Anaulacaspis flavomarginata, Assing, 2016

Assing, Volker, 2016, Revision of the Anaulacaspis species of the Palaearctic region (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 66 (2), pp. 201-255 : 241

Anaulacaspis flavomarginata spec. nov.

( Figs 146–150 , Map 5 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “ Albania [6], Elbasan , 9 km ENE Elbasan, 120 m, Shkumbin river bank, 41°09'37"N, 20°10'39"E, 24.V.2010, V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Anaulacaspis flavomarginata sp. n., det. V. Assing 2016” (cAss) . Paratypes: 4 ♀♀: same data as holotype (cAss); 4 exs.: same data, but leg. Schülke ( MNB, cAss); 1 ♀: “GR. Fthiotis, No. 14, 40 km W Lamia, bank of Sperchios river , 38°55'46N, 21°59'19E, 16.IV.2000, V. Assing ” (cAss) .

Etymology: The specific epithet (Latin, adjective) alludes to the yellow posterior margin of the elytra.

Description: Body length 2.3–2.5 mm; length of forebody 1.1–1.2 mm. Coloration: body black, except for the bright-yellowish posterior margin of the elytra; legs brown to dark-brown; antennae blackish-brown with the basal two antennomeres more or less distinctly paler.

Head approximately 1.15 times as broad as long, with indistinct sexual dimorphism; punctation moderately dense. Eyes longer than postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna approximately 0.8 mm long; antennomere IV approximately as long as broad; antennomeres V–X of gradually increasing width and increasingly transverse, X approximately twice as broad as long.

Pronotum 1.10–1.15 times as broad as long and approximately as broad as head; sexual dimorphism rather pronounced.

Elytra slightly longer than pronotum; punctation very dense and very fine. Hind wings fully developed.

Abdomen approximately as broad as elytra, or nearly so; punctation distinct, rather dense, and more or less regularly distributed; posterior margin of tergite VIII ( Fig. 146 ) weakly convex, postero-laterally without a cluster of dense long setae, marginal setae thin and moderately long.

♂: punctation of head slightly more distinct than in female; pronotum with dense and distinct, but not asperate punctation; posterior margin of sternite VIII ( Fig. 147 ) obtusely pointed in the middle, marginal setae moderately long, thin, and evenly spaced; median lobe of aedeagus ( Figs 148–149 ) 0.3 mm long, with rather stout ventral process.

♀: punctation of pronotum very fine; posterior margin of sternite VIII ( Fig. 150 ) weakly concave in the middle.

Comparative notes: Anaulacaspis flavomarginata is readily distinguished from its sympatric congeners as follows: from A. nigra by the coloration of the elytra, the nonasperate punctation of the male pronotum, the different shape and chaetotaxy of tergite VIII and of the male and female sternite VIII, as well as by the completely different shape of the median lobe of the aedeagus; from A. laevigata by the coloration of the elytra, darker legs, the sexual dimorphism of the pronotum, and a larger aedeagus with a stouter and apically less acute ventral process; from A. pamphylica , with which it shares the coloration of the elytra, by a slightly smaller and more slender body, the absence of distinct impressions on the male head and pronotum, as well as by a much smaller aedaegus with a ventral process and crista apicalis of different shapes.

Based on the morphology of the aedeagus, the modifications of the male pronotum, the shapes of tergite and sternite VIII, and particularly the general morphology of the median lobe of the aedeagus, A. flavomarginata is closely related to A. desertorum , A. seclusa , and allied species, from which it differs by the coloration and the aedeagus with a ventral process of different shape (lateral view).

Distribution and natural history: The currently known distribution is confined to two localities in Albania and Greece ( Map 5 ). The specimens were hand-collected and washed from gravel on river banks at altitudes of 120 and 280 m, respectively.

Figures

Map 5: Distributions of Anaulacaspis flavomarginata (white diamonds), A. pamphylica (black star), A. inexpectata (white circles), and A. persica (black circles) in the West Palaearctic and Middle Asia, based on revised records.

Figs 136–163: Anaulacaspsis excisa (136–141), A. pamphylica (142–145), A. flavomarginata (146–150), A. laevigata (151–158; 153–154: lectotype; 155: Pelopónnisos; 156: Lesbos),and A. iberica (159–163): maletergite VIII(136, 142,146, 151); male sternite VIII (137, 143, 147, 152); median lobe of aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (138–139, 144–145, 148–149, 153–156, 159–162); female sternite VIII (141, 150, 158);female tergite VIII (140); apex of ventral process of aedeagus in lateral view (157, 163). Scalebars:0.1 mm.