Myllaena cretica, Assing, 2018

Assing, Volker, 2018, On some Myllaena species in the East Mediterranean and Caucasus regions (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 50 (2), pp. 1015-1032 : 1023-1024

Myllaena cretica nov.sp. ( Figs 20-32 , Map 1 )

T y p e m a t e r i a l: Holotype ♂: "GR - Crete [61], WSW Ag. Nikolaos, Katharo plateau, 1110 m, stream, 35°08'14''N, 25°34'15''E, 28.III.2018, V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Myllaena cretica sp. n. det. V. Assing 2018" (cAss). Paratypes: 3♂♂, 6♀♀: same data as holotype (cAss) .

E t y m o l o g y: The specific epithet is an adjective derived from Crete.

D e s c r i p t i o n: Body length 3.3-3.7 mm; length of forebody 1.3-1.6 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 20 . Coloration: head and abdomen black; pronotum and elytra blackish-brown; legs dark-yellowish; antennae dark-brown, with antennomere I yellowish-brown.

Head weakly transverse, broadest behind eyes, wedge-shaped. Eyes approximately as long as postocular portion in dorsal view. Antenna ( Fig. 21 ) approximately 1.1 mm long; all antennomeres distinctly oblong.

Pronotum approximately 1.3 times as broad as long and 1.5 times as broad as head; posterior margin not distinctly sinuate.

Elytra approximately 0.75 times as long as pronotum; punctation extremely fine and dense, slightly more distinct than that of head and pronotum.

Abdomen: tergite VIII and sternite VIII with pronounced sexual dimorphism.

♂: posterior margin of tergite VIII ( Fig. 22 ) obtusely angled in the middle; posterior margin of sternite VIII convex ( Fig. 23 ); median lobe of aedeagus approximately 0.53 mm long and shaped as in Figs 24-26 .

♀: posterior margin of tergite VIII ( Fig. 27 ) angled in the middle, more so than in male; posterior margin of sternite VIII ( Figs 28-29 ) produced, somewhat truncate, in the middle weakly concave, with a conspicuous fringe of dense stout modified setae; spermatheca as in Figs 30-32.

C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s: Thisspeciesismostsimilarto M. lesbia ASSING, 2016 from Lesbos, not only in external characters, but also regarding the morphology of the aedeagus, suggesting that these species are closely related. They are distinguished, however, by the length of the elytra (M. lesbia: elytra 0.80-0.85 times as long as the pronotum), and especially by the completely different shapes of the female tergite VIII (M. lesbia: posterior margin acutely angled in the middle), of the female sternite VIII (M. lesbia: posterior margin strongly convex and without modified setae), and of the spermatheca. The aedeagus of M. cretica differs from that of M. lesbia only by the slightly less slender apex of the ventral process (lateral view), the shape of the base of the ventral process (more strongly curved in M. lesbia in lateral view), and by the shapes of the internal structures. For illustrations of M. lesbia see ASSING (2016).

D i s t r i b u t i o n a n d n a t u r a l h i s t o r y: The absence of records from other East Mediterranean regions suggests that Myllaena cretica is probably endemic to Crete. The type locality is situated in the Katharo plateau in the Dikti range, to the southwest of Agios Nikolaos, East Crete ( Map 1 ). The specimens were floated from gravel on the banks of a small stream surrounded by cultivated land at an altitude of 1110 m.

Figures

Map 1: Distributions of Myllaena graeca (based on revised records) (circles), M. mutabilis (triangles), and M. cretica (star).

Figs 20-28: Myllaena cretica: (20) habitus; (21) antenna; (22) male tergite VIII; (23) male sternite VIII; (24-26) median lobe of aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view; (27) female tergite VIII; (28) female sternite VIII. Scale bars: 20: 1.0 mm; 21-23, 27-28: 0.2 mm; 24-26: 0.1 mm.

Figs 29-32: Myllaena cretica: (29) posterior portion of female sternite VIII; (30-31) spermatheca. Scale bars: 0.1 mm.