Aphodius (Melinopterus) gissaricus Akhmetova & Frolov

Akhmetova, Lilia & Frolov, Andrey, 2012, A new scarab species, Aphodius gissaricus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Aphodiinae), from the Pamir-Alay Mountains in Tajikistan, Zootaxa 3159, pp. 65-68 : 65-68

Aphodius (Melinopterus) gissaricus Akhmetova & Frolov , new species

Figs 1–3, 5, 7 , 9

Type material. Holotype, male with the label “ Tadzhikistan 1984 Hissar mts., ca 3300m ANZOB pass, 8.8 David Král lgt.” ( NMPC). Eleven paratypes: 7 males with the same data as the holotype (5 specimens – NMPC, 2 specimens – ZIN); 3 males, “Asia c. Tadjikistan USSR 5.4.1986 Alaj – Romit 2000 m T. Růžička lgt.” (2 specimens – NMPC, 1 specimen – ZIN); 1 male, “ Tadzhikistan, yugo-zap. sklon khr. Aktau [south-western slope of Aktau Ridge], 2000 m. 13.IV.1984 T. N. Vereschagina” [in Cyrillic letters] ( ZIN).

Description. Holotype, male ( Fig. 1 ). Body length 5.0 mm. Head shiny, with dark brown disc and pale brown anterior margin and sides of clypeus, densely punctate (punctures separated by approximately their diameter). Clypeus with feeble sinuation anteriorly, rounded laterally. Genae rounded, weakly separated from lateral margin of clypeus, distinctly protruding past eyes, with a few long setae. Frontoclypeal suture visible as fine line, interrupted medially. Head disc without tubercles. Eye approximately as wide as distance between eye and gula in ventral view.

Pronotum wider than elytral base, shiny, pale brown on disc and pale yellow laterally. Pronotum apical margin without border, lateral margins and base with thin border. Disc with sparse, fine punctation (punctures separated by 1–4 times their diameter). Basal angles of pronotum rounded; sides with sparse, short, yellow setae.

Scutellum narrow, triangular, shiny, pale brown with brown lateral sides.

Elytra pale yellow with brown suture. Humeral teeth absent. Elytral intervals feebly convex, finely and sparsely punctate. Sides and apices of elytra without setae. Striae deep, punctures on striae larger than width of striae.

Ventral side of body pale yellow except abdomen brown. Legs pale yellow. Perimeter of metasternal disc with dense, long, pale setae.

Outer teeth of protibia long and slender. Spur of protibia slightly curved downward and rounded apically. Lower spur of mesotibia acute apically, more than half as long as upper spur. Metatarsomere 1 as long as upper spur of metatibia and metatarsomeres 2–3 combined. Adjacent apical setae of mesotibiae and metatibiae distinctly unequal in length ( Fig. 7 ).

Parameres feebly curved, tapering and slightly acute apically.

Female. Unknown.

Variability. Body length of the paratypes varies from 3.5–5.0 mm. Specimens from Romit are darker than those from Anzob Pass and Aktau Mountains. The coloration of elytra varies: one paratype has a dark, obscure elytral pattern ( Fig. 3 ), while the holotype has almost uniformly pale yellow elytra ( Fig. 1 ). An elytral pattern with a few longitudinal maculae (similar to that in A. scuticollis , Fig. 4 ) is found in most of other paratypes, but the maculae are only slightly darker than the background and the pattern is feebly distinct. The sides and apices of the elytra of a few paratypes bear short, sparse, pale setae.

Diagnosis. The species is similar to A. scuticollis Semenov, 1898 ( Figs. 4, 6, 8 ), but differs from it in lacking acute process on the apex of metatibia in males ( Fig. 7, 8 ), in having less convex body, and in having slightly longer and more slender parameres with less curved apices ( Fig. 5, 6 ).

In the key to Palaearctic Aphodius ( Balthasar 1964) , A. gissaricus will key to the couplet with A. (Melinopterus) stolzi Reitter but can be easily separated from it by slender and acute apices of parameres. These two species also have widely separated ranges: A. stolzi occurs in southern Europe.

Distribution. Aphodus gissaricus is currently known from three localities in the Pamir-Alay mountain system: two in Gissar Range (Anzob Pass and Romit) and one in Aktau Mountains. Aphodius scuticollis has a wider distribution from the Kopet-Dag Range on the southern border of Turkmenistan to South Siberia ( Fig 9 ).

Etymology. The name of the new species is derived from Gissar Mountains where the larger part of type series was collected.

Figures

FIGURE 9. Distribution map of Aphodius gissaricus (▲) and A. scuticollis (■).

FIGURES 1 – 8. Aphodius. A. gissaricus, holotype, male (1, 7); paratype, male (2, 3, 5); A. scuticollis male (4, 6, 8). Figs. 1, 3, 4 — body in dorsal view; 2 — body in ventral view; 5, 6, — aedeagus in dorsal and lateral view; 7, 8 — apices of metatibiae.