Anaulacaspis naevula ( ERICHSON, 1839 )

Assing, Volker, 2016, Revision of the Anaulacaspis species of the Palaearctic region (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 66 (2), pp. 201-255 : 235-236

Anaulacaspis naevula ( ERICHSON, 1839)

( Figs 93–101 , Map 4 )

Falagria naevula ERICHSON, 1839: 55 .

Falagria nilotica KOCH, 1936: 209 .

Myrmecopora (Ilyusa) elegans CAMERON, 1944: 52 ; preoccupied.

Anaulacaspis elegansides NEWTON, 2015: 10 ; replacement name; syn. n.

Type material examined: F. naevula : Lectotype ♂: “ Aegypt, Ehrbrg., Nr. 5299 / G. Fagel elig. 1968, Falagria naevula Erichson , Lectotype / naevula Er., XXXV. XLVII. Ehrb. / Anaulacaspis naevula (Erichson) , det. V. Assing 2016” ( MNB) . Paralectotypes: 1 ♂ [in poor condition: head and legs partly missing], 1 ♀ [antennae and most legs missing]: “ Aegypt, Ehrbrg., Nr. 5299 / Paralectotypus Falagria naevula Erichson, 1830 , labelled by MNB 2011” ( MNB) .

M. elegans : Holotype ♂: “Under fallen leaves in tomato field, Lyallpur , 22.6.1939, H. R. Ghani / Myrmecopora elegans Cam. , Type / Govt. Entomologist Punjab C13 / Pres. by Imp. Inst. Ent. B.M. 1940-119 / Type [round curator label] / Holotype Anaulacaspis elegans (Cameron) , det. V. Assing 1997 / Anaulacaspis naevula (Erichson) , det. V. Assing 2016” ( BMNH) . Paratype ♀: “In Karela field, students farm, Lyallpur, M.A. Ghani 13.6.39 / Govt. Entomologist Punjab ... C 13 / under dead leaves on moist soil / Myrmecopora elegans Cam. Cotype / elegans Cam. / M. Cameron. Bequest. B.M.1955-147. / Anaulacaspis klapperichi (Coiffait) , det. V. Assing 2016” ( BMNH) .

Comment: The original description of Falagria naevula is based on an unspecified number of syntypes from “Aegypto” (ERICHSON, 1830). FAGEL (1969) designated a male as the lectotype and placed Falagria nilotica KOCH, 1936 (type locality: Wadi Halfa; today in Sudan) in synonymy with F. naevula .

CAMERON (1944) described Myrmecopora elegans based on an unspecified number of type specimens from “Lyallpur. Under dead leaves on moist soil”. In stating “Type in British Museum (Nat. Hist.)” he designated a holotype. The male holotype and a female paratype were located in the Cameron collection at the BMNH. Both specimens had been studied by ASSING (1997), who moved this species from Myrmecopora to Anaulacaspis . The preoccupied name Anaulacaspis elegans ( CAMERON, 1944) was recently replaced with the nomen novum A. elegansides by NEWTON (2015). The paratype was studied prior to the holotype and had already been returned when the latter was found. Based on an examination of the paratype, A. elegansides was at first believed to be conspecific with A. klapperichi (hence the identification label). An examination of the holotype, however, revealed that A. elegansides is in fact conspecific with A. naevula .

Additional material examined: Iran: 7 ♂♂, 14 ♀♀ [mostly teneral], Hormozgan province, 9 km SW Hajiabad , 28°15'N, 55°51'E, 840 m, 22.IV.2006, leg. Frisch & Serri ( MNB, cAss) .

Saudi Arabia: 4 ♂♂, 1 ♀ [1 ♂ teneral], Al Urdiyah , Wadi Gonouna, 19°26'N, 41°36'E, 350 m, 12.V.2011, leg. Sharaf (cAss); 1 ♀, Wadi Qasi, 40 km from Sabia, 17.25°N, 42.97°E, 270 m, 12.XI.2012, leg. Sharaf (cAss) .

Sudan: 2 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀, bank of Nile river near Wadi Halfa, IV.1930, leg. Kock ( NHMW, cAss) .

Redescription: Body length 2.0– 2.5 mm; length of forebody 0.95–1.2 mm. Coloration: head yellowish-brown to brown; pronotum yellowish-red to reddish; elytra yellowish with a moderately extensive, diffusely delimited, and usually weakly pronounced medio-lateral infuscate spot; abdomen: segments III–IV yellowish to reddish-yellow, tergites V–VIII infuscate, often with the anterior and posterior, sometimes also the lateral margins more or less extensively yellowish to reddish-yellow; legs yellowish; antennae yellowish-brown to brown with the basal 2–4 antennomeres yellowish.

Head approximately 1.15 times as broad as long, with more or less pronounced sexual dimorphism. Eyes much longer than postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna 0.8–0.9 mm long; antennomeres IV weakly oblong, V weakly oblong or approximately as long as broad, VI approximately as long as broad or weakly transverse, VII–X of gradually increasing width and increasingly transverse, X approximately 1.5 times as broad as long.

Pronotum 1.05–1.15 times as broad as long and slightly narrower than head, with pronounced sexual dimorphism.

Elytra approximately as long as, or slightly shorter than, pronotum; punctation rather dense and fine. Hind wings fully developed.

Abdomen as broad as, or slightly narrower than, elytra; punctation dense and fine; interstices without microsculpture; posterior margin of tergite VIII ( Fig. 91 ) truncate to weakly convex, with moderately long and thin marginal setae.

♂: head with more or less distinct and more or less extensive median impression, dorsal surface anteriorly and laterally with distinct punctation; pronotum with pronounced, deep and broad median impression in posterior two-thirds, punctation dense, distinct, and somewhat asperate; posterior margin of sternite VIII ( Fig. 92 ) obtusely angled in the middle and with thin marginal setae; median lobe of aedeagus ( Figs 93–100 ) 0.32–0.37 mm long; ventral process of broadly triangular shape in ventral view, apex with or without small incision (ventral view).

♀: dorsal surface of head convex in cross-section and with very fine punctation; pronotum with shallow and rather small postero-median impression at most and with dense and fine punctation; posterior margin of sternite VIII ( Fig. 101 ) weakly concave in the middle.

Intraspecific variation: As is usually the case with widespread species, some characters are subject to pronounced variation. In the specimens from Saudi Arabia, the male head has a pronounced and deep median impression, and the aedeagus is at the low end of the size range (median lobe 0.32–0.33 mm long), where as in material seen from other regions the impression on the male head is shallow and more extensive, and the aedeagus is generally somewhat larger. Moreover, the ventral process of the aedeagus is apically weakly incised in ventral view in males from Iran and Pakistan, while it is simply acute in the type specimens of A. naevula and in specimens from Saudi Arabia.

Comparative notes: Based on the similar modifications of the male pronotum, the similar shapes of tergite and sternite VIII, as well as particularly on the similar morphology of the median lobe of the aedeagus, A. naevula is closely allied to A. desertorum and A. seclusa . The species is characterized by small body size, the coloration, a pronounced sexual dimorphism of the head and pronotum, and by the shape of the median lobe of the aedeagus. It additionally differs from the similarly pale-coloured and small A. persica and allied species by the completely different shape of tergite VIII (posteriorly without pronounced median process), as well as by the shape of the pronotum (less strongly tapering posteriorly).

Distribution and natural history: Since A. naevula has largely been misinterpreted in the past, nearly all literature records are erroneous. Confirmed records with specified localities are currently known from Sudan, Saudi Arabia, South Iran, and Pakistan ( Map 4 ). The examined non-type material was collected in wadis and on a river bank at altitudes of 270– 840 m.

Figures

Map 4: Distributions of Anaulacaspis desertorum (black circles), A. naevula (white circles), A. iberica (white stars), A. laevigata (white diamonds), A. gratilla (black diamonds), and A. excisa (black stars) in the West Palaearctic and Middle Asia, based on revised records. The question mark indicates the records without specified locality of A. gratilla from Iraq.

Figs 91–112:Anaulacaspsisnaevula(91–101;93–94:SaudiArabia;95–96:paralectotype;97–98: Iran;99–100:holotypeofA. elegansides), A. desertorum (102–107), and A. seclusa (108–112): male tergite VIII (91, 102, 108); male sternite VIII (92, 103, 109); median lobe of aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (93–100, 104–107, 110–111); female sternite VIII (101, 112). Scale bars: 0.1 mm.