Amauronyx chanianus BRACHAT, 2019

Assing, Volker, Brachat, Volker & Meybohm, Heinrich, 2019, Monograph of the Staphylinidae of Crete (Greece). Part II. Descriptions of new species (Insecta: Coleoptera), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 69 (2), pp. 239-289 : 281

Amauronyx chanianus BRACHAT spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:833A774F-4626-4CC8-8BE0-7B857E33EC43

( Fig. 156 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “GR – Crete [24], SW Chania , SW Prases , 35°21'32"N, 23°49'28"E, 740 m, soil washing, 20.III.2018, V. Assing / Amauronyx chanianus spec. nov. ♂, det. Brachat 2.2019 / Holotypus” ( cBra) . Paratype ♀: same data as holotype, but “litter sifted” (cBra) .

Etymology: The specific epithet is an adjective derived from Chania, the prefecture where the type locality is situated.

Description: Body 1.8–1.9 mm long, reddish-brown, glossy, with slightly paler maxillary palpi. Pubescence short and depressed, with scattered longer and suberect setae. Head distinctly transverse, 0.36 mm long and 0.46 mm broad; dorsally with two larger intra-ocular foveae, distinctly convex, and with median keel near posterior margin; laterally with sharp carina extending posteriad from the antennal tubercles. Eyes small, composed of 8–9 ommatidia (partly without pigmentation), weakly protruding from lateral contours of head, and much shorter than the convex postocular region. Antenna 0.78–0.80 mm long, approximately as long as the combined length of head and pronotum, with threejointed club; antennomeres I–III weakly oblong, III apically broadened, IV and V approximately a long as broad, VI slightly smaller and as long as broad, VII as long as broad and of similar size as IV and V, VIII weakly transverse, IX distinctly transverse, X 1.5 times as broad as long, and XI large, of ovoid shape, approximately 1.5 times as long as broad, and as long as the combined length of VIII–X.

Pronotum broadest in anterior third, weakly transverse (length 0.40 mm; width 0.43 mm); disc with weakly pronounced median sulcus not reaching anterior margin; ante-basal sulcus deep, laterally forming a pit; between this sulcus and posterior margin of pronotum with five distinct impressions.

Elytra nearly 1.5 times as broad as long, 1.25 times as long as pronotum, basally with two deep basal impressions, with indisinct humeral angles; discal sulcus broad, not reaching middle of elytra. Hind wings completely reduced. Legs unmodified.

Tergite IV 0.3 mm long, basally with two posteriorly diverging short keels of approximately one-fifth the length of tergite, distance between these keels approximately two-fifths of width of tergite.

♂: tergite VIII with the apex slightly bent upwards; mesotibia with short apical spine; protrochanter unmodified; mesotrochanter with narrow carina medially forming a short and apically obtuse spine; metatrochanter with short and narrow carina; aedeagus shaped as in Fig. 156 ; right paramere slightly longer than left paramere; both parameres apically with three relatively long setae; internal sac with two broad, flat, and apically acute sclerites and slender apically bent structure.

♀: tergite VIII apically obtuse.

Comparative notes: Amauronyx chanianus is distinguished from other Cretan representatives of the genus by a distinctly larger head, by the modifications of the male trochanters, and by the internal structures of the aedeagus.

Distribution and natural history: This species is probably locally endemic to the environs of the Lefka Ori, West Crete. The type specimens were collected near Prases (southwest of Chania) by washing soil and sifting deep litter in a steep stream valley with very old Platanus orientalis at an altitude of 740 m.

Figures

Figs 156–173: Amauronyx chanianus (156), A. occidens (157),A. askifouicus (158), Bryaxismeybohmianus (159–161), Bythinus creticus (162–163), Euplectus assingi(164),Faronus meybohmi (165), F.lefkamontium (166),F.albimontium(167),Tychus chanianus (168), and Sepedophilus creticus (169–173): aedeagus in dorsal and ventral view (156–158, 160, 163–168, 172); antennomeres I–II (159); internal structures of aedeagus (161); maxillary palpomere IV (162); habitus (169); male sternite VIII (170); male tergites IX–X (171); apical portion of aedeagus (173). Scale bars: 169: 1.0 mm; 170–172: 0.2 mm; 156–161, 163–168, 173: 0.1 mm; 162 without scale.