Acrolocha pliginskii Bernhauer, 1912

Shavrin, Alexey V. & Khachikov, Eduard A., 2019, On some species of the genus Acrolocha Thomson, 1858 of the Western Palaearctic Region (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Omaliinae: Omaliini), Zootaxa 4576 (2), pp. 347-356 : 352-355

Acrolocha pliginskii Bernhauer, 1912

( Figs. 3 , 6 ¯8)

Acrolocha pliginskii Bernhauer, 1912: 259 Acrolocha pliginskii: Pliginskiy 1928: 43 ; Scheerpeltz 1937: 123; Palm 1948: 66; Steel 1957: 164; Lohse 1964: 37; Tóth 1976a: 88, 1976b: 115, 1982: 50; Zanetti 1979: 548, 1987: 165, 2012: 100; Vorst 2002: 165

Type material examined. Lectotype (here desiganted) of Acrolocha pliginskii Bernhauer, 1912 ♂: ‘ Sebastopol, Krim. | xyт. Дeлaгapдa [vill. Delagarda] | 14.9.[19]11. [handwritten] W. Pliginskiy.’ <rectangular label, printed>, ‘ Pliginskii Bh | Typus’ <light brown rectangular label, handwritten>, ‘Chicago NHMus | M.Bernhauer | Collection’ <rectangular label, printed>, ‘ SYNTYPE | teste D.J.Clarke2014 | GDI Imaging Project’ <violet rectangular label, printed>, ‘Photographed | Kelsey Keaton 2014 | Emu Catalog’ <blue rectangular label, printed>, ‘[FMNH barcode at left side of label] FMNHINS | 2819307 | FIELD MUSEUM’ <rectangular label, printed>, ‘ LECTOTYPE | Acrolocha | pliginskii Bernhauer, 1912 | Shavrin A.V. des. 2019’ <red rectangular label, printed> (FMNH).

Paralectotypes: 5 ♂♂ [Two specimens were dissected; a plastic card with a preparation of aedeagus in Canadian balsam for each male were made and pinned under the card with beetle], 5 ♀♀: ‘ Sebastopol. Tauria | 12.10.[19]11. [handwritten] V. Pliginski. ’ <rectangular label, printed>, ‘ Sebastopol, Krim. | xyт. Дeлaгapдa. Кapaбycи [vill. Delagarda. Karabusi] | c[?] 4.9.[19]11. W. Pliginskiy. ’ <rectangular label, printed>, ‘ Acrolocha pliginskii Bh. Гycapoв [Gusarov] 1 988’ <rectangular label, handwritten> ( ZIN) ; 1 ♂, 1 ♀: ‘ Sebastobol, Krym | xyт. Дeлaгapдa [vill. Delagarda] 14.9.[19]11. W. Pliginskiy’ <rectangular label, printed>, ‘ Acrolocha pliginskii Bh. ’ <rectangular lebel, printed>, ‘ Bernhauer d.’ <rectangular label, printed>, ‘Typ.’ <rectangular label, printed>, ‘Typ.’ <rectangular label, printed>, ‘ Acrolocha pliginskii Bh. syntypi Гycapoв [Gusarov] 1988’ <red label, handwritten> ( ZIN) .

Additional material. SWEDEN: 1 ♂: ‘Öl[and]. Vickleby 17.9.1946 Håkan Lindb[erg].’ (HNHM); UKRAINE: 1 ♂: ‘Кaмeнeц-Пoдoльc[кий] [Kamianets-Podilskyi] Пoд[oльcкaя]. г[yбepния]. [Podolian Governorate] 21.iii.09 B. и И. Якyбoвcкий [V. and I. Yakubovskiy]’ (ZIN); 15 specimens, without geographic labels: ‘ Acrolocha pliginskii Brnh. ’, ‘Cotyp.’, ‘Bernhauer d.’, ‘ Acrolocha pliginskii syntypes Гycapoв [Gusarov] 1988’ (ZIN); 1 ♂: ‘ Sebastopol Krim 29.9. 0 7 W. Pliginski’, ‘ Acrolocha pliginskii’, ‘Coll. Stenius’ (HNHM); 10 spec.: ‘ Sebastopol Tauria Pliginski’ (ZIN); 3 specimens: ‘ Sebastopol Tauria Цикepмaн [Tsikerman] V. Pliginski’ (ZIN); 2 ♀♀: ‘ Sebastopol Krim W. Pliginski’, ‘ Acrolocha | pliginsky [sic] Bernh. | W. Pliginskiy det.’, ‘ Acrolocha pliginskii Bh. Gusarov det. 1988’ (ZIN); 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀: environs of Kerch. 0 7.06.2015. I. Shokhin (CK); RUSSIA: ROSTOV AREA: 1 ♀: Razdorskaya Station. 25.04.2009. E.A. Khachikov (CK); KRASNODAR AREA: 1 ♀: 1.5 км N Betta. Forest, in mushrooms. 19.04.1995. A. Solodovnikov (ZMUC); 1 ♂: same data. 22.04.1995. Meadow, under stones. 22.04.1995 (ZMUC); In addition, we restudied 17 ♂♂ and 22 ♀♀ from Rostov Area (CS, CK), labels data of which have been published by Khachikov (2017).

Remarks. Acrolocha pliginskii was described by Bernhauer (1912) based on an unspecified number of syntypes («…in wenigen Stücken») from Crimea. Pliginskiy (1928) noted the large quantity of specimens, collected by him in cow dung in September and November 1911 in environs of Sevastopol. These specimens are now deposited in the main collection of ZIN. One male is deposited in the collection of M. Bernhauer in FMNH, with additional handwritten label ‘ Pliginskii Bh | Typus’ (see above). This male is designated here as the lectotype in order to fix the identity of the name. Fifteen specimens hypothetically related to the type series with additional labels ‘Cotyp.’ were not regarded as types here (see the Material section).

The aedeagus of A. pliginskii were figured by several authors: Palm (1948: 64, Fig. 85), Steel (1957: 162, Figs. 25, 28), Tóth (1976a: 86, Fig. 4 ; 1982: 49, Fig. 24A) and Zanetti (1979: 550, Fig. 2 ; 1987: 164, Fig. 34h; 2012: 102, Fig. 50b). An insignificant interspecific variability was observed in the general shape of the aedeagus, its apical portion and apical part of the median lobe which can be somewhat narrow ( Fig. 6 ) to relatively widely rounded ( Fig. 8 ), in the place of location of four elongate sclerotized structures of the internal sac and in different angle between apical auriculate processes ( Figs. 6, 8 ). Habitus as in Fig. 3 ; outline of the forebody as in Steel (1957: 162, Fig. 22). Apical abdominal sternites of male as in Palm (1948: 64, Fig. 85). Female abdominal tergite VIII as in Vorst (2002: 165, Fig. 1 (cited as ‘tergite VI [sic!]’)). Female genital segment as in Vorst (2002: 165, Fig. 3 ).

The species is widely and sporadically distributed in the Palaearctic Region from the British Isles to Ural ( Schülke & Smetana 2015).

FIGURES 15–19. Aedeagus of Acrolocha caucasica Tóth, 1976 (15—? holotype, 16–17—? paratype, 18–19—Karachay- Cherkessia): 15–18—parameral view (outline of internal sac shown as point line), 19—lateral view. Scale bar: 0.1 mm. Acknowledgements

We thank A.V. Gontarenko (Odessa, Ukraine), Gy. Makranczy (Budapest, Hungary), J. Muona (Helsinki, Finland), A.S. Prosvirov (Moscow, Russia), A.B. Ryvkin (Moscow, Russia), A.Yu. Solodovnikov (Copenhagen, Denmark), M.K. Thayer (Chicago, USA) and M.G. Volkovitch & S.V. Andreeva (St. Petersburg, Russia) for making Acrolocha material under their care available for our study. We grateful to D.G. Kasatkin (Rostov-on-Don) for help with the preparation of the habitus photograph of A. caucasica . Special thanks are extended Gy. Makranczy for the valuable information about types of A. caucasica, J.J. Shaw (Copenhagen) for correction of the English text of the manuscript and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions.

Figures

FIGURES 1–3. Habitus of Acrolocha: 1—A. amabilis (Heer, 1841) (Crimea), 2—A. caucasica Tóth, 1976 (Karachay- Cherkessia), 3—A. pliginskii Bernhauer, 1912 (Rostov Area). Scale bar: 1.0 mm.

FIGURES 4–8. Aedeagus of Acrolocha (4–5: A. amabilis (Heer, 1841), Karachay-Cherkessia; 6–8: A. pliginskii Bernhauer, 1912 (6–7—type locality. 8—Rostov Area): 4, 6, 8—parameral view, 5, 7—lateral view. Scale bar: 0.1 mm.