Nazeris brevilobatus, Assing, 2014

Assing, Volker, 2014, A revision of Nazeris. VI. On the fauna of East Yunnan, China (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 64 (2), pp. 355-373 : 358-360

Nazeris brevilobatus sp. n.

( Figs 1–7 , Map 2 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “ CHINA [1a] – Yunnan, mts NW Dongchuan, 2350 m, 26°10'00"N, 103°03'32"E, trail side, 8.VIII.2014, V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Nazeris brevilobatus sp. n., det. V. Assing 2014” (cAss).

Paratypes: 3 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀: same data as holotype (cAss) ; 3 ♂♂, 5 ♀♀ [1 ♂, 4 ♀♀ teneral]: same data as holotype, but leg. M. Schülke (cSch, cAss) .

Etymology: The specific epithet (Latin, adjective) alludes to the conspicuously short dorso-lateral apophyses of the aedeagus.

Description: Species of moderate size; body length 5.2–6.2 mm; length of forebody 2.9–3.2 mm. Coloration: body blackish-brown to blackish; legs and antennae yellowish.

Head ( Fig. 1 ) weakly oblong, approximately 1.05 times as long as broad; lateral contours behind eyes smoothly curving towards posterior constriction in dorsal view, posterior angles obsolete; punctation very dense, not very coarse, and distinctly umbilicate; interstices forming narrow ridges, without microsculpture. Eyes approximately one third as long as distance from posterior margin of eye to posterior constriction in dorsal view, or nearly so. Antenna approximately 1.7 mm long.

Pronotum ( Fig. 1 ) approximately 1.15 times as long as broad and 0.9 times as broad as head; punctation very dense and much coarser than that of head; midline posteriorly with short and narrow impunctate glossy elevation; lateral portions without distinct impressions, elevations, or callosities; interstices without microsculpture and glossy.

Elytra ( Fig. 1 ) approximately 0.55 times as long as pronotum; humeral angles obsolete; punctation approximately as coarse and as dense as that of pronotum; interstices without microsculpture and glossy. Hind wings completely reduced. Metatarsomere I elongated, nearly as long as the combined length of II–V.

Abdomen 1.15–1.20 times as broad as elytra; punctation coarse and dense on tergite III, becoming gradually less coarse and less dense towards posterior tergites; interstices of tergites III–VI without, those of tergites VII and VIII with very shallow microreticulation; posterior margin of tergite VII with narrow rudiment of a palisade fringe; posterior margin of tergite VIII strongly convex.

♂: sternite VII ( Fig. 2 ) approximately 1.5 times as broad as long, with shallow postero-median impression, this impression without pubescence in postero-median portion, posterior margin with distinct broad and shallow median excision, this excision with a lateral cluster of long black setae on either side ( Fig. 3 ); sternite VIII ( Fig. 4 ) transverse, approximately 1.1 times as broad as long, posterior excision acutely V-shaped and approximately one-fourth as deep as length of sternite; aedeagus ( Figs 5–6 ) 1.10–1.15 mm long; ventral process laterally compressed, ventrally divided along middle and sharply edged in apical portion, basally with a short and acute projection on either side ( Fig. 7 ); dorso-lateral apophyses weakly sclerotized, very short, not reaching middle of ventral process, weakly curved, apically strongly dilated and obliquely truncate.

Comparative notes: Nazeris brevilobatus is readily distinguished from other previously described species recorded from Yunnan particularly by the conspicuous morphology of the aedeagus (short dorso-lateral apophyses; structure of the ventral process; projections at base of the ventral process) and by the distinctive shape and chaetotaxy of the male sternite VII.

Distribution and natural history: The type locality is situated to the northwest of Dongchuan, northeastern Yunnan ( Map 2 ). The specimens were sifted from litter and the roots of herbs at and near a trail margin at an altitude of 2350 m. Several of the paratypes are teneral.

Figures

Map 2: Distribution of the named species of Nazeris brevilobatus group in eastern Yunnan: N. brevilobatus sp. n. (white circle); N. virilis sp. n. (black circles); N. claviger sp. n. (black diamond); N. constrictus sp. n. (white triangles), N. discissus sp. n. (black square).

Figs 1–13: Nazeris brevilobatus sp. n. (1–7) and N. virilis sp. n. (8–13): forebody (1, 8); male sternite VII (2, 9); postero-median portion of male sternite VII (3, 10); male sternite VIII (4, 11); aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (5–6, 12–13); basal portion of ventral process of aedeagus in ventral view (7). Scale bars: 1, 8: 1.0 mm; 2, 4–6, 9, 11–13: 0.5 mm; 3, 10: 0.2 mm; 7: 0.1 mm.