Lathrobium struyvei, Assing, 2015

Assing, Volker, 2015, New species and additional records of Lathrobium and Elytrobium from the Palaearctic region, with special reference to the fauna of East Yunnan (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 65 (1), pp. 41-74 : 43-44

Lathrobium struyvei spec. nov.

( Figs 1 –11 )

Type material: Holotype : “E – Ciudad Real, Herencia, 39.30°N, 3.36°W, 29.IV.2012, leg. Struyve / Holotypus  Lathrobium struyvei spec. nov., det. V. Assing 2014” (cAss).

Paratypes: 1 , 1 : same data as holotype (cStr, cAss).

Etymology: This species is dedicated to Tim Struyve, who collected the type specimens.

Description: Body length 9.5–10.5 mm; length of forebody 4.7–4.9 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 1 . Coloration: head, pronotum, and abdomen blackish; elytra dark-reddish, anteriorly more or less distinctly, narrowly and diffusely darker; legs reddish; antennae brown to dark-brown.

Head ( Fig. 2 ) oblong, 1.05–1.10 times as long as broad; posterior angles broadly convex in dorsal view, nearly obsolete; punctation moderately coarse, dense in lateral and posterior portions, distinctly sparser in median dorsal portion; interstices narrower than diameter of punctures in lateral and posterior dorsal portions, with shallow microsculpture. Eyes weakly projecting from lateral contours of head, 0.25–0.30 times as long as distance from posterior margin of eye to neck. Antenna ( Fig. 3 ) approximately 2.5 mm long.

Pronotum ( Fig. 2 ) approximately 1.2 times as long as broad and 1.02–1.06 times as broad as head; punctures of somewhat variable size, partly as coarse as that of head, partly finer, less dense than punctation in lateral and posterior portions of head; impunctate midline moderately broad; interstices without microsculpture.

Elytra ( Fig. 2 ) approximately 0.9 times as long as pronotum; punctation dense, less defined than that of pronotum. Hind wings present, shallow and moderately dense; inter- stices without microsculpture. Protarsomeres I–IV with weakly pronounced sexual dimorphism.

Abdomen narrower than elytra; punctation fine and dense; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe; tergite VIII with sexual dimorphism.

: protarsomeres I–IV strongly dilated ( Fig. 1 ); tergite VIII with convex posterior margin; sternite VII ( Fig. 4 ) strongly transverse, with impression of subtriangular shape in postero-median portion, this impression with very weakly modified (slightly shorter) setae, posterior margin weakly concave; sternite VIII ( Fig. 5 ) transverse, with extensive, but shallow postero-median impression, posteriorly without pubescence in the middle, posterior margin broadly concave; aedeagus ( Figs 6–9 ) approximately 2.2 mm long; ventral process long and slender, basally with three pronounced carinae and moderately bulging in lateral view, apically acute, and subapically with distinct tooth; dorsal plate with large and distinctly sclerotized apical portion with a median dorsal carina, without evident basal portion; internal sac with a pair of dark membranous structures apically extending into sclerotized spear-shaped processes and with a median dark membranous structure.

: protarsomeres I–IV strongly dilated, only slightly less so than in male; posterior margin of tergite VIII truncate; sternite VIII ( Fig. 10 ) longer than tergite VIII, weakly oblong, posterior margin distinctly truncate in the middle; tergite IX ( Fig. 11 ) with long and undivided antero-median portion and moderately short posterolateral processes; tergite X ( Fig. 11 ) short, 0.75 times as long as antero-median portion of tergite IX.

Comparative notes: Based on the similar modifications of the aedeagus (ventral process long and slender, basally with carinae and strongly bulging in lateral view, apically acute, and subapically with distinct tooth; dorsal plate of similar shape and with median dorsal carina), the similar male secondary sexual characters (particularly the shapes of sternites VII and VIII), as well as the highly similar female secondary sexual characters, L. struyvei is undoubtedly closely allied to L. dimidiatipenne BERNHAUER, 1910 (distributed from Middle Asia to the Russian Far East, doubtfully reported also from the Caucasus and Ukraine) and L. bernhaueri KOCH, 1937 (and its presumed junior synonym L. tichomirovae COIFFAIT, 1981 ; distributed in the Caucasus region). It differs from both by the shape (posterior margin only weakly concave) and chaetotaxy of the male sternite VIII and by the shape of the aedeagus (ventral process less bulging in lateral view). It is additionally distinguished from L. dimidiatipenne by the longer and more slender apical portion of the ventral process of the aedeagus in lateral view.

Distribution and natural history: The type locality is situated in Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. The type material was sifted from moist litter near a stream (STRUYVE pers. comm.).

3.2. Middle Asia

Figures

Figs 1–11: Lathrobium struyvei spec. nov.: male habitus (1); forebody (2); antenna (3); male sternite VII (4); male sternite VIII (5); aedeagus in lateral view (6); ventral process of aedeagus in lateral view (7); median portion of aedeagus in lateral view (8); ventral process of aedeagus in ventral view (9); female sternite VIII (10); female tergites IX–X (11). Scale bars: 1–2: 1.0 mm; 3–11: 0.5 mm.