Amischa cretica ASSING, 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 : 242-243

Amischa cretica ASSING spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:1DBCBA49-3E09-4665-97CC-4641BB816F4E

( Figs 1–11 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “GR – Crete [34], Orno Thriptis, E Thripti, 35°05'35"N, 25°52'36"E, 970 m, under stones, 6.IV.2012, V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Amischa cretica sp. n. det. V. Assing 2018” (cAss) . Paratypes: 1 ♂: same data as holotype (cAss); 1 ♀: “GR – Crete [3], Orno Thriptis , E Thripti, 35°05'34"N, 25°52'41"E, 970 m, under stones, 25.XII.2017, V. Assing ” (cAss); 6♂♂, 4 ♀♀: “ N35°19'22 E23°53'33, GR Kreta 1050 m, Omalos S 25.3.2019, Brachat & Meybohm (21)” (cAss) .

Etymology: The specific epithet (adjective) alludes to the fact that this species is at present known only from Crete.

Description: Body length 2.2–2.4 mm; length of forebody 1.00– 1.15 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 1 . Coloration: head black; pronotum and elytra dark-brown; abdomen blackish-brown with the posterior margins of the segments brown; legs yellow; antennae blackish-brown with antennomeres I–II dark-yellowish.

Head ( Fig. 2 ) weakly transverse; punctation rather dense and extremely fine, invisible in the pronounced microsculpture even at a magnification of 100 x. Eyes approximately as long as postocular portion in dorsal view. Antenna ( Fig. 3 ) approximately 0.6 mm long; antennomeres IV weakly transverse, V–X of gradually increasing width and increasingly transverse, and X approximately 1.5 times as broad as long.

Pronotum ( Fig. 2 ) approximately 1.2 times as broad as long and 1.25 times as broad as head; punctation and microsculpture similar to those of head.

Elytra ( Fig. 2 ) slightly shorter than pronotum; punctation dense and fine, more distinct than that of pronotum; interstices with shallow microsculpture. Hind wings fully developed.

Abdomen slightly narrower than elytra; punctation dense and fine, nearly as dense on tergite VII as on anterior tergites; microsculpture present, more distinct on tergite VII than on anterior tergites; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.

♂: tergite VIII ( Fig. 4 ) transverse, its posterior margin deeply, broadly triangularly excised; sternite VIII ( Fig. 5 ) much longer than tergite VIII, slightly longer than broad, posteriorly with a pair of long black submarginal setae, posterior margin convex, in the middle indistinctly concave; median lobe of aedeagus ( Figs 6–8 ) 0.36 mm long, with pronounced crista apicalis; internal sac basally with a pair of pronounced and strongly curved (hookshaped) spines.

♀: tergite VIII ( Fig. 9 ) nearly as long as broad, longer than that of male, posterior excision of similar shape as in male, but less deep; sternite VIII ( Fig. 10 ) approximately as long as broad, slightly longer than tergite VIII, posterior margin convex and with moderately modified short yellowish marginal setae; spermatheca as in Fig. 11 .

Comparative notes: Amischa cretica is characterized particularly by the secondary sexual characters and by the morphology of the median lobe of the aedeagus, especially the shapes of the ventral process, of the crista apicalis, and of the basal internal structures. Regarding the sexual characters, the species is most similar to A. corsica BENICK, 1967 ( Corsica) and A. otini PEYERIMHOff, 1949 ( Morocco) (type material of both species examined). Amischa cretica is distinguished from them as follows: from A. corsica (female not available) by the shape of the male sternite VIII ( A. corsica : posterior margin distinctly concave in the middle), a much deeper posterior excision of the shorter and more strongly transverse male tergite VIII, and by a smaller median lobe of the aedeagus with a distinctly bisinuate (lateral view) and more slender (ventral view) ventral process, and by the hook-shaped basal internal structures ( A. corsica : median lobe approximately 0.4 mm long, with basal three-fourths of ventral process nearly straight in ventral view and with smoothly curved basal internal structures); from A. otini (female unknown) by longer elytra, a smaller and in ventral view basally more slender aedeagus with a shorter ventral process, a more pronounced crista apicalis, and with stout and hook-shaped basal spines in the internal sac ( A. otini : median lobe 0.4 mm long; basal internal structures very thin, not hook-shaped, and weakly sclerotized), and by a shorter male tergite VIII with a deeper posterior excision of different shape ( A. otini : posterior excision smoothly concave).

The new species is readily distinguished from the widespread and common A. bifoveolata (MANNERHEIM, 1830) , A. decipiens (SHARP, 1869) , and A. forcipata MULSANT & REY, 1873 , as well as from the similarly widespread and common, but parthenogenetic A. analis (GRAVENHORST, 1802) and A. nigrofusca (STEPHENS, 1832) by the completely different shapes of the male and female tergites and sternites VIII alone.

Distribution and natural history: All type specimens were collected in two localities, one in Orno Thriptis, East Crete, and one in Lefka Ori, West Crete. The specimens from the type locality, which is identical to those of Myrmecopora thriptica , Astenus thripticus , and Sunius thripticus (three local endemics of the Orno Thriptis), were found under stones in a moist stony pasture at an altitude of 970 m. For a photo of the type locality see figure 78 in ASSING (2013). The specimens from Lefka Ori were sifted from Berberis litter at an altitude of 1050 m.

Figures

Figs 1–19: Amischa cretia (1–11) and Atheta digitalis (12–19): habitus (1, 12); forebody (2, 13); antenna (3, 14); male tergite VIII (4, 16); male sternite VIII (5); median lobe of aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (6–8, 17–18); female tergite VIII (9); female sternite VIII (10); spermatheca (11, 19); abdomen (15). Scale bars: 1, 12: 1.0 mm; 2, 13, 15: 0.5 mm; 3–5, 9–10, 14, 16: 0.2 mm; 6–8, 11, 17–19: 0.1 mm.