Ontholestes yakuticus, Smetana & Shavrin, 2013

Smetana, Aleš & Shavrin, Alexey V., 2013, New species of the genus Ontholestes Ganglbauer, 1895 (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae) from Yakutia, Zootaxa 3721 (3), pp. 296-299 : 296-298

Ontholestes yakuticus, Smetana & Shavrin , new species

( Figs. 1–6 )

Ontholestes sp. : Shavrin et al. 2008: 91

Type locality. NE Yakutia, Cherskyi ridge, Ulakhan-Chistay Mt. , basin of Moma river, upper flow of Gyrbynya river, environs of mouth of Anchik stream 64°40'27''N 146°40'4''E, 1040 m. [Translation from Russian] .

Holotype: male: RUSSIA: “SV [NE] Yakutia, khr. [Mt.] Cherskogo, khr. [Mt.] Ulakhan-Chistay, bass. [basin] r. Moma, verkh. [upper flow] r. Gyrbynia, okr. ust’ia ruch. [environs of mouth of stream] Anchik, naled’, 1040 m n.u.m. [a.s.l.] [S.] Nogovtsyna 19.07.2003 ”. [Translation from Russian]. In the collection of Zoological Museum of Moscow University (Moscow, Russia ).

Paratypes: 2 males: RUSSIA: “NE Yakutia, khr. [Mt] Suntar-Khayata, verch. [upper flow] r. Setorym, prav. prit. [right influent] r. Vost. [East.] Khandyga, okr. ust’ia ruch. [environs of mouth of stream] Nekulyak, naled’ [frazil], Stepanov A.D. 13.07.[20]03”. [Translation from Russian]. In the collection of A. Shavrin (Daugavpils, Latvia) and A. Smetana (Ottawa, Canada) .

Description. Habitus as in Fig. 1 . Length 9.6–9.8 mm. Black; head, pronotum and elytra with dark metallic lustre, head and pronotum moderately shiny; elytra somewhat duller; pubescence of forebody inconspicuously golden, with traces of whitish hairs on lateral portion of each elytron; pubescence of abdominal tergites 3 and 4 in middle each with two patches of black tomentose pubescence, each patch bordered by some whitish hairs; tergite 5 with small patch of whitish hairs in middle of basal portion; tergite 6 with dark uniform pubescence except for a few whitish hairs in each basal corner; tergite 7 and 8 with wide, irregular basal band of whitish hair, otherwise with dark uniform pubescence. Maxillary and labial palpi pale piceous with bases of all segments paler; first three segments of antenna rufotestaceous (with dorsum of first segment darkened); following segments gradually becoming darker, outer segments piceous; legs with tibiae and tarsi rufotestaceous; all femora piceous.

Head with rounded quadrangular shape, with obtusely marked posterior angles, not dilated behind eyes, markedly wider than long (ratio 1.43); eyes large, moderately convex; tempora markedly shorter than eyes from above (ratio 0.47); dorsal surface of head densely, coarsely punctate; punctation becoming gradually somewhat finer and sparser anteriad, interspaces between punctures narrow, linear, without microsculpture, indistinct trace of impunctate midline on posterior half of head. Dorsal surface of neck with punctuation similar to that on head but finer. Antenna short, reaching anterior third of pronotum when reclined, segment 3 slightly longer than segment 2 (ratio 1.14), segment 4 longer than wide, following segments becoming gradually shorter, segments 7 to 10 wider than long, last segment obliquely truncate apically, shorter than two preceding segments combined. Pronotum about as long as wide, vaguely narrowed posteriad, with anterior corners obtusely angular, widely rounded posteriorly; disc with small, narrow impunctate “mirror” in front of posterior margin; punctation similar to that on head. Scutellum with black tomentose pubescence except for base and tip of apex. Elytra rather short, at suture about as long as, at sides longer than pronotum at midline (ratio 1.22), slightly widened posteriad, each obliquely truncate toward suture, punctation granulose, fine and dense. Wings fully developed. Abdomen with tergite 7 (fifth visible) bearing distinct whitish apical seam of palisade fringe; tergite 2 (anterior to first visible tergite) impunctate; punctation of remaining tergites very fine and dense, surface between punctures with excessively fine microsculpture of transverse striae.

Male. First four segments of front tarsus markedly dilated, sub-bilobed each densely covered by tenant setae ventrally; segment 2 wider than apex of tibia (ratio 1.28), segment 4 distinctly narrower than preceding segments. Abdominal sternite 7 not appreciably sinuate medioapically. Sternite 8 with moderately wide and deep, obtusely triangular medioapical emargination. Genital segment with tergite 10 narrowly triangular with narrowly arcuate apex ( Fig. 2 ); sternite 9 with quite short basal portion, deeply narrowly emarginate apically ( Fig. 3 ). Aedeagus ( Figs. 4–6 ) small, median lobe markedly constricted in middle portion ad then dilated in large, club-like apical portion with subtruncate apex; paramere short, narrow, largely detached from median lobe, with irregularly arcuate apex by far not reaching apex of median lobe, with 12 unequally long apical setae; internal sac as in Fig. 6 .

Female unknown.

Recognition and comments. Specimens of this species key out to O. haroldi (Eppelsheim, 1884) when using the key to species of Ontholestes by Smetana (1959), but the two species are not only dissimilar and apparently not at all related, but they are also widely separated geographically. Ontholestes haroldi is an European species distributed from France through Middle Europe eastward to Balkan Peninsula and Ukraine. Ontholestes yakuticus is significantly smaller and of markedly more slender body shape, the general body coloration is darker, the antennae are darker (rufostestacous with slightly darkened outer segments in O. haroldi ), all femora are piceous (only partially so in O. haroldi ) and the first four segments of male front tarsus are distinctly less widened than those of O. haroldi . The aedoeagus of O. haroldi differs from that of O. yakuticus , by the median lobe that is anteriorly markedly attenuated into relatively narrow apical portion.

Bionomics. Based on personal information of S. Nogovitsyna, the holotype was collected at an elevation of 1040 m near a glacier in a river valley, with Larix sibirica forest along the edges of this valley. The microhabitat was a small postglacier glade with Salix sp. , Betula sp. (dwarf form). Paratypes were collected near a glacier as well, but details are not available.

Geographical distribution. The new species is at present known only from the two mountain systems of North- Eastern Russia (Yakutia): Cherskiy Mts. (Ulakhan-Chistay) and Suntar-Khayata Mts.

Etymology. The specific epithet has been derived from the name of the republic where the specimens were collected: Yakutia (= republic of Sakha).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Ontholestes yakuticus sp. n. Habitus. Actual size 9.8 mm.

FIGURES 2–6. Ontholestes yakuticus sp. n. 2—tergite 10 of male genital segment (setation omitted), 3—sternite 9 of male gemital segment (setation omitted), 4—aedeagus, ventral view, 5—apex of paramere, 6—internal sac.