Iniocyphus iheringi Raffray, 1912

Kurbatov, Sergey A. & Cuccodoro, Giulio, 2019, Notes on Iniocyphus iheringi Raffray, 1912 (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae), Zootaxa 4586 (1), pp. 171-179 : 177

Iniocyphus iheringi Raffray, 1912

( Figs. 1–23 )

Iniocyphus iheringi Raffray, 1912: 436 .

Iniocyphus jheringi ( Newton & Chandler 1989 : 50; Löbl 1994: 692; Chandler 2001: 375; Kurbatov et al. 2007: 592), incorrect subsequent spelling.

Type material. Lectotype, by present designation: Brazil, Sao Paulo, leg. von Jhering, male ( MNHN: coll. Raffray).

Description. Body ( Fig. 1 ) yellowish (single known specimen possibly teneral). Pubescence fairly uniform, slightly longer and denser on abdomen, consisting mostly of rather recumbent setae. Head slightly longer than wide (eyes omitted), frontovertexal area slightly paler than surrounding areas, bearing putative sexually dimorphic features; occipital area glabrous, sparsely punctate; temples as long as eyes in lateral view (at least in male); area with microtubercules extended anteriorly to ocular-mandibular carinae, and posteriorly to temples (where they are visible in dorsal view). Antennae ( Fig. 7 ) with all antennomeres elongate. Pronotum more heavily punctate than distal part of head, except area posteriorly antebasal sulcus densely covered with microtubercules. Elytra with punctation similar to that on pronotal disc.

Male. Head with frontovertexal area paler than nearby teguments, slightly swollen and glabrous, the latter area bordered above eyes with shallow irregular longitudinal sulcus; eyes with 20–22 facets; mesotrochanters bearing dense tuft of setae ( Fig. 15 ). Aedeagus as in Fig, 16; abdominal sternite VIII as in Fig. 22 .

Female: Unknown.

Distribution and natural history. The only available information on the distribution and natural history of I. iheringi is that it was collected in “ São Paulo ”, Brazil. However, it is not clear if this type locality refers to the city or the eponymous state.

Nomenclatural notes. Spelling of the species epithet. Raffray (1912: 436) explicitly dedicated the species iheringi to the collector of the holotype “(…) M. von Jhering, directeur du Musée Paulista à São Paolo (…)”. This spelling of the epithet was used by Raffray (1924: 144) and Park (1942: 277), until it appeared as jheringi in Newton & Chandler’s World Catalog of the genera of Pselaphinae (1989: 50), which new spelling was adopted subsequently ( Chandler 2001: 375; Kurbatov et al. 2007: 592; Löbl 1994: 692). However, considering that the epithet iheringi was correctly derived by Raffray from "Ihering", which is the Latinized form of "Jhering" used even by von Jhering himself (see labels Fig. 2 ), under ICZN (1999) Article 32.5.1.1 the original spelling has to be maintained. And jheringi is an incorrect subsequent spelling as its first use by Newton & Chandler (1989) cannot be interpreted as demonstrably intentional ( ICZN, 1999: Article 33.2.1).

Status of the type. In the original description the use of “type” in the singular, and the dedication “(…) C’est un bel et curieux insecte que je suis heureux de dédier à M. von Jhering (…) qui l’a découvert (…)” [= “(…) It is a nice and interesting insect that I am glad to dedicate to M. von Jhering (…) who discovered it (…)”] strongly suggest that Raffray had just one specimen at hand. However in the same article Raffray (1912: 426) used both the singular and the plural of “type” for a species described in both sexes, and we miss an explicit statement that the specimen was indeed unique as he did elsewhere in the text, such as “(…) un seul ♂ (…)” [= “(…) only one ♂ (…)”] and “(…) Cette espèce, dont je ne connais malheureusement qu'une ♀ (…)” [= “(…) This species, of which I unfortunately know only one ♀ (…)”]. So, although very unlikely, the presence somewhere of a second “type” of I. iheringi cannot be totally excluded. The specimen treated above is thus technically a syntype ( ICZN, 1999: Article 73.1.2) and, in the interest of stability of nomenclature, we here designate it as the lectotype, and label it accordingly.

Figures

FIGURES 1–2. Iniocyphus iheringi Raffray, 1912. lectotype. (1) Habitus habitus. (2) Labels. Scale bar for (1).

FIGURES 3–6. Iniocyphus iheringi Raffray, 1912. lectotype. (3–4) Head (mouthparts removed) and pronotum, in (3) dorsal and (4) ventral views. (5–6) Head (mouthparts removed) and thorax, in (5) lateral and (6) ventral views. Scale bar 200 µm for (3–4), and scale bar 1 mm for (5–6). Abbreviations: as—antebasal sulcus, gf—gular fovea, laf—lateral antebasal fovea, lapclongitudinal anapleural carina, lmvf—lateral mesoventral fovea, maf—median antebasal fovea, mmvf—median mesoventral fovea, pc—paranotal carina. vf—vertexal fovea.

FIGURES 7–15. Iniocyphus iheringi Raffray, 1912. lectotype. (7) antenna. (8–11) abdomen (apical segment removed), in (8– 11) dorsal, (10) lateral and (11) ventral views. and pronotum, in (3) dorsal and (4) ventral views. (12) Anterior tibia and tarsus. (13) Middle tibia and tarsus. (14) Posterior tibia and tarsi. (15) Thorax, in ventrofrontal view. Abbreviations: blfIVbasolateral fovea of tergite IV, blfV—basolateral fovea of tergite V, blfVI—basolateral fovea of tergite VI.

FIGURES 16–23. Iniocyphus iheringi Raffray, 1912. lectotype. (16) Aedeagus (internal sac everted), in ventral view. (17) Apical middle tarsus. (18) Left mandible. (19) Right mandible. (20) Mentum. (21) Labrum. (22) Abdominal sternite VIII. (23) Right maxillary palpus ventral views. Scale bars: vertical for (16–21, 23), and horizontal for (22).