Amarochara schuelkei, Assing, 2010

Assing, V., 2010, A revision of Amarochara of the Holarctic region. IV. Three new species from China, a new synonymy, additional records, and an updated key to species (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae: Oxypodini), Linzer biologische Beiträge 42 (2), pp. 1139-1154 : 1142-1144

Amarochara schuelkei nov.sp. ( Figs 1-8 )

T y p e m a t e r i a l: Holotype: " China: Yunnan, Baoshan Pref., mount. range 22 km S Tengchong , 1800 m, 24°49'29''N, 98°29'30''E, devast. primary forest, litter & mushr. sifted, 30.VIII.2009, leg. M. Schülke [CH09-19] / Holotypus Amarochara schuelkei sp.n. det. V. Assing 2010" (cAss).

D e s c r i p t i o n: Body length 3.9 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 1 . Coloration: body blackish-brown, with the posterior margins of the abdominal segments reddish; legs reddish; antennae dark-brown, with antennomere II dark-reddish.

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Head ( Fig. 2 ) posteriorly without distinct neck, approximately as wide as long and of subquadrate shape, lateral margins subparallel in dorsal view; punctation very fine; interstices with very weak traces of microsculpture; eyes large and bulging, approximately as long as the distance from their posterior margins to posterior carina of head; genal carina very fine and short, in lateral view visible only posteriorly. Maxillary palpus moderately slender, preapical palpomere approximately 2.5 times as long as wide. Antennae massive; antennomere I less than twice as long as wide and with pronounced dorsoapical furrow; II shorter and more slender than I, little more than 1.5 times as long as broad; III shorter than II, distinctly coniform, and approximately 1.5 times as long as wide; IV disc-shaped, approximately 3 times as wide as long; V-X slightly wider than IV, of subequal width, of gradually increasing length, and decreasingly transverse, X less than twice as wide as long; XI of ovoid shape and almost as long as the combined length of VIII-X ( Fig. 3 ).

Pronotum ( Fig. 2 ) approximately 1.2 times as wide as long and 1.45 times as wide as head, posterior angles weakly marked; lateral margins weakly convex, maximal width approximately in the middle; punctation moderately dense and very fine; interstices at most with very indistinct traces of microsculpture and glossy; pubescence relatively short and depressed.

Elytra approximately 1.2 times as wide and at suture almost 0.9 times as long as pronotum; posterior margin distinctly sinuate near posterior angles; punctation moderately dense, moderately fine (much coarser than that of pronotum), and defined; interstices without distinct microsculpture and on average approximately as wide as diameter of punctures ( Fig. 2 ); pubescence depressed to suberect; mesoventrite anteriorly with short median carina; process of mesoventrite long and apically acute, reaching more than halfway between mesocoxae. Metatarsus 0.82 times as long as metatibia; metatarsomere I elongated, slightly longer than the combined length of II-IV.

Abdominal tergites III-V with moderately deep, densely and coarsely punctate, but not carinate anterior impressions; tergites VI-VII anteriorly with conspicuous coarse and striate punctation; remainder of tergal surfaces with very sparse and fine punctation; tergites III-VI without, tergites VII-VIII with extremely shallow microsculpture, all tergites glossy ( Fig. 4 ); tergite X anteriorly not distinctly elongated and rather broad.

: tergite VIII posteriorly weakly convex; posterior margin of sternite VIII broadly convex and with dense long marginal setae; median lobe of aedeagus slender, 0.45 mm long; ventral process much longer than basal capsule, straight in lateral view, and with short basal folds ( Figs 5-6 ); paramere 0.42 mm long, not distinctly modified, apical lobe small and with four long setae ( Figs 7-8 ).

: unknown.

E t y m o l o g y: The species is dedicated to my colleague and friend Michael Schülke, who collected the holotype.

C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s: Amarochara schuelkei is distinguished from the similar A. formosana ASSING 2002 from Taiwan by numerous characters: the uniformly dark coloration of the body ( A. formosana : elytra dark-yellowish); the glossy head and pronotum with moderately dense punctation ( A. formosana : with distinct microsculpture and subdued shine, punctation conspicuously dense); the disc-shaped antennomeres IV and V ( A. formosana : barely twice as wide as long); the much less slender and shorter maxillary

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palpi; the larger (in relation to head and elytra) and differently shaped pronotum ( A. formosana : pronotum approximately 1.05 times as wide as long and 1.20-1.25 times as wide as head, maximal width anterior to middle); the much coarser, sparser, and more defined punctation of the elytra ( A. formosana : punctation extremely dense and fine); the depressed and sparser pubescence of the forebody ( A. formosana : suberect and extremely dense); the shorter tibiae ( A. formosana : metatarsus approximately 0.7 times as long as metatibia); the longer metatarsomere I ( A. formosana : distinctly shorter than the combined length of metatarsomeres II-IV); the much sparser punctation on the posterior tergal surfaces of the abdomen ( A. formosana : punctation dense everywhere); the striate punctation in the anterior portion of tergites VI and VII); the differently shaped median lobe of the aedeagus; the more slender apical lobe of the paramere ( A. formosana : wedge-shaped). For illustrations of A. formosana see ASSING (2002a).

D i s t r i b u t i o n a n d b i o n o m i c s: Thetypelocality is situated in western Yunnan, China, to the south of Tengchong. The holotype was sifted from leaf litter in a degraded primary forest at an altitude of 1800 m.

Figures

Figs 1-8: Amarochara schuelkei nov.sp. (holotype): (1) habitus; (2) forebody; (3) antenna; (4) abdomen; (5) median lobe of aedeagus in lateral view; (6) ventral process of median lobe of aedeagus in ventral view; (7) paramere; (8) apical portion of paramere. Scale bars: 1: 1.0 mm; 2-4: 0.5 mm; 5-8: 0.1 mm.