Reichardtiolus Kryzhanovskij, 1959

Lackner, Tomas, 2014, Revision of the genus Reichardtiolus Kryzhanovskij, 1959 (Coleoptera, Histeridae, Saprininae), ZooKeys 379, pp. 1-27 : 2-3

Reichardtiolus Kryzhanovskij, 1959

Reichardtiolus Kryzhanovskij, 1959: 217 (as a subgenus of Exaesiopus ). Type species Saprinus duriculus Reitter, 1904, original designation.

Reichardtiolus : Kryzhanovskij and Reichardt (1976): 112, 238; Mazur (1984): 103; Mazur (1997): 265; Mazur (2004): 96; Lackner (2010): 63, 186; Mazur (2011): 210.

Diagnosis.

Reichardtiolus has been recently diagnosed by Lackner (2010), but the published diagnosis has to be adapted with respect to the newly examined Reichardtiolus pavlovskii , Reichardtiolus sphingis , Reichardtiolus perses and Reichardtiolus aldhaferi as follows: body size 2.00-4.25 mm, cuticle (Fig. 1) chestnut brown to almost black with or without slight metallic tinge or lustre; frontal stria (Figs 2, 3) usually weakened medially, but may be complete to widely interrupted (in Reichardtiolus pavlovskii ); frons variously densely punctuate, punctures separated by less than half their diameter to twice their diameter; occasionally with protuberances or shallow depressions; clypeus rectangular to rounded, occasionally margined, anterior margin may be elevated; dorsal surface densely to very densely and coarsely punctuate, punctures separated by their own to half their own diameter, in Reichardtiolus pavlovskii even forming longitudinal wrinkles on pronotum (Fig. 62); pronotal depressions absent; dorsal elytral striae in Reichardtiolus pavlovskii almost unrecognizable beneath coarse punctuation, in other congeners usually all four dorsal elytral striae 1-4 well discernible; prosternal foveae present (Fig. 10) or absent ( Reichardtiolus pavlovskii ; Fig. 68); prosternal process often compressed, concave or convex, especially on posterior half, punctate and setose; both sets of prosternal striae present (in case of Reichardtiolus pavlovskii only as vague rudiments); pronotal hypomeron, lateral disc of metaventrite and metepisternum setose. Protibia (Figs 1, 64) with two or three short teeth each topped by variably large denticle, usually followed by one or two much smaller denticles entombed in outer margin of protibia; meso- and metafemora strongly thickened (Fig. 63); metatibia dilated and thickened; anterior surface of metatibia with two to several rows of short, stout denticles (Fig. 71).

Differential diagnosis.

Members of Reichardtiolus are externally most similar to the species of the genus Exaesiopus Reichardt, 1926, differing from them especially by the absence of deep longitudinal rugae on the frontal disc. The elytra in Reichardtiolus are entirely coarsely and densely punctate, in Reichardtiolus pavlovskii even forming rugulose-lacunose wrinkles, whereas in Exaesiopus the elytra are always at least partly glabrous. Because of the thickened hind femora and lack of longitudinal furrows on frons, Reichardtiolus cannot be confused with any other Palaearctic taxon; for further details on differential diagnosis and a key to genera of the Palaearctic Histeridae the reader is referred to Lackner (2010).

Biology.

Reichardtiolus is a psammophilous taxon, found in arid and desert habitats, often in sand or under decaying vegetation ( Lackner 2010); several specimens of Reichardtiolus aldhaferi and Reichardtiolus duriculus were also collected at light or in rodent’s burrows. According to Kryzhanovskij in Kryzhanovskij and Reichardt (1976) the second known specimen of Reichardtiolus pavlovskii was collected while digging in sands under Tamarix .

Distribution.

Reichardtiolus duriculus is found across middle Asia: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, with a female specimen recorded from western China that I here tentatively assign to this species ( Lackner 2010; Mazur 2011); Reichardtiolus pavlovskii is known currently only from eastern Turkmenistan, Reichardtiolus sphingis has been collected in southern Jordan and northern Egypt. Two newly described species, Reichardtiolus aldhaferi sp. n. and Reichardtiolus perses sp. n., are known only from the environs of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and environs of Kerman, south-western Iran, respectively (Fig. 72).