Eutheia laolongiana, Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2013

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2013, Three new species of Eutheiini (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae) from China, Zootaxa 3609 (5), pp. 495-503 : 496-497

Eutheia laolongiana sp. n.

( Figs. 1–3 , 12 )

Type material. Holotype: CHINA (Gansu Prov.): ♂, two labels: " CHINA: S-Gansu [ CH 12-12] / W-Qinling Shan, 128 km NW Longnan / Lazikou pass, S-side, Laolong valley / 34°08'14''N, 103°51'57''E, 2300 m, / S-slope with pine and spruce forest, litter sifted, 3.VIII.2012, M. Schülke" [white, printed]; " EUTHEIA \ laolongiana m. \ det. P. Jałoszyński, '12 \ HOLOTYPUS " [red, printed] (MNHW).

Diagnosis. Body large, broad and relatively convex; entire dorsum finely, but distinctly and densely punctate, with pronotal punctation gradually becoming finer and sparser towards anterior and lateral pronotal margins; aedeagus with complex apical structures, with a pair of long sub-apical lateral projections and large apical lateral lobes.

Description. BL 1.63 mm. Body of male ( Fig. 1 ) moderately convex, slender, dark brown with slightly darker head, covered with light brown vestiture.

Head broadest, in dorsal view, at strongly elongate and large convex eyes, HL 0.20 mm, HW 0.30 mm; vertex and frons confluent and weakly convex; supraantennal tubercles not marked. Punctures on head dorsum distinct, sharply marked and dense, of various diameters and unevenly distributed, separated by spaces 0.5–3 × as wide as puncture diameters; setae short, sparse and suberect. Antennae slender and gradually thickened distally, AnL 0.63 mm, antennomere I nearly 3 × as long as broad; II much shorter and slightly narrower than I, nearly twice as long as broad; III slightly transverse; IV–VII each slightly elongate; VIII slightly smaller than VII, about as long as broad; IX–X each slightly transverse; XI about twice as long as broad.

Pronotum subtrapezoidal, broadest between middle and posterior third; PL 0.38 mm, PW 0.45 mm; anterior and lateral margins broadly and evenly rounded; lateral margins indistinctly convergent towards obtuse hind angles; posterior margin shallowly bisinuate; pronotal base with well-defined and nearly circular median ante-basal pit and two lateral pairs of larger, irregular and diffused pits. Punctures on pronotal disc distinct but small, sharply marked, in middle separated by spaces as wide as 1–2 × puncture diameters, punctures gradually reducing in diameter and depth and becoming sparser towards anterior and lateral margins of pronotum. Setae short, sparse and suberect.

Elytra more convex than pronotum, oval, broadest distinctly anterior to middle; EL 0.80 mm, EW 0.63 mm, EI 1.28; humeral calli well-marked, elongate. Punctures on median part of elytra slightly smaller and distinctly shallower than those in middle of pronotum, separated by spaces subequal to puncture diameters, punctures gradually becoming finer towards lateral and posterior elytral margins; setae similar to those on pronotum. Hind wings well developed.

Legs moderately long and slender, non-modified.

Aedeagus ( Figs. 2–3 ) moderately slender; AeL 0.41 mm; in ventral view apical part of median lobe distinctly demarcated from bulbous basal part by deep lateral constriction, sub-apical region with a pair of long lateral projections each bearing two apical setae, median apical part of median lobe (columella) with large lateral lobes strongly projecting laterally and distally, apex of columella with median notch; basal part of median lobe strongly elongate and with ventral margin of membranous area broadly and deeply emarginated; parameres short, not reaching apex of median lobe, each with three apical setae.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution. China, Gansu Prov. ( Fig. 12 ).

Etymology. After the type locality, Laolong Valley.

Remarks. Species of Eutheia are extremely uniform in the external morphology and although some differences can be seen in the proportions of body parts, pigmentation, sculpture of dorsum or proportions of antennomeres, species diagnoses are primarily based on genital structures. The aedeagus in Eutheia shows far larger diversity than any external characters and often externally nearly identical species have clearly different aedeagi (e.g., Jałoszyński 2011). Eutheia laolongiana , a large and relatively stout species externally highly similar to previously known Chinese and Taiwanese congeners, has one of the most complex aedeagus within the genus, and clearly belongs to a group of East Palaearctic species with more or less bifurcate apex and variously developed lateral apical or sub-apical lobes. This group comprises E. horii Jałoszyński, 2004 ( Japan) , E. rufa Jałoszyński, 2004 ( Japan) , E. yoshidai Hoshina, 2007 ( Japan) , E. puetzi Jałoszyński, 2008 a ( China), E. gramme Jałoszyński, 2008 b ( Taiwan), E. klapperichi Franz, 1985 ( Taiwan) , E. latissima Jałoszyński, 2008 b ( Taiwan), E. simillima Franz, 1985 ( Taiwan) and E. taiwanensis Franz, 1985 ( Taiwan) . All Western Palaearctic and all other Eastern Palaearctic species have the apical part of median lobe simple, with rounded or distally projected apical margin, without large lateral lobes or with only slightly expanded lateral margins in the apical or sub-apical region, forming small, usually angulate lobes. An interesting exception is E. hariola Kurbatov, 1991 from the Russian Far East (Primorie), which has the apex of median lobe slightly projecting distally in middle, but its lateral parts are strongly expanded laterally and forming large, rounded lobes. Interestingly, this is also the only species other than E. laolongiana with sub-apical lateral projections bearing apical setae. Some other species of Eutheia also have the lateral sensory setae in the sub-apical region of the median lobe, e.g., E. linearis Mulsant & Rey, 1861 (Europe and W Siberia), E. exortiva Kurbatov, 1990 (Primorie) and some undescribed species from Tunisia and Texas (Jałoszyński, unpublished data), but the setae are inserted on not expanded or slightly expanded, rounded or angulate lateral margins of median lobe and not on distinct projections. The projections in E. hariola are much shorter than those in E. laolongiana .

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 3. Eutheia laolongiana sp. n., habitus of holotype male (1); aedeagus in ventral (2) and lateral (3) views. Abbreviations: all, apical lateral lobe; clm, columella; ma, membranous area; slp, sub-apical lateral projection.

FIGURES 12 – 14. Distribution of Eutheiini in China. 12 ― genus Eutheia (a ― E. laolongiana; b ― E. nujianglisuana; c ― E. puetzi; d ― E. sculpturata); 13 ― genus Ve ra ph i s (a ― V. assingi; b ― V. calcarifer; c ― V. gansuanus; d ― V. m o de s t u s; e ― V. qinghaiensis; f ― V. s p i n o s u s); 14 ― all Eutheiini.