Dinusa cretica ASSING, 2013

Assing, Volker, 2016, On the Staphylinidae of the Greek island Karpathos (Insecta Coleoptera), Linzer biologische Beiträge 48 (1), pp. 235-263 : 245

Dinusa cretica ASSING, 2013

C o m m e n t: Dinusa cretica is a rare myrmecophile associated with ants of the genus Messor FOREL, 1890. It was previously hypothesized to be endemic to Crete ( ASSING 2013a, 2015a). The two specimens (a male and a female) listed in Tab. 1 are distinguished from material known from Crete by somewhat darker coloration of the pronotum and the elytra, as well as by a slightly larger crista apicalis of the aedeagus, but otherwise no significant differences were found suggesting that they should represent a distinct species. In view of the long time of separation of Crete and Karpathos (see introduction), it would seem likely that the presence of D. cretica in Karpathos is the result of a more recent colonization by flight.

Based on the different shape of the spermatheca, the specimens from Karpathos are not conspecific with the unnamed Dinusa sp. from Rhodos (see ASSING 2013b).