Pseudolathra maindai, Assing, 2021

Assing, Volker, 2021, A revision of Palaearctic, Oriental, and New Guinean Pseudolathra. VI. Four new species, two new syonymies, and additional records (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Paederinae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 53 (1), pp. 451-463 : 455-456

Pseudolathra maindai nov.sp. (Figs 4-6, 15-16)

T y p e m a t e r i a l: Holotype ♁: " WEST PAPUA: Foja Mountains , moss and laeves [sic], forest stream, 200 m, 2°27'32.37''S 138°46'30.19''E, leg. Tobias Mainda 28.05.2019 / Holotypus ♁ Pseudolathra maindai sp. n., det. V. Assing 2019" (cAss).

E t y m o l o g y: This species is dedicated to Tobias Mainda (Nauen), specialist of Steninnae, who collected the holotype not only of this, but also those of the two following species.

D e s c r i p t i o n: Body robust and somewhat depressed. Body length 8.0 mm; length of forebody 4.5 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 4. Colouration: body blackish; legs dark reddish-brown with blackish femora; antennae reddish-brown.

Head (Fig. 5) transverse, 1.3 times as broad as long; dorsal surface weakly convex in cross-section, with few coarse punctures near eyes and with a pair of coarse punctures between eyes, otherwise impunctate; microsculpture absent. Eyes large, approximately twice as long as postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna 3.1 mm long.

Pronotum (Fig. 5) transverse, 1.06 times as broad as long, broadest in anterior half, and depressed; lateral margins weakly convex in dorsal view; disc with a dorsal series of five coarse punctures on either side of middle and few coarse punctures laterally, otherwise impunctate; microsculpture absent.

Elytra (Fig. 5) as long as pronotum; disc dorsally with five series of fine and coarse punctures; interstices without microsculpture. Hind wings not examined, but probably present.

Abdomen with fine punctation, this punctation moderately dense on anterior and rather sparse on posterior tergites; interstices with distinct microreticulation composed of fine isodiametric meshes; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.

♁: protarsomeres I-IV strongly dilated; sternite VII (Fig. 15) strongly transverse, with very sparse pubescence and broadly concave posterior margin, the latter with a short series of modified stout black setae on either side; sternite VIII (Fig. 16) with narrow and deep posterior excision nearly reaching middle of sternite; aedeagus 1.1 mm long and shaped as in Fig. 6.

♀: unknown.

C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s: Based on the shapes and chaetotaxy of the male sternites VII and VIII, as well as on the structure of the aedeagus, P. maindai belongs to the P. nigerrima group (see ASSING 2012). In New Guinea, this group previously included P. magna ROUGEMONT, 2015 , P. ullrichi ROUGEMONT, 2015 , P. cuccodoroi ROUGEMONT, 2015 , and probably also P. puncta (LAST, 1984) (male unknown) and P. magna (LAST, 1984) (male unknown) (see ASSING 2014). The new species is distinguished from them by a more transverse head with larger and more bulging eyes, a transverse and somewhat depressed pronotum, more numerous series of punctures on the elytra, and by the morphology of the aedeagus. It additionally differs from P. ullrichi by more slender antennae with much more oblong antennomeres, from P. cuccodoroi by darker elytra and legs, and from P. magna by fewer and much coarser punctures on the pronotum. For illustrations of these and other species recorded from New Guinea see ASSING (2014) and ROUGEMONT (2015).

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 type locality is situated in Foja Mountains in northern Irian Jaya (West Papua), Indonesia. The holotype was collected from moss and leaves near a forest stream at an altitude of 200 m.