Veraphis yoshitomii, Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2014

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2014, Veraphis yoshitomii sp. n. (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae) from Japan, Zootaxa 3860 (6), pp. 589-595 : 590-593

Veraphis yoshitomii sp. n.

( Figs. 1–8)

Type material. Holotype: JAPAN (Shikoku, Ehime Pref.): ♂, two labels: " JAPAN 13: Shikoku: Ehime / Pref., Keyakidaira, / Kumakôgen-chô, / 28 V-2 VI 2014, FIT trap, / leg. H. Yoshitomi & R. Ruta" [white, printed], " VERAPHIS / yoshitomii m. / P. Jałoszyński / HOLOTYPUS " [red, printed] ( MNHW).

Diagnosis. Body approximately 1.5 mm in length; male protrochanter with rounded apex; aedeagus in ventral view with strongly asymmetrical apex, broadest in subapical third; in lateral view short apical part separated from median lobe and bent ventrally at nearly right angle.

Description. Body length 1.46 mm. Body of male ( Figs. 1–2) flattened, slender, dark brown, covered with yellowish vestiture, legs and antennae slightly lighter.

Head broadest at large, convex eyes, length 0.16 mm, width 0.26 mm; vertex with pair of small posteromedian pits, each prolonged by shallow but distinct longitudinal groove extending anterolaterally to posteromesal margin of barely marked supraantennal tubercle; area between grooves distinctly flattened and lower than convex sides of vertex and frons. Punctures on head dorsum fine and shallow but distinct and dense, especially on median area of frons and vertex; setae short, sparse and suberect. Antennae slender, with indistinctly demarcated club composed of antennomeres IX–XI, length 0.53 mm, antennomere I nearly 3x as long as broad; II distinctly shorter and slightly narrower than I, twice as long as broad; III slightly transverse; IV slightly elongate; V distinctly elongate; VI slightly elongate; VII about as long as broad; VIII slightly smaller than VII and slightly transverse; IX and X distinctly transverse and subequal in size; XI only slightly elongate and slightly narrower than X.

Pronotum nearly semielliptical, broadest near base; length 0.33 mm, width 0.40 mm, anterior margin broadly and evenly rounded; lateral margins strongly rounded in anterior third, behind middle weakly rounded and in posterior 1/6–1/5 slightly convergent towards obtuse and blunt hind angles; posterior margin shallowly bisinuate. Pronotal base with indistinct, small and shallow median antebasal pit located in distinct arcuate transverse groove connecting lateral pair of elongate and deep impressions; lateral pronotal margins narrowly carinate in posterior half. Punctures on pronotal disc fine and inconspicuous; setae short and sparse, suberect.

Elytra more convex than pronotum, oval, broadest distinctly anterior to middle; length 0.78 mm, width 0.55 mm, elytral index 1.41; humeral calli well-marked, elongate. Surface of elytra less glossy than pronotum, covered with fine and inconspicuous punctures and setae similar to those on pronotum but distinctly thicker. Hind wings well developed, about twice as long as elytra.

Legs moderately long and slender; protrochanter with rounded margin, protibia with subapical fin-like projection ( Fig. 4 ).

Metaventrite with indistinct, shallow and diffused elongate median impression.

Aedeagus ( Figs. 5–6 ) elongate but relatively stout; length 0.25 mm; in ventral view median lobe distinctly broadening from base to subapical region, apex strongly asymmetrical, in lateral view apical region demarcated and bent ventrally; internal structures distinct, located in subapical region; parameres exceeding half length of median lobe.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution. Japan, Shikoku (Fig. 7a).

Etymology. This species is dedicated to Hiroyuki Yoshitomi, a specialist on Scirtidae who together with Rafał Ruta collected the type material.

Remarks. Veraphis yoshitomii belongs to the V. japonicus group of species ( Jałoszyński & Hoshina 2005) and its aedeagus is most similar to that of the sympatric V. japonicus ( K. Sawada, 1962) . Both species share the wellseparated apical part of the median lobe, which in V. japonicus is symmetrical, but in some specimens it can be slightly distorted and asymmetrical (illustrated in Jałoszyński & Hoshina 2005; Fig. 4 ). However, the aedeagus of V. yoshitomii is distinctly stouter and strongly broadened in the subapical third, and its apical structures are clearly different. Moreover, V. y o s hi t o m i i differs clearly from V. japonicus in the external morphology ( Figs. 2–3 ): it is distinctly larger (longer and broader), has a different shape and proportions of the pronotum (pronotal length / width in V. yoshitomii is 0.81 while in V. japonicus it is 0.88–0.91) and the proportions of the elytra (elytral index in V. yoshitomii = 1.41; in V. japonicus = 1.44–1.47). All hitherto studied Palaearctic species of Veraphis show a negligible variability in measurements and proportions of body parts.

The male individual described here was collected by a flight intercept trap in a natural forest ( Fig. 8 ) with a dominant tree species Fagus crenata Blume accompanied by Aesculus turbinata Blume , Stewartia pseudocamellia Maxim. and Betula grossa Siebold & Zucc.

Figures

FIGURE 8. Collecting site of Veraphis yoshitomii sp. n. near Kumakôgen-chô.

FIGURES 2 – 6. Veraphis yoshitomii sp. n. (2, 4 – 6) and V. japonicus (K. Sawada) (3). 2 – 3 ― body silhouette; 4 ― left fore leg in posterior view; 5 – 6 ― aedeagus in ventral (5) and lateral (6) views.