data.

Symbiotic host. Morphotype S of Aenictus laeviceps .

Distribution. Malaysia (Peninsula, Borneo).

Diagnosis. This species can be distinguished from Aenictobia thoi by the temples of head (Figs. 29, 30) being strongly convex, by the thicker antennae (Fig. 29), by the antennal segment I (Fig. 30) being about 1.5 times as long as wide, by the postero-lateral corner of pronotum (Fig. 30) being projected laterally, and by the setae on the pronotum and elytra (Fig. 31) being somewhat denser and longer.

Comments. This species was originally described based on specimens from Ulu Gombak, Peninsular Malaysia. New record from Borneo.

FIGURES 26–31. Aenictobia spp. 26–28, A. thoi ; 29–31, A. fergusoni (27, 28, 30, 31, SEM photographs). 26, 29, habitus, dorsal view; 27, 30, head, pronotum and anterior part of elytra, dorsal view; 28, 31, sculptures on elytra, dorsal view.

The host ant of the type series was reported as “ Aenictus fergusoni Forel, 1901 ” ( Kistner et al. 1997), and, therefore, the same specific epithet was used for the beetle. The host species was, however, found to be misidentified. Pfeiffer (2005) illustrated an ant identified as “ Aenictus fergusoni ” which was the same nest number as the host ant of the type series of Aenictobia fergusoni in Kistner et al. (1997), but it was apparently Morphotype S of Aenictus laeviceps . During the field research by M. Maruyama in Ulu Gombak, the type locality of Aenictobia fergusoni , it was specifically collected from Morphotype S of Aenictus laeviceps (N=4). Therefore, the host ant species of “ Aenictobia fergusoni ” in Kistner et al. (1997) is actually Morphotype S of Aenictus laeviceps . The true Aenictus fergusoni may not be distributed in Peninsular Malaysia, but in India to the Indochinese Peninsula ( India, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, etc.) (Maruyama, unpublished data).