Meotica subnigra ASSING , 2006

Assing, Volker & Vogel, Jürgen, 2019, The mother of synonyms: on the Meotica species of the Palaearctic Region (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae, Oxypodini), Linzer biologische Beiträge 51 (2), pp. 731-772 : 765

Meotica subnigra ASSING, 2006

( Figs 90-93 )

Meotica subnigra ASSING, 2006: 252.

Type material examined: SeeASSING (2006).

Additional material examined: CYPRUS: 1♂, 1♀, Paphos, Miliou , 8.VI.2016, leg. Miessen (cTro, cAss ); 1♂, Kannaviou, Ezousa river, 350 m, 10.III.1996, leg. Frisch (cAss) .

Comment: The original description is based on a unique male holotype from the Turkish province Kahramanmaraş. The species was subsequently recorded also from Greece (Pelopónnisos) and the Turkish province Muğla ( ASSING 2013).

Based on the similar shape of the spermatheca, it seems possible that M. subnigra is conspecific with M. arasensis . Males from the vicinity of the type locality of the latter would be needed to clarify this.

Diagnosis: Body of dark coloration. Hind wings present. ♂: sternite VIII ( Fig. 90 ) moderately transverse, posterior margin truncate; median lobe of aedeagus ( Figs 91- 92 ) 0.27-0.31 mm long; ventral process very slender both in ventral and in lateral view, and apically acute; apical lobe of paramere weakly to moderately infuscate.

♀: sternite VIII approximately as long as broad, posterior margin broadly convex; spermatheca of the M. parasita type ( Fig. 93 ).

For additional illustrations see ASSING (2006). The aedeagus is of similar general morphology as that of M. parasita , but distinguished by larger size, a greater distance between the smaller crista apicalis and the base of the ventral process, the presence of an indenture at the based of the ventral process (lateral view), and by a relatively smaller flagellum in the internal sac.

Distribution: Greece (Pelopónnisos); Turkey (Muğla, Kahramanmaraş); Cyprus.

Figures

Figs 80-90: Meotica normandi (80-84; 80-81: lectotype), M. arasensis (85), M. caucasica (86-89), and M. subnigra (90): (80-83, 87-88) median lobe of aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view; (84- 85, 89) spermatheca; (86, 90) male sternite VIII. Scale bars: 0.1 mm.

Figs 91-99: Meotica subnigra (91-93)), M. trunata (94-96), and M. hamata (97-99): (91-92, 95, 98) median lobe of aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view; (93, 96) spermatheca; (94, 97) male sternite VIII; (99) apical portion of median lobe of aedeagus in ventral view. Scale bars: 0.1 mm.