Aleochara (Xenochara)

Assing, Volker & Schülke, Michael, 2019, The Staphylinidae of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh (Coleoptera), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 69 (1), pp. 91-173 : 155

Aleochara (Xenochara) fugax IABLOKOFF-KHNZORIAN,

1962

( Figs 19–21 )

Aleochara fugax IABLOKOFF-KHNZORIAN, 1962: 112 f.

Material examined: 1: “ Erevan, Dzhrvezh, ASSR.

24.5.48” (cKhn).

Comment: Aleochara fugax , whose original description is based on a holotype and one paratype from Armenia (Vedi, Vinogradov sandstone cave, 8.IV.1958), is listed as Aleochara incertae sedis in SCHÜLKE & SMETANA (2015). An examination of the above specimen from the Khnzorian collection, evidently not the holotype, revealed that A. fugax is highly similar and undoubtedly closely related to A. parvicornis FAUVEL, 1900 of the subgenus Xenochara . It very much resembles A. parvicornis in habitus, antennal morphology, coloration, dense punctation, and the derived chaetotaxy of tergite VIII, but is distinguished by less dense punctation of the whole body (particularly so on the abdominal tergites VI and VII) and by a more slender distal portion of the spermathecal capsule. Habitus, posterior margin of tergite VIII, and spermatheca of A. fugax are illustrated in Figs 19–21 . For illustrations of A. parvicornis see ASSING (2009a).

The Armenian record of A. parvicornis by LIKOVSKÝ (1971) most likely refers to A. fugax .

Figures

Figs 7–23:Omalium kociani (7–10), Proteinus baculatus (11–14), Bryaxis armeniacus (15, 17), B. meghruicus (16, 18), Aleochara fugax (19–21), and Atheta meghruica (22–23): (median lobe of) aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (7–8, 13–16); female accessory sclerites (9); spermatheca (10, 21); habitus (11, 19, 22); thorax in ventral view (12); male antennomeres I–III (17–18); posterior margin of female sternite VIII (20); forebody (23). Scale bars: 11, 19, 22: 1.0 mm; 12, 23: 0.5 mm; 7–10, 13–16, 20–21: 0.1 mm; 17–18: without scale.