Quedius hecato Smetana, 2012

Brunke, Adam James, 2023, Review of Quedius (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) described from the 1934 expedition by R. Malaise to Myanmar, European Journal of Taxonomy 864, pp. 117-145 : 136-137

Quedius hecato Smetana, 2012 syn. nov.

Type material

Holotype

CHINA – Yunnan Province • ♂; “CHINA (Yunnan) Baoshan Pref ., Gaoligong Shan, 33 km SE Tengchong; 24°5l′22″ N, 98°45′36″ E; 2100–2200 m; (prim. decid. forest, brook bank, litter, moss sifted); 31.V.2007; D.W. Wrase leg.; [14B]; / HOLOTYPE Quedius hecato A. Smetana 2010 [red label]”; ASC.

Redescription

The species has been redescribed and diagnosed by Smetana (2017a) under the name Quedius hecato and described by Smetana (1988) under Q. sundar . These descriptions are only supplemented by the diagnosis above and a dorsal habitus image ( Fig. 3A ).

Distribution

This species is now known from Nepal, Myanmar (Kachin) and China (Yunnan).

Remarks

The type material of Q. semilaeviventris contains only the male holotype, which was dissected. The aedeagus and external morphology closely matched that of Q. hecato Smetana. The paramere of the type of Q. semilaeviventris is slightly more constricted basally than in the type of Q. hecato but this is considered to be intraspecific variation. As might be expected, the ‘dark pigmented aedeagus’ of Q. hecato ( Smetana 2012b) is not typical of the species as the aedeagus is normally pigmented in the type of Q. semilaeviventris . The type locality of Q. hecato is Gaoligong Shan, Yunnan, China, which is rather close to Kambaiti Pass in Myanmar.

In its description ( Smetana 2012b), Quedius hecato from China was unfortunately never compared to Himalayan Q. sundar . Using only the available illustrations of the aedeagus ( Smetana 1988, 2012b), it would appear that the paramere in Q. hecato was slightly shorter than the median lobe, while it was about the same length in Q. sundar . The male holotype of Q. sundar , previously undissected and therefore not mounted into Canada balsam, was dissected and the aedeagus was examined in both ventral and lateral view. The paramere of the holotype is distinctly shorter than the median lobe and, in general, intermediate between the holotypes of Q. semilaeviventris and Q. hecato , and the available paratype of Q. sundar with the paramere still attached to the median lobe. The arrangement of the two rows of peg setae varies between well organized and highly irregular. The shape of the median lobe in lateral view, where available, was identical across all examined specimens. Therefore both Q. sundar and Q. hecato become junior synonyms of Q. semilaeviventris .

Figures

Fig. 3. Dorsal habitus. A. Quedius (Raphirus) semilaeviventris Scheerpeltz, 1965, holotype, ♂ (NHRS). B. Q. (R.) kambaitiensis Scheerpeltz, 1965 syn. nov. (= Q. (R.) muscicola Cameron, 1932), ♀, holotype (NHRS). Scale bars = 1 mm.