Cephennodes (Cephennodes) elegantissimus, Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2015

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2015, The Cephenniini of China. VII. New species and new records of Cephennodes Reitter of Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 4033 (3), pp. 393-410 : 402-403

Cephennodes (Cephennodes) elegantissimus sp. n.

( Figs 9 , 19–20 )

Type material. Holotype: CHINA (Sichuan Province): ♂, three labels: " CHINA - S Sichuan, 3000 m / pass N of Jinyang, Rhododendron / primary coniferous forest / 15-19.VI.2004, leg. R. Fabbri" [white, printed]; " MUSEO GENOVA / Acquisto V.2005 / da R. Fabbri" [white, printed]; " CEPHENNODES (s. str.) / elegantissimus m. / det. P. Jałoszyński, '15 / HOLOTYPUS " [red, printed] ( MSNG). Paratypes: 3 ♀♀, same data as for holotype ( MSNG, cPJ).

Diagnosis. Strongly elongate, slender and strongly convex species with head and pronotum darker than elytra; elytral subhumeral lines shorter than 0.2 EL; aedeagus with apical projections bent dorsally at nearly right angle and in strictly ventral view not visible; each paramere in addition to robust apical setae with short submedian seta inserted on short protuberance.

Description. Body of male ( Fig. 9 ) strongly convex, oval with shallow constriction between pronotum and elytra; head and pronotum dark reddish-brown, elytra light reddish-brown with slightly darkened suture, legs except tarsi and antennae slightly darker than elytra; vestiture of setae light brown. BL 1.83 mm.

Head broadest at moderately large but strongly convex and coarsely faceted eyes, HL 0.25 mm, HW 0.38 mm; vertex and frons confluent and weakly convex; supraantennal tubercles feebly marked. Punctures on frons and vertex very fine but dense, separated by spaces subequal to diameters of punctures; setae sparse, short and suberect. Antennae long and slender and gradually thickening from antennomere VII, AnL 0.93 mm, antennomeres I–VIII each distinctly elongate, IX and X about as long as broad, XI about as long as IX–X together, 2.2× as long as broad, with pointed apex.

Pronotum semioval, strongly convex and only slightly flattened near hind corners, broadest near middle; PL 0.53 mm, PW 0.65 mm. Anterior margin arcuate; lateral margins strongly rounded in anterior half and weakly rounded in posterior third, weakly convergent toward nearly right-angled posterior pronotal corners; posterior margin shallowly bisinuate; lateral carinae narrow and sharply delimited from disc in posterior half of pronotum; lateral antebasal pits small but distinct, each located closer to lateral than to posterior pronotal margin. Punctures on pronotal disc fine and very shallow but sharply marked, at middle separated by spaces equal to 1.5 or slightly more diameters of punctures, also area near each anterior pronotal corner covered with very fine and inconspicuous punctures, so that entire pronotal disc is glossy. Setae short, sparse, suberect.

Elytra about as convex as pronotum, oval, broadest near anterior third; EL 1.05 mm, EW 0.75 mm, EI 1.40; subhumeral lines carinate, moderately sharply marked, extremely short, equal to only 0.17 of EL and weakly divergent caudad; basal fovea on each elytron located closer to lateral margin of mesoscutellum than to subhumeral line; elytral apices unmodified, separately rounded. Punctures on elytra larger and denser than those on pronotum but superficial and diffused, and therefore indistinct; setae short, moderately dense, suberect. Hind wings absent.

Metaventrite without lateral impressions, convex.

Legs moderately long and slender; pro- and mesotibiae slightly curved inward.

Aedeagus ( Figs 19–20 ) stout and darkly sclerotized, AeL 0.50 mm; capsular part of median lobe in ventral view oval and elongate, with diaphragm located on subapical area of ventral wall and exposed; apical projections so strongly bent ventrally that in ventral view not visible; parameres short and strongly curved, asymmetrical, each with two robust apical setae and one short median seta inserted on short protuberance.

Female. Externally similar to male, with less curved apical portion of protibia. BL 1.65–1.74 mm; HL 0.23– 0.24 mm, HW 0.35–0.36 mm, AnL 0.83 mm; PL 0.50–0.53 mm, PW 0.64–0.68 mm; EL 0.93–0.98 mm, EW 0.73– 0.74 mm, EI 1.28–1.32.

Distribution. Central-southern China: Sichuan Province.

Etymology. The epithet elegantissimus was chosen to underline the elegant body shape of this interesting species.

Remarks. No other species of Cephennodes has such an elongate and strongly convex body with head and pronotum darker than elytra, very short subhumeral lines and the aedeagus with its apical projections bent ventrally at nearly right angle. An interesting character of C. elegantissimus is the prosternal intercoxal process, which is distinctly narrower than that of any other known species of Cephennodes . The mesoventral process is also somewhat narrower than in other species, and it seems that this is a consequence of a general body shape, which is very slender and elongate as for Cephennodes .

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 10. Dorsal habitus of holotype males (1, 4, 6, 9, 10), elytral apices in dorsal (2) and posterodorsal (3) views; head of male in dorsolateral view (5); abdomen of male in ventral (7) and lateral (8) views. Cephennodes (s. str.) intricatus sp. n. (1 – 3); Cephennodes (s. str.) monofoveatus sp. n. (4 – 5); Cephennodes (s. str.) pinnapes sp. n. (6 – 8); Cephennodes (s. str.) elegantissimus sp. n. (9); Cephennodes (s. str.) palpalis sp. n. (10). Abbreviations: ai, apical impression; csf, circumsutural flattening; csr, C-shaped ridge; sb, setal brush; s 3 – 8, abdominal sternite III – VIII.

FIGURES 19 – 22. Aedeagus in ventral (19, 21) and lateral (20, 22) views. Cephennodes (s. str.) elegantissimus sp. n. (19 – 20); Cephennodes (s. str.) palpalis sp. n. (21 – 22).