Oedichirus fauvelianus, Rougemont, 2018

Rougemont, Guillaume de, 2018, The genus Oedichirus in New Caledonia (Staphylinidae: Paederinae: Pinophilini), Linzer biologische Beiträge 50 (1), pp. 537-586 : 547-548

Oedichirus fauvelianus nov.sp. (Figs 37)

Material studied: ♀ Holotype: [in FAUVEL’ s hand] Env. de Nouméa ♀ le type a les élytres noires ♀ Oedichirus sedilloti Fvl. ♀ [printed in red ink]: Ex Typis ♀ HOLOTYPE Oedichirus fauvelianus des. 2017 G. de Rougemont [ IRScNB].

Description: length: ca. 6.5 mm; length of fore-body: 2.6; length of head: 0.82; breadth of head: 0.9; length of antenna: 1.6; length of pronotum: 1.5; breadth of pronotum: 0.95; length of elytron: 0.77; breadth of elytra: 1.75. Head and pronotum black, their ventral surfaces reddish-brown, the antennal tubercles and anterior and posterior margins of the latter very narrowly rufescent, elytra pale brown, sides of abdominal tergites, posterior margin of segment VII and entire segments VIII and IX reddishbrown, centres of tergites III-VII progressively more extensively piceous-black; palpi, antennae and legs entirely pale testaceous. Dorsal surfaces devoid of microsculpture except on rows of keels and furrows on anterior margins of abdominal tergites. Pubescence pale, sparse and erect on fore-body, denser, erect and semi-erect and decumbent on abdomen. Habitus: Fig. 37h.

Head moderately transverse; eyes large, a little longer than temples, not particularly protruberent; groove of post-ocular border broad, clearly displaced from lateral margin to dorsal surface of head; puncturation consisting of a dozen round umbilicate punctures on centre of vertex, where interstices are mostly narrower than diameter of punctures, and sparser scattered umbilicate and smaller simple punctures elsewhere. Pronotum moderately elongate, behind anterior angles about a broad as head, the sides retracted in almost straight lines to narrow base; lateral margin entirely bordered; puncturation fairly homogeneous, coarse and close, the interstices mostly narrow than diameter of punctures except narrowly along mid-longitudinal line. Elytra short, the sides slightly angled before middle; puncturation comparable to that of pronotum but a little sparser laterad. Row of keels and grooves on anterior margins of abdominal tergites obsolete on segment III, long and conspicuous on segments IV-VII; puncturation of tergites dense and homogeneous.

Female: abdominal sternite IX: Fig. 37vp.

The holotype of this new species is one of the two syntypes of O. sedilloti FAUVEL (q.v.) ; it differs conspicuously from the type of O. sedilloti by its colour pattern. The combination of size, colour pattern, absence of cephalic microsculpture and dense puncturation of abdominal tergites place it next to O. laperousei nov.sp. and O. dzumacensis nov.sp. but O. fauvelianus is smaller than either of those, in size and colour resembling O. pteroposaltis nov.sp., from which it differs by its densely, homogeneously punctate abdomen.