Paraphlosotiba brevicula, Shavrin, 2024

Shavrin, Alexey V., 2024, New species and records of Paraphloeostiba Steel, 1960 and Xanthonomus Bernhauer, 1926 from the eastern Palaearctic, Oriental and Papuan regions (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Omaliinae), Zootaxa 5514 (6), pp. 589-597 : 592-593

Paraphlosotiba brevicula sp. nov.

( Figs 5–8 )

Type material. Holotype ♂ (dissected; left elytron is missing): ‘ N. Guinea | Mt. Susu, | Bulolo’ <handwritten in black>, ‘[D.] Vane-Wright | 27.IX. [19]80’ <printed>, ‘HOLOTYPE | Paraphloeostiba | brevicula sp. nov. | Shavrin A.V. des. 2024’ <red, printed> ( BMNH) .

Paratype: 1 ♂ (left elytron is missing): same data as the holotype, with additional red printed label: ‘PARATYPE | Paraphloeostiba | brevicula sp. nov. | Shavrin A.V. des. 2024’ <red, printed> ( BMNH).

Description. Measurements (n=2): HW: 0.27–0.33; HL: 0.13–0.17; OL: 0.09–0.12; AL (holotype): 0.39; PL: 0.25; PWmax: 0.35; PWmin: 0.30–0.31; ESL: 0.32–0.34; EW: 0.40–0.42; MTbL (holotype): 0.25; MTrL (holotype): 0.10 (MTrL 1–4: 0.04; MTrL 5: 0.06); AW: 0.44–0.47; AedL: 0.34; BL: 1.18–1.45 (holotype).

Body yellow-brown to reddish-brown, with distinctly paler elytra; antennomeres 6–11 brown; mouthparts, antennomeres 1–5, legs and intersegmental membranes of abdomen yellow. Head with several fine punctures sparsely scattered in middle portion; neck and scutellum without punctures; pronotum with irregular and sparse punctation, larger and deeper than that in middle of head, denser in median and lateral portions; pronotum with fine and sparse punctation. Apical part of head with fine transverse microsculpture, middle part between eyes and infraorbital portions with fine diagonal meshes, finer between ocelli; neck with transverse sculpture; pronotum with transverse microreticulation, subdiagonal in middle; neck with fine transverse meshes; abdomen with dense and fine isodiametric microreticulation.

Head transverse, twice as broad as long, with indistinct acute postocular carina. Ocelli located at level of posterior margins of eyes; distance between ocelli 1.2–1.3 times as long as distance between ocellus and posterior margin of eyes. Antenna reaching basal margin of pronotum when reclined, with distinctly transverse antennomeres 5–10; antennomere 3 shorter and twice narrower than antennomere 2, 4 small, about as long as broad, 5 broader than 4, 6 indistinctly longer and broader than 5, 7–10 slightly longer than 6, apical antennomere more than twice as long as 10.

Pronotum 1.4 times as broad as long, 1.1–1.2 times as broad as head, widest in middle, distinctly more narrowed posteriad than anteriad; anterior angles widely rounded; posterior angles obtuse or subacute (paratype); disc of pronotum with two wide and shallow depressions, deeper in mediobasal third; lateral portions narrowly impressed, with indistinctly crenulate lateral margins (somewhat stronger in paratype).

Elytra 1.2 times as broad as long and 1.2–1.3 times as long as pronotum.

Male. Posterior margin of abdominal tergite VIII truncate ( Fig. 7 ). Posterior margin of abdominal sternite VIII widely concave ( Fig. 8 ). Aedeagus with moderately broad basal portion, gradually narrowed toward relatively broad median lobe, from apical third strongly narrowed toward small rounded apex; parameres slightly not reaching apex of median lobe, slightly broadened apically, with four short apical setae and several short setae along inner margin of each paramere; internal sac wide and long, with four large sclerotized teeth in middle part and two elongate sclerotized structures in basal portion ( Fig. 5 ). Lateral aspect of the aedeagus as in Fig. 6 .

Female unknown.

Comparative notes. Based on the presence of two wide longitudinal impressions on the pronotum, the small body, and the presence of setation on internal margin of each paramere, P. brevicula sp. nov. is similar to P. iriana Shavrin, 2024 ( Indonesia: Westen New Guinea), P. okapensis Shavrin, 2024 ( Papua New Guinea) and P. zingiberiphila sp. nov. (see below). It can be distinguished from all these species by the following morphological features:

from P. iriana by the narrower basal part of the pronotum, broader preapical part of the median lobe and narrower preapical parts of the parameres;

from P. okapensis by the paler and significantly shorter elytra, the broader median lobe, and longer parameres;

from P. zingiberiphila sp. nov. by the finer microsculpture of the head and the pronotum, and broader median lobe.

Additionally, it can be distinguished from P. iriana and P. okapensis by the smaller body, finer and sparser punctation of the head and the pronotum, shorter elytra, and broader apical parts of the parameres. From all these species, P. brevicula sp. nov. differs by the details of external and internal morphology of the aedeagus.

Besides that, regarding the similar proportions of the pronotum with the presence of median impressions, shortened elytra, and the general shape of the aedeagus, P. brevicula sp. nov. is similar to P. brancuccii Shavrin, 2020 , recently described from northern Laos ( Shavrin 2020). The new species can be distinguished from the latter species by the smaller body, significantly finer ground sculpture of the forebody, the narrower basal part of the aedeagus and more complicated structure of the internal sac.

Distribution. Paraphloeostiba brevicula sp. nov. is known only from the type locality in Susu Mt., eastern part of Papua New Guinea.

Etymology. The specific epithet is the Latin adjective breviculus, - a, - um (small and short). It refers to the small body of the species.

Bionomics. The detailed bionomical data are unknown.

Figures

FIGURES 5–8. Paraphloeostiba breviuscula: 5—aedeagus, parameral view, 6—aedeagus, lateral view, 7—male abdominal tergite VIII, 8—male abdominal sternite VIII. Scale bars: 0.1 mm.