Proteinus lencinai, Assing, 2008

Assing, V., 2008, Nine new species and additional records of Staphylinidae from southern Spain, with new synonymies (Insecta: Coleoptera), Linzer biologische Beiträge 40 (2), pp. 1301-1325 : 1302-1303

Proteinus lencinai nov.sp. ( Figs 1-2 , Map 1 )

T y p e m a t e r i a l: Holotype: "E - Murcia, 1800 m, Moratalla, Revolcadores [38°04'N, 2°16'W], 22.III.1999, Lencina / Holotypus Proteinus lencinai sp.n. det. V. Assing 2008 (cAss).

D e s c r i p t i o n: Body length 2.6 mm. External characters, including the male secondary sexual characters, as in P. crenulatus PANDELLÉ 1867 . Distinguished only by the morphology of the aedeagus:

: aedeagus ventrally with a pair of pronounced carinae; apex weakly bent in lateral view and truncate in ventral view ( Figs 1-2 ).

E t y m o l o g y: The species is dedicated to José Luis Lencina, a most remarkable, charismatic coleopterist from Jumilla (Murcia), who collected the holotype.

C o m m e n t: The holotype is of brownish coloration. However, the similarly pale colour of other usually blackish Staphylinidae in the same sample suggests that the specimen has become decolourised post-mortem.

C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s: Based on both the external and sexual characters (moderately microsculptured pronotum, rather slender antennae, enlarged male protarsomere I, modifications of the male meso- and metatibiae, shape of the male sternite VIII, general morphology of the aedeagus), the new species undoubtedly belongs to the P. crenulatus group, which was revised only recently and which currently includes five species, all of them rare ( ASSING 2007b). Only two species of this group have become known from Spain: the widespread P. crenulatus PANDELLÉ 1867 (in Spain only recorded from the Pyrenees) and P. hamatus ASSING 2007 , whose known distribution is confined to northern Spain and southwestern France ( Map 1 ). The new species is distinguished from both of them only based on the shape of the aedeagus, particularly the shape of the apex (both in P. crenulatus and P. hamatus more acute and more strongly bent in lateral view and acute in ventral view; see Fig. 3 ), the presence of a pair of pronounced carinae on the ventral side of the aedeagus (much less pronounced in P. crenulatus and P. hamatus ), and the internal structures (similar to those of P. crenulatus , but completely different from those of P. hamatus ). For illustrations of the habitus, as well as of the male primary sexual characters of the species of the P. crenulatus group see ASSING (2007b).

D i s t r i b u t i o n a n d b i o n o m i c s: The type locality (Pico Revolcadores) is situated in the Sierra Seca in the west of Murcia province, close to the border with Castilla-La Mancha, southeastern Spain ( Map 1 ). The holotype was collected in a pitfall trap with vinegar at an altitude of 1800 m.

Figures

Map 1: Distribution of the species of the Proteinus crenulatus group in the Iberian Peninsula: P. crenulatus PANDELLÉ (open circles), P. hamatus ASSING (filled circles), and P. lencinai nov.sp. (square).

Figs 1-5: Proteinus lencinai nov.sp. (1-2), P. crenulatus PANDELLÉ (3), and Paraleptusa andujari nov.sp. (4-5): (1, 4) median lobe of aedeagus in lateral view; (2-3, 5) median lobe of aedeagus in ventral view. Scale bars: 0.1 mm.