Microhoria quadraticeps ( Desbrochers des Loges, 1875 )

Telnov, Dmitry, 2022, Revisional notes on the genus Microhoria Chevrolat, 1877 (Insecta: Coleoptera: Anthicidae) from the Eastern Mediterranean and Turkey, with new descriptions, an annotated catalogue, and a key, Baltic Journal of Coleopterology 22 (2), pp. 195-312 : 277-279

Microhoria quadraticeps ( Desbrochers des Loges, 1875) ( Fig. 43 )

Anthicus quadraticeps Desbrochers des Loges, 1875: 47 (description).

Anthicus quadraticeps – Marseul 1879: 253 (morphology); Pic 1894: 55 (checklist); Pic 1911a: 68 (checklist); Nardi 2004: 138 (taxonomy).

Anthicus (Immicrohoria) quadraticeps – Winkler 1927: 849 (checklist); Hariri 1968: 206 (checklist).

Microhoria quadraticeps – Uhmann 1988: 404 (new combination, record – Jordan); Uhmann et al. 2005: 5, 45 (biogeography, bibliography, distribution); Chandler et al. 2008: 442 (checklist, record – Turkey); Telnov 2020a: 612 (checklist).

Type material. Syntype 1 specimen MNHN: type [handwritten] / Damas [handwritten] / quadraticeps m [handwritten] / 74Db [printed] / TYPE [printed, label red]; syntype 1 male NHMW: Damascus [handwritten] // [printed] // TYPE [printed, label red] // quadraticeps [handwritten] det. v. Krekich [printed] // quadraticeps Desbr. [handwritten] .

New material. 1 male NHMW: Syr. [printed, label yellow] .

Supplementary description. Belongs to the M. terminata species group. Male syntype from NHMW. Total body length 2.9 mm. Forebody dark brown to almost black.Antennae and palps brown. Legs yellowish brown, femora distinctly darker than tibiae. Head about 1.1–1.2× as long as wide, head base broadly rounded to subtruncate, tempora subparallel, posterior temporal angles rounded. Compound eye moderate, about as long as tempus, moderately protruding from lateral outline of head. Head dorsum moderately glossy, punctures moderate, rather deep, dense. Intervening spaces smooth, generally as wide as to twice as wide as punctures. Dorsal cranial setae whitish, moderately dense, subdecumbent. Antenna slightly thickened in apical half. Terminal antennomere elongate, bluntly pointed, twice as long as penultimate antennomere, about as long as combined length of antennomeres 9– 10. Pronotum barely longer than wide, distinctly narrower than head across eyes, moderately glossy, broadly rounded at anterior margin. Lateral margins strongly constricted in posterior half. Pronotal disc flattened in dorsal aspect. Pronotal punctures, intervening spaces, and setation generally as those on head. Elytra about 1.5–1.6× as long as wide, laterally subparallel, dorsally flattened. Humerus obsolete. Elytral disc slightly glossy, punctures dense. Intervening spaces generally twice as wide as punctures, smooth. Apex of elytron truncate, with a minute, acutely triangular denticle at opening of gland channel. Elytral setae whitish, appressed, moderately dense, directed posteriad. Brachypterous or apterous. Legs without modifications, tibial terminal spurs paired. Tergites VII and VIII truncate at posterior margin. Morphological sternite VII broadly rounded at posterior margin. Aedeagus as in Fig. 43D–F . Tegmen apex rounded; fused baculi conspicuous, extending apically towards most of endophallus length; endophallic armature of a pair of long, sabre­like, slightly curved spines “encapsulated” by numerous spinules and externally surrounded by a “ring” of numerous larger, variably long, acutely pointed spinules.

Sexual dimorphism. Female elytron apex without modifications. Female tergite VII broadly rounded at posterior margin.

Ecology. Unknown.

Distribution. Jordan, Syria, Turkey. The records from Jordan and Turkey ( Uhmann 1988; Chandler et al. 2008) are based on non­dissected specimens.The presence of M. quadraticeps in Jordan and Turkey is not impossible but therefore requires additional confirmation.

Chorotype. SW­Asiatic (1.13 SWA), considered restricted to Levant and, possible S Turkey.

Figures

Fig. 43. Microhoria quadraticeps (Desbrochers des Loges, 1875). A – male syntype, habitus, dorsal view; B – ditto, forebody, dorsal view; C – Female syntype, habitus, dorsal view; D – Aedeagus, lateral view with inverted endophallic armature; E – Endophallic armature, inverted; F – Aedeagus, dorsal view [not to scale].