Dialycera minuta LUZE, 1906

Assing, Volker & Schülke, Michael, 2019, The Staphylinidae of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh (Coleoptera), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 69 (1), pp. 91-173 : 152-154

Dialycera minuta LUZE, 1906

Phyllodrepa armena IABLOKOFF-KHNZORIAN, 1959: 66 ; syn. nov.

Type material examined: Dialycera minuta : Holotype: “Kana Gal. / J. Sahlb / 2177 / Spec.typ. / minuta m. det. Luze / Mus. Zool. H:fors spec. typ. No 1093 Dialycera minuta Luze. ” ( MZH).

Phyllodrepa armena : Lectotype, present designation: “ Dzhrvezh Erevan ASSR 21.5.52” (cKhn).

Comment: This species will be treated in more detail in a revision of Dialycera currently in preparation. IABLOKOFF-KHNZORIAN (1959) reported minor and irrelevant differences between D. minuta and D. armena in body size and elytral punctation. Regarding the shape of the highly distinctive aedeagus, however, both are identical. In the original description of D. armena four specimens from the type locality and with the same date (21.V.1952) are mentioned. The sole syntype in the Khnzorian collection is designated as the lectotype. There are four additional specimens, including males, in cKhn. They, too, were collected in the type locality, but on different dates (3.5.1951, 7.5.52, and 30.5.52) not mentioned in the original description.

3.6.2 Proteininae (by VOLKER ASSING)

Proteinus baculatus ASSING spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:3DDB2D69-A000-4FFA-AAC7-48CE4BAB7020

( Figs 11–14 )

Type material: Holotype: “ ARMENIA [27] – WSW Kapan , W Kajaran, 39°09'22"N, 46°06'13"E, 2050 m, mixed forest, 10.VII.2018, V. Assing / Holotypus Proteinus baculatus sp. n. det. V. Assing 2018” (cAss) . Paratypes: 1: “ ARMENIA [AR16-08] N Yerevan, NW Hrazdan, 40°33'45"N, 44°23'41"E, 2000 m, mixed deciduous forest margin, litter sifted, 28.VI.2016, leg. M. Schülke ” ( MNB); 1: “TR. – Erzurum , 40 km NW Tortum, 2100 m, Mescit Dağları, pine forest, ca. 40°36N, 41°23E, 20.VI.1998, Solodovnikov” (cAss) .

Etymology: The specific epithet is an adjective derived from the Latin noun baculus (stick, rod) and alludes to the rod-shaped sclerotized structure in the internal sac of the aedeagus.

Description: Body length 2.1–2.4 mm; length of forebody 1.4–1.6 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 11 . Coloration: body black; legs dark-yellowish; antennae black with antennomere I pale-reddish.

Head and pronotum with pronounced isodiametric microsculpture and with extremely fine, barely noticeable sparse punctation. Pronotum approximately 1.8 times as broad as long and 1.4 times as broad as head, posterior margin very finely margined (visible only at a magnification of 100 x). Elytra approximately 1.9 times as long as pronotum; interstices without microsculpture. Process of mesoventrite with a moderately pronounced median keel ( Fig. 12 ).

: protarsomere I dilated and very long, slightly longer than the combined length of protarsomeres II–V; mesotibia smoothly curved, with few peg setae and somewhat flattened in apical fourth; metatibia unmodified; aedeagus ( Figs 13–14 ) 0.36–0.38 mm long; ventral process apically very acute both in lateral and in ventral view; internal sac with a long and broad black membranous tube and with a rod-shaped sclerotized structure best visible in ventral view.

Comparative notes: Based on the elongated male protarsomere I, P. baculatus belongs to the P. crenulatus group, which previously included five species in the West Palaearctic region ( ASSING 2007a). It is distinguished from P. crenulatus and other species of this group by a reddish antennomere I and by the male sexual characters, particularly by the shapes of the ventral process and of the internal structures of the aedeagus. For illustrations of the species of the P. crenulatus group see ASSING (2007a).

Two Proteinus species were described from Ordubad in Azerbaijan, close to the border with Armenia: P. planicollis REITTER, 1905 and P. reflexicollis REITTER, 1905 (type material of both species examined). The new species is distinguished from them by completely black coloration of the body, by a more convex (cross-section) pronotum, and additionally as follows:

from P. planicollis by smaller size ( P. planicollis : length of forebody 1.7-1.8 mm), a less broad habitus, a less transverse pronotum with indistinctly bordered lateral margins ( P. planicollis : pronotum 1.96-2.00 times as broad as long and 1.53 times as broad as head), shorter elytra ( P. planicollis : elytra 2.0 times as long as pronotum), an elongate male protarsomere I (unmodified in P. planicollis ), and an aedeagus of different shape;

from P. reflexicollis by indistinctly bordered lateral margins of the pronotum.

The aedeagi of the two male type specimens of P. reflexicollis are either missing or deformed and completely bleached.

Distribution and natural history: This species is currently known from two localities in North and South Armenia and from one locality in Northeast Anatolia. The Armenian specimens were sifted from leaf litter and grass roots in mixed deciduous forests. The altitudes range from 2000 to 2100 m. The male from Turkey is slightly teneral.

3.6.3 Pselaphinae (by VOLKER BRACHAT)

Bryaxis armeniacus BRACHAT spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:01F595CB-9F3B-4DEE-8A4D-C97F39DE26E1

( Figs 15, 17 )

Type material: Holotype: “ ARMENIA [4] – N Yerevan, NW Hrazdan, 40°41'40"N, 44°29'16"E, 2500 m, W-slope, sifted, 26.VI.2016, V. Assing / Bryaxis armeniacus spec. nov., det. Brachat 10.2018 / Holotypus ” (cBra) . Paratypes: 4, 3: same data as holotype (cBra); 6, 6 : same data, but leg. Schülke (cSch) .

Etymology: The specific epithet is an adjective derived from Armenia, where the species may be endemic.

Description: Body length 1.6–1.8 mm. Coloration: reddish-brown with the antennae and the maxillary palpi slightly paler. Pubescence on average rather long and nearly depressed; head with scattered long and erect setae.

Head weakly transverse, 0.32–0.34 mm long and 0.34– 0.36 mm broad, more or less distinctly punctate in anterior half; frontal lobe 0.18 mm broad; vertex with unmodified median keel; postocular region weakly convex in dorsal view. Antennomeres III–XI 0.50 mm long; antennomeres III distinctly oblong, IV–VIII globulous and approximately as long as broad, IX–XI forming a distinct club, X more transverse than IX, and XI longer than combined length of VIII–X. Maxillary palpi rather short; palpomeres II and III with numerous tubercles, especially ventrally; palpomere IV weakly petiolate, 0.13 mm long and 0.05 mm broad.

Pronotum 0.36–0.38 mm long and 0.40–0.42 mm broad, convex in cross-section, broadest in anterior third, glabrous, punctate only near posterior margin.

Elytra 0.60–0.64 mm long and 0.68–0.72 mm broad, slightly more than one-tenth as broad as long; humeral angles marked; punctation distinct, partly coarse.

: head ventrally with deep semicircular gular impression, anterior margin of this impression elevated; eyes small, each composed of 12–15 ommatidia; antenna: scapus 0.145 mm long and 0.110 mm broad, dorsally slightly dilated, inner margin with a small tubercle ( Fig. 17 ); pedicel ( Fig. 17 ) oval, 0.08 mm long and 0.06 mm broad in dorsal view; inner margin weakly, outer margin distinctly convex; metaventrite weakly convex in cross-section, posteriorly flat and with triangular impression; legs robust; pro- and metafemora dilated; profemur with depression near base; metatrochanter posteriorly with keel-shaped dilatation; protibia slightly dilated and with deep emargination in apical third; metatibia distinctly dilated, in apical half with projecting tooth, a deep emargination, and a small spine at apical margin; modifications of male legs are subject to intraspecific variation and may be more or less distinctly reduced; aedeagus 0.40–0.43 mm long and shaped as in Fig. 15 .

: eyes small, composed of 8–12 ommatidia; antenna with subcylindrical scapus (length: 0.14 mm; width: 0.07 mm) and with oval pedicel (length 0.07 mm; width 0.06 mm); metaventrite flattened posteriorly.

Comparative notes: Bryaxis armeniacus belongs to the B. clavipes group (see BESUCHET & KURBATOV 2007). It is similar to B. nivarius BESUCHET & KURBATOV, 2007 (Northeast Turkey), but distinguished by smaller size and the internal structures of the aedeagus.

Distribution and natural history: This species is currently known only from one locality to the northwest of Hrazdan, North Armenia. The specimens were sifted from litter and grass roots in a grassy west slope with scattered Salix at an altitude of 2500 m. For a photo of the type locality see figure 41 in ASSING (2016b).

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.