Domene (Macromene) praefigens, Assing, 2015

Assing, Volker, 2015, Three new species of Domene from China (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 65 (1), pp. 31-39 : 34-36

Domene (Macromene) praefigens spec. nov.

( Figs 13–24 , Map 1 )

Type material: Holotype : “ CHINA [9b] – Yunnan, mt. W Xundian, 2300 m mixed for., 25°34'58"N, 103°08'42"E, sifted 16.VIII.2014, V. Assing / Holotypus  Domene praefigens spec. nov., det. V. Assing 2014 ” (cAss).

Paratypes: 5 , 8  [partly slightly teneral]: same data as holotype (cAss, Fel); 3 , 2 : same data as holotype, but leg. M. Schülke (cSch, cFel); 1 : “ CHINA: Yunnan, mt. W Xundian, 25°34'58"N, 103°08'42"E, 2300 m, mixed forest with alder, pine & shrubs, litter, twigs, roots sifted, 15.VIII.2014, Schülke [CH14- 09]” (cSch); 1  [teneral]: “ CHINA [4] – Yunnan, NE Kunming, 25°09'07"N, 102°53'46"E, 2280 m, sec. pine for. with alder, 11.VIII.2014, V. Assing” (cAss); 1 : “ CHINA: Yunnan, NE Kunming, 25°08°35"N, 102°53'49"E, 2320 m, mixed forest with alder, oak, and pine, litter and mushrooms sifted, 13.VIII.2014, Schülke [CH14-06]” (cSch); 1 : “ CHINA [12] – Yunnan, mt. WNW Wuding, mix. forest, 25°38'45"N, 102°06'55"E, 2390 m, 18.VIII.2014, V. Assing” (cAss); 1 : same data, but leg. Schülke (cSch); 1  [teneral, damaged]: “China, Yunnan, Kunming, X.1986, G. de Rougemont ” (cRou) .

Etymology: The specific epithet is the present participle of the Latin verb praefigere (to pierce) and alludes to the acute ventral process of the aedeagus.

Description: Body length 10.0–12.0 mm; length of forebody 5.6–6.0 mm. Forebody as in Fig. 13 . Coloration: body black, except for the reddish posterior margins of the abdominal segments VII and VIII; legs with the profemora blackish, the meso- and metafemora distinctly bicoloured (basal half yellowish, apical half blackish), the protibiae reddish-brown to dark-brown, the meso- and metatibiae yellowish to yellowish-brown, the protarsi dark-brown, and the meso- and metatarsi reddish; antennae dark-brown, with the apical four antennomeres often paler brown.

Head ( Fig. 14 ) more or less distinctly oblong, 1.06– 1.11 times as long as broad; punctation rather fine, distinctly umbilicate, and very dense, rendering the surface rather matt. Eyes approximately half as long as temples from posterior margin of eye to posterior constriction in dorsal view, or slightly longer. Antenna ( Fig. 15 ) 3.6–3.9 mm long and moderately slender.

Pronotum ( Fig. 16 ) slender, 1.22–1.25 times as long as broad and approximately as broad as head, widest anteriorly and weakly tapering posteriad; punctation similar to that of head; midline with or without short and very narrow rudiment of a glossy line posteriorly.

Elytra ( Fig. 17 ) 0.90–0.98 times as long as pronotum; disc with weakly pronounced, narrow and long lateral ridges and with rudiments of such ridges anteriorly, near scutellum with a weak elevation, without distinct impressions; suture elevated; macropunctation coarse, irregular; interstices with irregular micropunctation. Hind wings present. Protarsomeres I–IV with weakly pronounced sexual dimorphism.

Abdomen narrower than elytra; punctation extremely fine and dense; anterior impressions of tergites III–VI coarsely and somewhat rugosely sculptured; interstices with distinct microsculpture; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe; tergite VIII with posterior margin obtusely angled or convex in the middle.

: protarsomeres I–IV moderately strongly dilated; sternite VII ( Fig. 18 ) strongly tranverse, approximately twice as broad as long (length measured along the middle), with pronounced and extensive median impression, this impression with numerous strongly modified, short and stout black setae posteriorly, posterior margin broadly and deeply concave; sternite VIII ( Fig. 19 ) distinctly transverse and with pronounced oblong postero-median impression, in lateral and anterior portions of this impression and on either side of the posterior excision with numerous strongly modified, short and stout black setae; posterior excision somewhat U-shaped, approximately 0.2 times as deep as length of sternite; aedeagus ( Figs 20–23 ) approximately 1.6 mm long; ventral process ventrally sharply keeled and apically acute; dorsal plate with apical portion distinctly sclerotized, basally broad and apically narrowly convex, and with basal portion weakly sclerotized and short; internal sac with dark membranous apical structures and with a large dark broadly U-shaped basal sclerite.

: protarsomeres I–IV distinctly dilated, but slightly less so than in male; sternite VIII ( Fig. 24 ) approximately as long as broad and with broadly convex posterior margin; tergite IX with moderately long and apically acute postero-lateral processes; tergite X flat and slightly longer than antero-median portion of tergite IX.

Comparative notes: In external and sexual characters, D. praefigens is most similar to D. cuspidata FELDMANN & PENG, 2014 , a species recorded from Shaanxi, Gansu, and Sichuan ( Map 1 ), from which it differs by the coloration ( D. cuspidata : humeral angles of the elytra with a reddish spot; legs uniformly yellowish to reddish), by the more deeply and broadly concave posterior margin of the male sternite VII, by the shape and chaetotaxy of the male sternite VII ( D. cuspidata : posterior excision distinctly less deep and broadly V-shaped; median portion of posteromedian impression more narrowly without setae), by the larger aedeagus with a more slender ventral process ( D. cuspidata : aedeagus approximately 1.4 mm long), by the shape of the dorsal plate in lateral view, and by the less strongly convex posterior margin of the female sternite VIII. For illustrations of D. cuspidata see FELDMANN et al. (2014).

Distribution and natural history: The species was collected in several localities in the region to the north, northeast, and northwest of Kunming, eastern Yunnan ( Map 1 ). The specimens were sifted from litter, particularly from deep litter layers partly under heaps of dead branches, in mixed forests and in a secondary pine forest with scattered alder at altitudes of 2280–2390 m. Some of the paratypes are slightly to distinctly teneral.

Figures

Map 1: Distributions ofthe namedDomenespecies inChinaandTaiwan (newspecies:blacksymbols),basedon literature(FELDMANN et al. 2014) and examined records: D. cuspidata (white circles); D. immarginata (white squares); D. praefigens (black circles); D. affimbriata (black square); D. emeiana (black star); other species pooled (white diamonds). For the individual distributions of the pooled species see ASSING & FELDMANN (2014) and FELDMANN et al. (2014).

Figs 13–24: Domene praefigens spec. nov.: forebody (13); head (14); antenna (15); pronotum (16); elytra (17); male sternite VII (18); male sternite VIII (19); aedeagus in lateral view (20); aedeagus in dry preparation in lateral, in ventral, and in dorsal view (21–23); female sternite VIII (24). Scale bars: 1.0 mm.