Konradus, Chani-Posse & Ramírez-Salamanca, 2020

Chani-Posse, Mariana Raquel & Ramírez-Salamanca, José Manuel, 2020, Konradus leehermani - a new genus and species of Philonthina from the Neotropical region and its phylogenetic relationships (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae), Zootaxa 4759 (2), pp. 237-251 : 239-241

Genus Konradus gen. n.

( Figs. 1–13 )

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Type species. Konradus leehermani , here designated.

Etymology. The genus name is dedicated to Konrad Maus, son of the senior author, in recognition to his good-natured character, endless love and support. The name is masculine.

Diagnosis. The most remarkable characters of Konradus are its habitus with a distinct green-reddish metallic colour and the head shape, distinctly elongate and gradually narrowed at sides with hind angles becoming obsolete in both sexes. Konradus differs from all other genera of Philonthina by the following combination of characters: gular sutures joined posteriorly before neck, prosternum with a rudimentary transverse carina on basisternum, protarsi with tarsomeres 1–4 subequal in length, slightly to moderately widened apically, with both discal and marginal striate setae on ventral surface, discal setae scarce not forming a patch, and mesoventral intercoxal process narrowly pointed forming sharp (acute) angle.

Description. Length 11.7–12.4 mm. Body elongate, more or less parallel sided, slightly widening toward elytra and tapering toward sixth visible abdominal segment, scarcely punctate ( Fig. 1 ). Colouration: Head, thorax, elytra and abdomen of metallic colour; antennae, palpi and legs piceous to piceous-black.

Head of subtriangular shape without distinct hind angles ( Figs. 1 , 2 ); slightly to moderately longer than wide, slightly to moderately wider than pronotum at widest point; infraorbital ridge present, slightly extending beyond postgenal ridge; postgenal and ventral basal ridges present, well developed; postmandibular ridge present; epicranium with two pairs of interocular punctures; tempora with three to four postocular punctures arranged in a line at each side; dorsal and ventral surface of head with distinctly sparse, fine punctuation and dense, wave-like microsculpture. Gular sutures joined posteriorly before neck. Eyes moderately convex, distinctly shorter than temples seen from above ( Fig. 1 ). Antennae inserted closer to anterior margin of frontoclypeus than to eyes, separated from each other by distinctly less than 2.0 x the distance to eye, first antennomere about one third of head length and distinctly shorter than antennomeres second and third combined, antennomere third distinctly longer than second, first three segments with rather scarce long setae, pubescence starting on segment fourth ( Fig. 3 ). Maxillary palpus with fourth palpomere longer than third ( Fig. 4 ). Labrum subtriangular, distinctly emarginate and completely sclerotized with numerous and long macrosetae at apical margin. Mentum with anterior margin slightly emarginate and about as long as submentum ( Fig. 2 ). Labial palpus moderately long, second palpomere about twice as long as first, third fusiform and distinctly longer than second (Lp3L/Lp2L = 1.5).

Thorax: Pronotum subcylindrical, distinctly longer than wide, slightly narrowed posteriad; front margin subtruncate, hind margin arcuate, anterior angles distinctly rounded and posterior angles obtusely rounded ( Fig. 1 ); lateral puncture of pronotum bearing long macroseta separated from superior line of pronotal hypomeron by a distance at least 4.0 x as large as diameter of puncture; disc with dorsal rows of punctures sub-parallel to each other. Prosternum glabrous, without distinct mid-longitudinal carina; basisternum longer than furcasternum, with a rudimentary transverse carina ( Fig. 5 ). Mesoventrite somewhat elongate, with sternopleural suture distinctly oblique; mesoventral intercoxal process narrowly pointed forming sharp (acute) angle. Legs: Profemora cylindrical in shape, with scarce setae; protibiae setose, with 1–2 medio-apical spines; protarsi with first four segments subequal in length, slightly (female) to moderately (male) widened apically, flattened dorsoventrally, ventral surface with both discal and marginal striate setae, discal setae scarce ( Figs. 6, 7 ); meso and metatibiae distinctly spinose. Elytra at sides longer than pronotum at midline ( Fig. 1 ); punctuation fine and sparse.

Abdomen: Tergum I with paired prototergal glands manifested by invaginated capsules with small openings. Terga 3–5 with both anterior and posterior basal transverse carinae complete and straight. Hind margin of tergum 8 (sixth visible) arcuate in both sexes. Male sexual characters: Sternum 8 emarginate medio-apically ( Fig. 8 ). Genital segment with lateral tergal sclerites 9 (styli) elongate and subcylindrical; tergum 10 truncate at apex with 3–4 apical setae and two subapical setae ( Fig. 11 ); sternum 9 with basal portion distinctly asymmetrical, about 0.2 x as long as distal portion and deeply emarginate apically, distinctly setose at each side of emargination ( Fig. 10 ). Aedeagus with parameres fused as one short sclerite, completely fused to median lobe and without sensory peg setae; median lobe elongate, with apical part narrowed into a rather subacute apex ( Fig. 9 ). Female sexual characters: Sternum 8 with hind margin straight; tergum 10 similar to that of male; second gonocoxites each with a long macroseta basally, with minute stylus ( Fig. 12 ) bearing one long macroseta and one distinctly short and fine seta.

Immature stages. Unknown.

Distribution and bionomics. Konradus has been recorded at present only from Cosanga in Napo, Ecuador. Specimens have been collected by beating in association with forest vegetation.

Recognition. The head and pronotum shape of Konradus as well as the almost glabrous body surface (i.e., scarcely punctate) remind of Belonuchus angusticeps Scheerpeltz (for the head shape, only females). However, and besides those characters listed in the diagnosis, an apical excavation is absent from the protibia of Konradus , as opposed to that of B. angusticeps which is apically excavated. Additionally, our new genus differs from that species by the relative length of the second and third labial palpomeres: third palpomere distinctly longer than second in Konradus , but these segments are subequal in length in B. angusticeps due to a rather elongate second palpomere. The combination of an excavated protibia together with an elongate second labial palpomere is common within the Paederomimus -complex—where we assume B. angusticeps belongs—and is so far unique to this clade (Chani- Posse & Ramírez-Salamanca 2019).

Remarks. We are aware of one additional specimen from a presumably nearby locality in Cosanga (J. McClarin, pers. com.). Unfortunately this specimen was unavailable for study; nevertheless, we had access to its habitus image. Based on overall habitus similarity and characters that we could observe in the photos, this specimen should be clearly assigned to Konradus . Although it looks identical to K. leehermani (described below), the male and/or female genitalia must be studied before a species identification can be made.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Habitus of Konradus leehermani, female paratype [NHMUK ©]. Scale bar = 3 mm.

FIGURES 2–7. Konradus leehermani (female paratype) [NHMUK ©]: (2) head in ventral view; (3) right antenna in ventral view; (4) left maxillary palpus; (5) prosternum and lateral sides of pronotum in ventral view; (6) ventral surface of protarsomeres 2–3; (7) ultrastructure of setae on ventral surface of protarsomere 2.Abbreviations: ds, discal setae; ior, infraorbital ridge; ms, marginal setae; pgr, postgenal ridge; pmr, postmandibular ridge; str, sternacostal ridge; tc, transverse carina; vbr, ventral basal ridge.

FIGURES 8–12. Konradus leehermani, male and female genitalia [NHMUK ©]: (8) male sternum 8; (9) aedeagus in dorsal view; (10) sternum 9; (11) male tergum 10; (12) gonocoxites of female genital segment.

FIGURE 13. A, unique MP tree with exclusive (black circles) and non-exclusive (white circles) synapomorphies; B, fifty percent majority rule consensus tree from BI. All Bremer support values (BS) and posterior probabilities (PP) are shown and indicated in bold for their respective nodes. Values equal or greater than 2 (BS) and/or 0.80 (PP) are considered here as well supported.