Duvalius (Biharotrechus) huberi, Casale, 2011

Casale, Achille, 2011, Two new subterranean, microphthalmous trechine beetles from the Mediterranean area, and a synonymic note (Coleoptera: Carabidae, Trechini), Contributions to Natural History 16, pp. 1-16 : 2-8

Duvalius (Biharotrechus) huberi sp. nov.

Type locality: Turkey, Southern Anatolia: Geyik DağI.

Type material:

Holotype ♂ with the following data: "TR – Antalya Geyik DağI 2600 mt, N 36° 54' E 32° 11' 22.5 .2007 leg. C. Huber " ( NMBE).

Diagnostic features

A medium sized (TL: 5.50 mm), glabrous, depigmented, microphthalmous trechine species ( Fig. 1 ), with the character states of the genus Duvalius DELAROUzéE, 1859 of Subgenus Biharotrechus BOKOR, 1922 ( Duvaliotes JEANNEL, 1928 , in the widest sense of Jeannel, 1928), Casale & Laneyrie (1982), and Casale & Vigna Taglianti (1984).

Colour dark reddish. Pronotum cordiform, widened in front, with lateral sides constricted to the base. Elytra elongate, depressed, with humeral angles rounded but evident. Chaetotaxy as in Fig. 1 . Male genitalia as in Fig. 2 .

Close to D. (Biharotrechus) bortesii CASALE & VIGNA TAGLIANTI, 1984 , from which is distinguished by several different morphological features (see: Relationships).

Description

General features as in Fig. 1 . Medium sized: TL: 5.50 mm; L: 6.0 mm. Colour dark reddish, with paler yellow reddish palpi, antennae and legs.

Dorsal surface moderately shiny; transversal cuticular microlines evident on frons and pronotum, scarcely visible as polygonal meshes on elytral intervals.

Head elongate, with frontal furrows markedly impressed, angulate in the anterior third, with evident transveral wrinkles; frons convex; supraorbital setiferous punctures inserted on ranges slightly convergent backwards; eyes small, as long as 1/4 of genae, flat, oblique and whitish, with slightly distinguishable ommatidia, pigmented only at margins; genae regularly curved, convex, with deep transversal wrinkles, narrowed to the neck constriction; labrum slightly emarginate at the anterior side; mentum tooth prominent, emarginate at apex; antennae elongate, exceeding backwards the level of the fourth humeral setiferous puncture.

Pronotum cordiform transverse (PL/PW: 0.80), widest at the anterior third; disc moderately convex; sides markedly arcuate in front, shortly and slightly sinuate towards hind angles, which are evident but not prominent outside; marginal furrows deep; anterior margin gently arcuate, front angles effaced; base straight, slightly emarginate in the centre, fully beaded; basal foveae deep.

Elytra elongate (EL/EW: 1.58), slightly widened at the apical third, much wider than prothorax; disc depressed; humeri rounded but evident, with prehumeral margins oblique; lateral furrows relatively wide and deep; striae all visible: striae 1–4 much deeper, 5–6 reduced to series of punctures, stria 7 almost effaced; apical striola very deep and curved, connected by some points with apex of stria 5; intervals flat; apical carina developed. Chaetotaxy as in Fig. 1 : three setiferous discal punctures (two discal, one pre-apical) on stria 3; umbilicate pores 5 and 6 very close to each other; apical and anguloapical punctures present, forming with the pre-apical puncture an apical triangle.

Legs long, slender; protibiae slightly dilated and sparsely pubescent at apex, each with a long groove on the external side; protarsi in the male each with two basal tarsomeres dilated and denticulate inwards.

Male genitalia as in Fig. 2 . Median lobe of aedeagus relatively short (1.08 mm) and thickened, in lateral aspect regularly bent basally and slightly sinuate in the apical third, regularly narrowed at apex; basal bulb large, inflated, with wide basal orifice; sagittal carina absent. Endophallus armed with an elongate, "isotopic" copulatory piece, obliquely truncate at apex in lateral aspect, regularly rounded in dorsal aspect, bifid at base, and a series of small, sclerotized spines that fringe the basal tract of lateral sides of the copulatory piece. Parameres robust, each with five apical setae.

Female genitalia: unknown.

Specific epithet

I wish to dedicate this interesting new species to Dr. Charles Huber, curator of the Entomological Department at the Berne Museum ( Switzerland) and well known specialist of carabids of the genus Nebria , who sampled with Dr. Werner Marggi the holotype specimen, and offered it to me for study.

Geographical distribution and habitat

The only male individual of the new species here described was sampled on the Northern slope of the Geyik DağI Mt. (Southern Anatolia, Toros chain, Antalya) by Charles Huber and Werner Marggi at 2600 m of altitude, under stones near the snow ( Fig. 3 ). As many Duvalius species of the Euro-Mediterranean area, it is an upper hypogean species in the alpine zone.

Relationships

D. (Biharotrechus) huberi sp. nov. is particularly interesting for both taxonomical and biogeographical aspects.

First, from the taxonomical point of view, it is apparently the first adelphotaxon known so far of D. (Biharotrechus) bortesii CASALE & VIGNA TAGLIANTI, 1984 – geographically vicariant in a massif (Bey DağlarI Mt., Muğla province) at 80 kms SW of Geyik DağI – to which it seems related by many morphological features, and the peculiar shape of both median lobe of aedeagus and copulatory piece. From the latter, D. (Biharotrechus) huberi sp. nov. is distinguished by the more elongate head, the wider pronotum with basal angles smaller and not prominent; the shorter, more depressed elytra, with shallower and less deeply punctuate striae; and the different shape of aedeagus: in D. (B.) huberi sp. nov. the median lobe is shorter and more thickened, and endophallus has reduced sclerotized spines and scales, and much more elongate copulatory piece. It should also be recalled that individuals of D. (B.) bortesii were sampled in a pit at 1200 m, whereas D. huberi sp. nov. in the alpine zone at 2600 m near the snow. But this datum is scarcely informative: in fact, species with this degree of low specialization to the subterranean environment can be found both in caves at lower altitude and in the shallow hypogean zone at high altitude.

Validity and limits of the Subgenus Duvaliotes JEANNEL, 1928 , and its distinction from the Subgenus Duvalidius JEANNEL, 1928 , currently treated as synonyms of Biharotrechus BOKOR, 1922 , and Hungarotrechus BOKOR, 1922 , respectively (see Moravec & al. 2003, and Lorenz 2005) have been widely debated by Casale & Vigna Taglianti (1984). What is evident, is the fact that D. (B.) huberi sp. nov. and D. (B.) bortesii (the latter, described as Duvaliotes ) form a homogeneous species group, and are so far the only representatives in Southern Anatolia of a lineage widely spread in the Carpathians, the Balkan peninsula and the Dinaric Alps.

Therefore, as shown by Casale & Vigna Taglianti (1999), in Anatolia the genus Duvalius includes so far representatives of some different lineages: in the central and eastern Pontic chain, and in eastern Anatolia, some forest dweller or troglophilic species, all probably belonging to the Caucasian antoniae species group. Markedly isolated seem to be D. bicikensis PERRAULT, 1971 , from the Giresun DağlarI, apparently related to the Eastern-European Hungarotrechus ( Duvalidius of authors) complex, and D. bruschii VIGNA TAGLIANTI, 1999 , probably related to the southern Balkan krueperi -group. By contrast, in the Western Toros, the genus is represented by three peculiar, subterranean but oculate species, with very different relationships: D. bortesii and D. huberi sp. nov., treated in the present contribution, are apparently related to the Balkan Biharotrechus lineage; and D. huetheri JEANNEL, 1934 , present in several caves of Antalya and Muğla provinces, redescribed with different names, is related to the "Southern Aegean " lineage of D. diaphanus ROTTENBERG, 1874 , and D. mirei DEUVE, 2001 , both endemic to Mt. Taygetos ( Greece, Peloponnesus).

Figures

Fig. 1: Duvalius (Biharotrechus) huberi sp. nov., male holotype, habitus, dorsal aspect.

Fig. 2: Duvalius (Biharo- trechus) huberi sp. nov., male holotype, aedeagus in left lateral aspect (a), copulatory piece in dor- sal aspect (b).

Fig. 3: Duvalius (Biharotrechus) huberi sp. nov., type locality: Geyik Daği Mt. (Southern Anatolia, Toros chain, Antalya) (a); detail of the habitat (b) (photo C. Huber).