Parepinebriola Kavanaugh,, 2021

Kavanaugh, David H., Maddison, David R., Simison, W. Brian, Schoville, Sean D., Schmidt, Joachim, Faille, Arnaud, Moore, Wendy, Pflug, James M., Archambeault, Sophie L., Hoang, Tinya & Chen, Jei-Ying, 2021, Phylogeny of the supertribe Nebriitae (Coleoptera, Carabidae) based on analyses of DNA sequence data, ZooKeys 1044, pp. 41-152 : 41

Subgenus Parepinebriola Kavanaugh, subgen. nov.

Epinebriola Daniel & Daniel, 1904 (in part); Huber and Schmidt 2017 (in part)

Type species.

Nebria delicata Huber & Schmidt, 2017:59, by present designation.

Diagnosis.

Body size small or very small, SBL = 8.0 to 9.9 mm. Head moderately wide, slightly constricted behind eyes; vertex with a single central pale spot or a larger pale area and with a single pair of supraorbital setae present. Eyes slightly to moderately reduced in size, moderately to markedly convex. Antennal scape with one or two subapicodorsal setae; antennomeres 3 and 4 not laterally compressed, without extra setae. Labrum with three or four pairs of apical setae. Maxillary stipes typical for genus, with setae inserted flush on smooth surface. Penultimate labial palpomere with three setae. Pronotum with one midlateral seta (a second lateral seta present unilaterally in a few specimens) and one basolateral seta present on each side. Elytral intervals smooth, without macrosculpture, interval 3 with one to seven setiferous pores, intervals 5 and 7 without setiferous pores, intervals 3, 5, and 7 without catenations. Hindwings reduced to short, membranous lobes with only faint vestiges of venation. Metepisterna smooth to sparsely and faintly punctate. Protarsomeres 1-3 expanded in males; mesotarsomeres 2-4 longer than their apical width; tarsi dorsally glabrous or with only a few fine setae. Abdominal sternites IV to VI without paralateral setae. Median lobe of male aedeagus sclerotized dorsally at least to midlength on shaft; basal bulb only slightly expanded relative to shaft diameter and broadly open basally and with lateral and dorsal basal collar, without or with only slightly developed laterobasal lobes; sagittal aileron present at base as a small midline fin attached to collar; mid-shaft slightly tapered apically and with lateral right face unmodified; apical orifice mid-dorsal. Right paramere slender and moderately long. Female valvifers with vestiture; gonopods VIII fused to dorsomedial bases of gonocoxae; gonocoxae with ventral diagonal row of setiform setae and mediodorsal row of setae present. Bursa copulatrix without or (in one species) with dorsal paramedial sclerotized plates in vestibular chamber; spermathecal chamber broadly wedge-shaped, triangular in dorsal aspect, without a posterodorsal extension from its longitudinal axis in lateral aspect and without dorsal, anterodorsal or ventral sclerites; spermathecal duct of medium length, slender and uniform in diameter throughout or nearly so or (in one species) distinctly and abruptly thicker proximally, inserted basodorsally on spermathecal chamber; spermathecal reservoir moderately long.

Etymology.

The subgeneric epithet is a noun of feminine gender and a combination of the Greek word, para, meaning near, and the genus-group name, Epinebriola , in reference to the marked similarity of members of this group to those of subgenus Epinebriola Epinebriola .

Remarks.

As noted above in the Discussion section, the described members of this group were previously assigned to subgenus Epinebriola Epinebriola . We had no reason to doubt this assignment until after we had reviewed the results of our analyses. Two of the three undescribed species had also been tentatively identified as Epinebriola spp. The third shared more external features with Eonebria species than with Epinebriola species and had been identified initially as belonging to the former group. A subsequent, more detailed re-examination of both external and internal morphological features revealed a few differences that appear to distinguish members of this group from those of Epinebriola . In males: the median lobe of the male genitalia has a basal bulb without or with only slightly developed laterobasal lobes, whereas these lobes are moderately- to well-developed in Epinebriola ; a sagittal aileron is present dorsobasally as a small midline fin attached to a basal collar, but the aileron is absent or present only as a flat, lightly sclerotized collar in Epinebriola ; and the apical orifice is mid-dorsal, but moderately to markedly deflected right in Epinebriola . In females: the spermathecal chamber of the bursa copulatrix is simple, without a posterodorsal extension from the longitudinal axis in lateral view, while it has a slight posterodorsal extension in Epinebriola ; the spermathecal duct is moderately long and slender (except distinctly thickened proximally only in one species, but short and moderately thick throughout in Epinebriola . We note that all Parepinebriola members in our sample have a small to large central pale area on the vertex of the head, whereas all the Epinebriola members in our sample lack such a pale area. However, we do not know if this distinction holds for the remaining Epinebriola not in our sample. Parepinebriola members also appear to differ morphologically with those of Nakanebria and Eonebria . In members of both of these groups, the head is not at all constricted behind the eyes, there is no trace of a sagittal aileron at the base of the male aedeagal median lobe, the basal bulb is quadrate with an expanded basal sleeve, the apical orifice is markedly deflected right, the female spermathecal chamber has a posterodorsal extension from the longitudinal axis in lateral view, the spermathecal duct is inserted mediodorsally on the spermathecal chamber and the spermathecal duct is slightly to extremely long.

Known distribution and diversity. The known geographical range of this clade extends from the central Trans-Himalaya (Gangdise Shan) of southern Tibet eastward to the Gaoligong Shan of northwestern Yunnan Province, China. Presently, it includes five species. Two of these ( N. delicata and N. retingensis ) have been described and previously included in Epinebriola (Huber & Schmidt, 2017), and the remaining three species are new and will be described in a separate paper.