Stenichnodes (s. str.) error, Se, 2019

Se, Paweł Jałoszyński, 2019, A new African species of Stenichnodes (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 4560 (3), pp. 579-582 : 580-582

Stenichnodes (s. str.) error sp. n. ( Figs 1–6 )

Type material. Holotype: KENYA: ♂, four labels: " KENYA: Tana River / Lac Shakababo, / près Ngao , 28.X.77 / Mahnert, Perret" [white, printed], " ♀ " [white with black margins, printed], "Parastenichnaphes / cf. sumatrensis m." / det. H.Franz " [white, handwritten and printed], " STENICHNODES (s. str.) / error m. / P. Jałoszyński, 2019 / HOLOTYPUS " [red, printed] ( NHMW).

Diagnosis. Aedeagus in ventral view with its distal half parallel-sided; antennomere X about as long as broad.

Description. Body of male ( Fig. 1 ) elongate and slender, strongly convex, yellowish brown, covered with yellowish vestiture; BL 0.78 mm.

Head broadest at large, strongly convex and relatively coarsely faceted eyes, HL 0.13 mm, HW 0.18 mm; tempora vestigial; vertex weakly convex and anteriorly confluent with frons; frons flattened, its anterior portion in front of eyes subtriangular; supraantennal tubercles indistinct. Each eye bean-shaped, transverse in relation to the long body axis, with narrow posteromedian emargination. Vertex and frons with shallow, diffuse, inconspicuous punctures; setae fine, nearly recumbent. Antennae slender, AnL 0.35 mm; antennomeres I–II strongly elongate, III slightly transverse, IV–X each about as long as broad, XI about 1.3 × as long as broad, much shorter than IX and X combined, with rounded apex.

Pronotum bell-shaped, with sides parallel between base and anterior third; PL 0.20 mm, PW 0.20 mm. Anterior margin and sides in anterior third rounded; lateral margins in posterior 2/3 nearly straight; posterior margin weakly arcuate; posterior pronotal corners obtuse-angled and blunt; base with a shallow but distinct transverse groove, at each side deepened to form one pair of small and diffuse lateral pits. Punctures on pronotal disc inconspicuous, fine and sparse; setae sparse, short and recumbent to suberect.

Elytra more convex than pronotum, oval, broadest distinctly in front of middle; EL 0.45 mm, EW 0.33 mm, EI 1.38; humeral calli distinct, elongate, basal impression on each elytron indistinct; apices separately rounded. Punctures on elytra slightly more distinct than those on pronotum, fine, shallow and inconspicuous; setae sparse, short, suberect. Hind wings well developed.

Legs long and slender; unmodified.

Aedeagus ( Figs 2–5 ) elongate and with thick ventral and dorsal walls, in ventral view median lobe parallel-sided in distal half, with narrow base, apex truncate and asymmetrically emarginate; AeL 0.25 mm.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution. South-eastern Kenya, eastern part of Tana River County ( Fig 6 ).

Etymology. The new species is named error because the male holotype specimen has been identified by Herbert Franz, the author of Stenichnodes, not only as Parastenichnaphes cf. sumatrensis, but also as a female.

Remarks. Stenichnodes error is externally similar to S. saheliensis ; only the antennae are slightly longer in relation to the body, distal antennomeres longer, and the pronotum has slightly different proportions. However, the aedeagi differ

markedly; that of S. saheliensis (illustrated by Jałoszyński 2015a) being much stouter, in ventral view fusiform, broadest near middle, whereas that of S. error has the distal half of the median lobe parallel-sided.

Figures

FIGURES 1–6. Stenichnodes s. str. Dorsal habitus (1) and aedeagus in ventral (2, 4) and lateral (3, 5) views of Stenichnodes error sp. n.; distribution of Stenichnodes s. str. species (6).