Anaulacaspis libanotica ( FAGEL, 1969 )

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 : 227-228

Anaulacaspis libanotica ( FAGEL, 1969)

( Figs 47–51 , Map 2 )

Melagria libanotica FAGEL, 1969: 12 .

Type material examined: Paratypes: 1 ♀: “ Liban / Coll. et det. A. Fauvel, Falagria nigra Grav., R.I.Sc.N.B. 17.479 / G. Fagel det. 1969, Melagria libanotica n. sp. / Paratype ” ( IRSNB) ; 1 ♀: same labels, but without locality labels ( IRSNB); 1 ♀: “ Borak / Coll . et det. A. Fauvel, Falagria nigra Grav., R.I.Sc.N.B. 17.479 / G. Fagel det. 1969, Melagria libanotica n. sp. / Paratype ” ( IRSNB) .

Comment: The original description is based on a male holotype from “ Liban: Moukhtara , 800 m ”, two females from “ Liban ”, one from “ Liban, Borak ”, and one from “ Syrien, Kaifa” (FAGEL 196). The holotype was not among the material made available to me from the IRSNB.

Additional material examined: Lebanon: 1 ♀, Beirouth (NHMW).

Israel: 1 ♂, Tel Yosef [32°33'N, 35°24'E] (cAss); 1 ♀, Golan Heights, Mas’ala, Ya’ar Odem R., 33°13'N, 35°45'E, 1015 m, 2.II.2007, leg. Feldmann (cFel); 1 ♀, Golan Heights, Bental Reservoir, W Merom Golan, 1000 m, stony wetland near shore, 30.VI.2006, leg. Wrase ( MNB). Locality not specified: 3 ♀♀, “ Syria ” ( NHMW, cAss) .

Redescription: Body length 2.3–2.6 mm; length of forebody 1.1–1.3 mm. Coloration: body blackish, with the sutural and posterior portions of the elytra usually somewhat paler brown; legs pale-brown to brown; antennae dark-brown with the basal antennomeres sometimes more or less distinctly paler.

Head approximately 1.1 times as long as broad, with fine and rather dense punctation and glossy; sexual dimorphism weakly pronounced. Eyes slightly longer than postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna 0.8–0.9 mm long; antennomeres IV approximately as long as broad, V–X of gradually increasing width and increasingly tranverse, and X approximately 1.5 times as broad as long.

Pronotum approximately 1.1 times as broad as long and as broad as head, glossy; punctation moderately dense and extremely fine.

Elytra approximately as long as pronotum, with fine and rather dense punctation. Hind wings present.

Abdomen slightly narrower than elytra; punctation fine and rather dense; interstices with microreticulation, this microreticulation more distinct on posterior than on anterior tergites; tergite VIII ( Fig. 49 ) with postero-lateral cluster of long thin setae on either side and with truncate to concave posterior margin, marginal setae rather long and rather stout.

♂: head neither impressed nor depressed, punctation slightly more distinct than in female; pronotum without distinct median impression, punctation denser and more distinct than in female; sternite VIII ( Fig. 50 ) strongly produced posteriorly, apically with very dense and long setae; median lobe of aedeagus ( Figs 47–48 ) 0.32 mm long, very slender in lateral view, broad and apically abruptly narrowed in ventral view.

♀: posterior margin of sternite VIII ( Fig. 51 ) strongly convexly produced and with dense long and fine setae in the middle.

Comparative notes: As can be inferred from the chaetotaxy of tergite VIII (with postero-lateral cluster of long thin setae) and from the shape of the male and female sternites VIII, A. libanotica belongs to the A. nigra group. It is distinguished from other similarly black and finely punctate species of this group by the near absence of a sexual dimorphism of the head and pronotum, as well as by the morphology of the longer median lobe of the aedeagus.

Distribution and natural history: Confirmed male-based records are currently known only from Lebanon and Israel ( Map 2 ). The specimens from Israel were collected at an altitude of approximately 1000 m, some of them in a stony wetland near the shore of a reservoir.

Figures

Map 2: Distributions of Anaulacaspis nigra (black circles), A. pseudonigra (white circle), A. reticulata (white triangle), A. libanotica (black triangles), A. caucasica (white diamonds), A. truncata (black diamonds), and A. sinuata (stars) in the West Palaearctic and Middle Asia, based on revised records.

Figs 31–48: Anaulacaspsis caucasica (31–34), A. pseudonigra (35–41), A. reticulata (42–46), and A. libanotica (47–48): male tergite VIII (31, 35, 43); male sternite VIII (32, 36, 44); median lobe of aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (33–34, 37–39, 45–48); apical portion of median lobe in ventral view (40); female sternite VIII (41); sutural portion of elytra (42). Scale bars: 0.1 mm.

Figs 49–69: Anaulacaspsis libanotica (49–51), A. sinuata (52–56), A. nigerrima (57–61), and A. persica (62–69): male tergite VIII (49, 52, 57, 62–63); male sternite VIII (50, 53, 58, 64); female sternite VIII (51, 56); median lobe of aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (54–55, 59–61, 65–69). Scale bars: 0.1 mm.