Oropodes nuclere Grigarick & Schuster, 1976

Chandler, Donald S. & Caterino, Michael S., 2011, A taxonomic revision of the New World genus Oropodes Casey (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Pselaphinae), ZooKeys 147, pp. 425-477 : 454-455

15. Oropodes nuclere Grigarick & Schuster, 1976 Fig. 16Map 3

Oropodes nuclere Grigarick & Schuster, 1976: 105; Chandler 1997: 15. Type locality: California, Lake County, Lucerne. Holotype male (UCDC).

Specimens examined.

3: CALIFORNIA: Lake County: Lucerne, #99, VI-1-1961, R.O. Schuster (UCDC, 2 paratype females). Napa County: Rutherford, V-26-1966, W.C. Gagne (DSC).

Description.

Length 1.90-2.00 mm. Body light orange-brown. Antennomeres V and VII slightly larger than those adjacent. Eyes with about 70 facets in both sexes. Abdomen with first ventrite bearing carinae that extend posteriorly from posteromedial angles of metacoxal cavities to apex.

Males: Metasternum with median longidudinal sulcus. Legs (Fig. 16B): profemora with broad mesal tooth near base; protibiae lacking modifications; meso- and metatibiae with prominent apical spur on mesal margin, spur of metatibiae smaller than that of mesotibiae. Abdomen (Fig. 16C, interpreted from specimen on slide) with shallow impression at middle between two widely spaced teeth at second ventrite apex, teeth 0.18 apart at centers; third ventrite 0.71 wide, impressed in middle third, lamina 0.18 wide, broadly emarginate at apex, angled at about 30°, close to posterior margin, oval transverse impression anterior to lamina with short setae; fourth ventrite slightly impressed in middle fourth; fifth-sixth ventrites lightly impressed in medial fourth; sixth ventrite (Fig. 16D) with margins of setose area slightly narrowed at middle. Aedeagus (Fig. 16A) 0.32 long; with right paramere rounded at apex, left paramere lobed at apex and extended further, internal sac with long sinuate rod that is asymmetrically bifurcate at apex.

Females: Fifth tergite with setose area on transverse rounded ridge, with median depression at apex bordered by small angulations; fifth ventrite (Fig. 16F) with setose area broadly divided by protruding glabrous area at middle. Genitalia (Fig. 16E) with medial portion strongly asymmetric, with several irregular, more heavily sclerotized areas, lobe to right with semicircular sclerotized margin.

Collection notes.

no collection data associated with the specimens.

Geographical distribution.

(Map 3): Known only from Lake and Napa Counties in the inner Coast Ranges north of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Comparisons and diagnostic notes.

Placed a member of the raffrayi-group. This species is most similar to Oropodes rumseyensis in the males sharing the broad tooth at the base of the profemora, only slightly swollen protibiae, with long apical spurs on the meso- and metatibiae, and the lamina of the third ventrite is angled at about 30°, while the female genitalia have a strongly asymmetric membranous lobe, and the fifth ventrite has the setose area divided. They differ by Oropodes nuclere having a more complex rod of the internal sac and the internal sac lacking a cluster of denticles in the apical portion in the males, while the females have the setose area of the fifth sternite widely divided by a bar and the apex of the fifth tergite has a median impression. For Oropodes rumseyensis the rod of the internal sac lacks an apical division and there is a cluster of denticles in the apical portion for the males, while the females have the setose area of the fifth ventrite divided by projections of the anterior and posterior margins that meet but do not fuse and the fifth tergite has a blunt median tubercle at the apex. The male specimen from Sequoia National Park that was placed as this species by Grigarick & Schuster (1976) is described above as the holotype of Oropodes casson .