Epicaris Reitter, 1882

Hlaváč, Peter & Baňař, Petr, 2014, A review of the Pselaphinae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) from Socotra Island, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 54, pp. 121-132 : 125

Epicaris Reitter, 1882

Epicaris Reitter, 1882: 202 . Type species: Tetracis ventralis Raffray, 1882 , by monotypy; JEANNEL (1949): 192 (redescription); JEANNEL (1959): 627 (distribution).

Taphrophorus Schaufuss,1882: 350 . Type species: Taphrophorus doriae Schaufuss, 1882 , by subsequent designation of JEANNEL (1949): 192; synonymized by RAFFRAY (1904): 361.

Diagnosis (extended due to the incorporation of the new species). Large sized pselaphine of the tribe Ctenistini characterized by the following characters: 1) body shiny, dorsally with squamous setae restricted to base of head and base of pronotum; 2) head ventrally with belt of squamous setae except where interrupted by gular carina, additional squamous setae well-defined on mesoventrite, first (sternite III), and anterior and posterior parts of second (IV) abdominal ventrites; 3) head with very small frontal and vertexal foveae; 4) two pairs of trichomes present on apical corners of elytra; 5) antennal club trimerous, weakly defined, unmodified in males, scape and pedicel cylindrical, antennomeres III–X more or less conical, XI conical in basal half then taper to apex; 6) maxillary palpi varying from very small, not Epicaris could be seen as dubious. However, maxillary palpi are one of the most flexible and unstable body parts in the Pselaphinae . One of the evolutionary trends in the tribe Ctenistini seems to be towards diminution of the maxillary palpi (J. Parker, pers. comm. 2013). Four genera of Ctenistini have similarly reduced maxillary palpi, which are not visible in dorsal view: Chennium Latreille, 1807 (13 species in Palaearctic region from Spain to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), Chenniopsis Raffray, 1904 (1 species from Madagascar), Atinus Horn, 1868 (2 species from USA), and Biotus Casey, 1887 (1 species from USA). These genera, probably except for Chenniopsis , are myrmecophilous, which is also very probably the case of Epicaris due to the presence of trichomes on the elytra. Except for the form of the maxillary palpi, there are no other characters supporting the exclusion of E. bezdeki sp. nov. from Epicaris , and the diminution of the maxillary palpi of the three genera mentioned above, as well as in E. bezdeki sp. nov., could be simply a result of their adaptation to myrmecophily.