Indoquedius dispersepunctatus ( Scheerpeltz, 1965 )

Brunke, Adam James, 2023, Review of Quedius (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) described from the 1934 expedition by R. Malaise to Myanmar, European Journal of Taxonomy 864, pp. 117-145 : 122-123

Indoquedius dispersepunctatus ( Scheerpeltz, 1965)

Figs 1C , 4A–B , 7A

Quedius (Indoquedius) dispersepunctatus Scheerpeltz, 1965: 293 .

Diagnosis

This species is unique among all Indoquedius described from the mainland Oriental region for the combination of: sparse, irregular elytral punctation ( Fig. 4A ); short elytra with strongly transverse scutellum ( Fig. 1C ); and extremely finely and sparsely punctate abdominal tergites III–VI, IV–VI with the apical half to two-thirds impunctate ( Fig. 4B ). Widespread and possibly sympatric I. filicornis (Eppelsheim) is somewhat similar in the short elytra but the elytral punctures are coarser and denser, the scutellum is densely and coarsely punctate and the abdominal punctures are much coarser. Although it has been reported that I. filicornis always lacks a palisade seam on abdominal tergite VII ( Smetana 2017a), it was present on one dark female specimen (ASC) from Yunnan, China, determined by A. Smetana and otherwise consistent with the species.

Type material

Holotype

MYANMAR – Kachin State • ♀; “N.E. Burma, Kambaiti; 7000 ft.; 3–7/5.1934; R. Malaise [printed label] / HOLOTYPUS [red handwritten label] / TYPUS Quedius dispersepunctatus, O. Scheerpeltz [dark red-pink label] / Quedius (Indoquedius) dispersepunctatus nov. spec., det. Scheerpeltz [printed label] / 6476 E91 [blue printed label] / NHRS-JLKB 000073667 ”; NHRS.

Redescription

Body entirely dark, maxillary and labial palpi testaceous, antennae testaceous without any obviously darkened segments, legs yellowish-brown with dark brown middle and hind femora.

Head distinctly transverse; eyes very large and convex; tempora almost non-existent, with three parocular punctures along inner margin of eye; posterior frontal puncture slightly anteriad of hind margin of eye, puncture touching border; temporal puncture absent; nuchal ridge indistinct at middle of neck; antennomere 3 about 1.3 × as long as 2, antennomeres elongate and symmetrical, becoming shorter toward apical antennomere, antennomere 10 about 1.3 × as long as wide. Pronotum distinctly transverse, slightly convergent anteriad, with broadly rounded posterior margin, dorsal rows each with three punctures, sublateral rows absent, large lateral puncture touching marginal bead. Scutellum transverse, with seven moderately coarse punctures, most of scutellum surface impunctate; elytra short, slightly broader than pronotum, suture markedly shorter than pronotum at midline, at sides, slightly longer than pronotum at midline, punctures moderately coarse, sparsely and irregularly distributed, separated by at least one puncture diameter but most by several times that amount; wings fully developed; abdominal tergite VII with palisade fringe; abdominal punctures extremely fine and sparse; tergite III with only a short transverse row of basal punctures; tergites VI–VI with posterior ½ to ⅔ impunctate; segments with extremely fine and dense microsculpture of transverse waves.

Male

Unknown.

Female

Tergite X strongly narrowed to deeply and narrowly emarginate apex ( Fig. 7A ).

Distribution

Known only from the type locality in Myanmar (Kachin).

Remarks

The type material includes only a single female holotype. The holotype was dissected and female tergite X is illustrated in Fig. 7A . Based on external morphology alone, I. dispersepunctatus does not have any synonyms and can be easily recognized.

Figures

Fig. 1. Habitus of Indoquedius described by Scheerpeltz (1965). A. I. malaisei, ♂, holotype (NHRS). B. I. micantiventris, ♂, holotype (NHRS). C. I. dispersepunctatus, ♀, holotype (NHRS). D. I. parallelicollis, ♀, paratype (NHW). E. I. sanguinipennis syn. nov. (= I. parallelicollis), ♀, holotype (NHRS). F. I. recticollis, ♀, holotype (NHRS). Scale bars = 1 mm.

Fig. 4. A–B. Indoquedius dispersepunctatus(Scheerpeltz, 1965). A. Elytra. B. Dorsal abdomen. C–D. I. recticollis (Scheerpeltz, 1965). C. Elytra. D. Dorsal abdomen. E–F. Malaisdius smetanai gen. et sp. nov. E. Head. F. Elytra. Abbreviations: Af = anterior frontal puncture; b = basal puncture; pf = posterior frontal puncture; sa = supraantennal puncture. Scale bars = 1 mm.

Fig. 7. Female tergite X. A. Indoquedius dispersepunctatus (Scheerpeltz, 1965). B. I. parallelicollis (Scheerpeltz, 1965). C. I. recticollis (Scheerpeltz, 1965). D. Malaisdius ruficeps (Scheerpeltz, 1965). E. Quedius (Microsaurus) rutilipennis Scheerpeltz, 1965. F. Q. (M.) impressithorax Scheerpeltz, 1965. Scale bars = 0.1 mm.