Notiophilus dostali, Barševskis, 2011

Barševskis, Arvīds, 2011, Two new species of the genus Notiophilus Dumeril, 1806 (Coleoptera: Carabidae) from India and Afghanistan, Baltic Journal of Coleopterology 11 (2), pp. 127-134 : 128-129

Notiophilus dostali sp.n.

Holotype. Male. India, Himachal Pradesh, Jalaori pass. Env., 06.1976. Deposited with the Institute of Systematic Biology , Daugavpils University , Daugavpils, Latvia ( DUBC) ( Fig. 1).

The body is elongated, 5.04 mm in length. Surface is monochrome with metallic lustre.

Head. The head is slightly narrower than the pronotum, together with the eyes it is 1.51 mm wide. Its upper side is black with metallic lustre. Eyes are large and hemispherical. Forehead with 8 frontal furrows that are slightly approximated in the basale part. The outer furrows are almost straight. The stria at the base of the eye is deep with two setiferous punctures. Clypeus with elongated, deeply impressed, irregular ridges. Some ridges of the clypeus are doubled in the forward direction. The clypeus has 2 setiferous punctures. Labrum is mat, only in the very front there is a visible rudiment of a median line. There is a convex line of 6 setiferous punctures along its rounded front margin. Antennae are dichromatic: segments 1-4 are russet with the 3 rd and the 4 th segment being darker at their ends, but other segments are black. The last segment of the maxillary palp is sharp and dark. The end of the last segment of the labial palp is more or less sharp and dark. The basic segments of both palps are lighter, russet. The bottom of the head is rather lustrous, without punctures, with many smoothed but well-visible plications.

Thorax. Pronotum length is 0.98 mm, width 1.54 mm. Pronotum is black, with bronze lustre, lateral sides being slightly concave before the base. Its discal part is lustrous, almost smooth with smoother, slightly uneven vestiges of plications and, in some places along the sides of the disc, a very delicate puncture. Along the sides of the pronotum there are rough dots, which in some places, especially at the base angles, change into plications. The median line of the pronotum is deeply impressed in its discal part, but at the base and the frontal part it is practically unmarked. The hind angles are sharp, slightly forwarded to the sides. Its basal dimples are deeply impressed. The lateral setiferous puncture is located 0.83 mm from the frontal angle. The prothorax is lustrous and dispersedly dotted. The prothorax protuberance has a smooth surface; along its sides there are U-shaped striae. The foreleg coxae are black, their trochanters, femurs, tibiae, and tarsi are russet brown. Tarsomeres are slightly darker. Three tarsomeres of the male’s foreleg tarsus are widened with a sole of thick silvery hair. The mesothorax is black, lustrous, roughly dotted. The midlegs are of the same colour as the forelegs. The metathorax is black, lustrous, and heavily dotted. Episterna are dotted, too. The proportion of the length and width of the episterna is 2.4. The coxae of hindlegs are black. Trochanters and femurs are also almost black; tibiae and tarsi are russet brown.

Elytrae. Length is 2.96 mm, width 1.82 mm. Surface is monochrome black with bronze lustre. The sides of elytra are not parallel, but almost evenly elongated and ovally convex. The elytral striae consist of fine dots which are distinct only in the basal and lateral parts but almost disappear in the apical third. The 1 st elytral stria merges with the scutellar stria, its rudiment can be seen as some little punctures only at the base. Only the 5 th and the 6 th elytral stria at the base have a few rough, slightly impressed punctures. The outer elytral striae are practically invisible on the sides of the elytrae. Their rather little punctures mix with the rather rough interval puncture. In the basal part the elytral interval puncture is rougher and thus the rows of punctures in this area are more difficult to notice. In the ends of the elytrae there are 2 apical setiferous punctures. The apex of elytrae has distinct reticulate microsculpture and fine dissipated puncture. The 2 nd interval of the elytra is specular, without fine puncture, approximately as wide as the two following taken together. The 2 nd elytral interval at the base is noticeably wider than elytral intervals in the middle of the elytra. The dorsal setiferous puncture is situated in the middle of the 4 th elytral interval.

Abdomen. Abdominal segments are flat, lustrous, and smooth. The male’s anal segment has two setiferous punctures.

Male genitalia. The apical part of the aedeagus lamella is wide, but its sclerotized part is narrow and extended in the end ( Fig. 2).

Differential diagnosis. This species is very similar to N. orientalis Chaudoir, 1850 , and N. kirschenhoferi Dostal, 1981 , but it differs from all other species distributed in the western part of the Himalayas and its adjacent territories by the fact that the prothorax is roughly dotted, 1 st row of dots before the scutellum merges with the scutellar stria, and only at the base a rudiment of some dots is preserved. Elytrae have a different bend of the sides, which are not parallel, with regard to their puncture, microsculpture, proportion between the length and width of the episternum, as well as by a range of other features.

Type locality. West Himalayas, India, Himachal Pradesh, Jalaori pass.

Derivatio nominis. The new species is named in honour of Austrian carabidologist Alexander Dostal (Wien, Austria), researcher of genus Notiophilus Dum. in Himalaya.