Bryaxis meghruicus BRACHAT, 2019

Assing, Volker & Schülke, Michael, 2019, The Staphylinidae of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh (Coleoptera), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 69 (1), pp. 91-173 : 154-155

Bryaxis meghruicus BRACHAT spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:AA6E7E2A-4450-48E8-8048-8061C3C6DF5C

( Figs 16, 18 )

Type material: Holotype [left antennomeres X and XI and right hind leg missing]: “ ARMENIA [29] – ca. 30 km W Kapan , 39°14'40"N, 46°06'24"E, 1780 m, river bank, 11.VII.2018, V. Assing / Bryaxis meghruicus spec. nov.

, det. Brachat 10.2018 / Holotypus ” (cBra).

Etymology: The specific epithet is an adjective derived from Meghru, the name of the mountain range where the type locality is situated.

Description: Body length 1.6 mm. Coloration: dark reddish-brown with the antennae, the maxillary palpi, and the legs slightly paler. Pubescence rather long and sub-erect; head with scattered long and erect setae.

Head distinctly transverse, 0.26 mm long and 0.34 mm broad, weakly punctate in anterior half; frontal lobe 0.17 mm broad; vertex with unmodified median keel. Eyes large and distinctly projecting, composed of approximately 25 ommatidia, slightly longer than the weakly convex postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna rather short; antennomeres III–XI 0.46 mm long; antennomeres III weakly oblong, IV–VII globulous and approximately as long as broad, VIII weakly transverse, IX–XI forming a distinct club, IX and X distinctly transverse, and XI slightly broader than X and longer than combined length of VII–X. Maxillary palpi rather short; palpomeres II and III with few tubercles; palpomere IV petiolate, 0.22 mm long and 0.09 mm broad.

Pronotum 0.36 mm long and 0.38 mm broad, convex in cross-section, broadest in anterior third.

Elytra 0.60 mm long and 0.64 mm broad, with fine and posteriorly more distinct punctation; humeral angles marked.

: head ventrally with short transverse gular impression, anterior margin of this impression elevated; antenna: scapus 0.15 mm long and 0.12 mm broad, dorsally slightly dilated, inner margin with a small flat tubercle ( Fig. 18 ); pedicel ( Fig. 18 ) oval and unmodified, 0.060 mm long and 0.055 mm broad in dorsal view; metaventrite with median sulcus posteriorly; legs robust; pro- and metafemora dilated; profemur with depression near base; protibia dilated and with deep emargination in apical third; metatibia distinctly dilated, in apical half with projecting tooth, a deep emargination, and a pronounced spine at apical margin; aedeagus 0.41 mm long and shaped as in Fig. 16 .

Comparative notes: Bryaxis meghruicus belongs to the B. clavipes group. It is distinguished from other species of this group by the internal structures of the aedeagus and by the combination of other characters.

Distribution and natural history: The type locality is situated some 30 km to the west of Kapan, South Armenia. The holotype was floated from gravel on a river bank at an altitude of 1780 m.

3.6.4 Tachyporinae (by MICHAEL SCHÜLKE)

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.