Stenohelops Reitter, 1922

Nabozhenko, Maxim & Ando, Kiyoshi, 2018, Subtribal, Generic And Subgeneric Composition Of Darkling Beetles Of The Tribe Helopini (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) In The Eastern Palaearctic Region, Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 64 (4), pp. 277-327 : 290

Stenohelops Reitter, 1922

Type species: Isopedus plicatulus Kraatz, 1880, by subsequent designation ( GEBIEN, 1943) .

General morphology of adults. Body small or moderate in size (body length 3.5–11 mm), slender, convex, brown or rarely black, shiny, sometimes with bronze shade. Eyes weakly transverse, oval or rarely almost round (subgenus Gunarellus Reitter, 1922 ). Anterior margin of frontoclypeus straight. Male antennae long, with 4–5 apical antennomeres extending beyond base of pronotum, male with elongate banana-shaped ultimate antennomere ( Fig. 6A ). Pronotum always more or less cordiform ( Fig. 6 ). Prothoracic hypomera with transverse wrinkles (subgenus Stenomaleis Español, 1957 ), with punctures ( Stenohelops s. str., Gunarellus ) or with combined wrinkles and punctures (some Gunarellus , Stenomaleis ). Prosternal process weakly convex, not protrudent. Base of elytra with clear vertical border (pronotum rest against this border) and rounded, produced humeral angles. Elytra convex; interstriae sometimes with small granules, eighth interstria neither convex nor keel-shaped, connected with II –III interstriae apically and not connected with elytral margin; epipleura not reaching elytral apex, regularly narrowed to elytral sutural angles, with dorsal carina usually invisible dorsally. Legs slender, male protarsi widened.

Male genitalia ( Figs 4L–O ). Aedeagus ‘helopioid’; apical piece acute or rounded apically; median lobe with rounded bifurcate apex.

Female genital tubes. Spermatheca without basal duct, with short common duct basally and multiple branches.

Larvae unknown.

Composition. The genus contains 24 species ( NABOZHENKO & LÖBL 2008, NABOZHENKO 2016) and is divided into three subgenera: s. str., Stenomaleis and Gunarellus . Differences between these subgenera are not distinct. Gunarellus differs from other subgenera by not beaded elytral suture at apex (not clear character within genus) and usually pubescent head or all body dorsally. Stenomaleis differs from nominotypical subgenus in the wrinkled (punctured in Stenohelops s. str.) prohypomera, but this character is constantly variable (combined, with punctures and wrinkles or with only punctures or with only wrinkles) even in different populations of one species ( NABOZHENKO & KESKIN 2009). No clear differences are recognized between Iberian and Moroccan species of the genus Helopelius Reitter, 1922 and Stenohelops ( NABOZHENKO 2015 b) . One Chinese species can be formally placed to the subgenus Stenomaleis based on wrinkled prohypomera.

Distribution. The genus has disjunctive range as Nalassus : the main exclave occurs in the West Mediterranean region, the Balkans, Turkey and the Caucasus. The small generic exclave with a single species S. chinensis sp. n. is located in Southern China.

Figures

Fig. 6. Stenohelops chinensis sp.n., habitus: A = male, holotype, B = female, paratype

Fig. 4. Asiatic species of the subtrube Helopina (Tenebrionidae: Helopini), details of structure. Apterotarpela clypealis (A–F), Catomus solitarius (G–K), Stenohelops chinensis (L–O): A, G, L = aedeagus, ventral view, B, H, M = aedeagus, lateral view, C, I, N, O = median lobe