Mniusa minutissima (Klimaszewski & Langor, 2011)

Klimaszewski, Jan, Webster, Reginald P., Langor, David W., Bourdon, Caroline, Hammond, H. E. James, Pohl, Greg R. & Godin, Benoit, 2014, Review of Canadian species of the genera Gnathusa Fenyes, Mniusa Mulsant & Rey and Ocyusa Kraatz (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae), ZooKeys 412, pp. 9-40 : 21

1. Mniusa minutissima (Klimaszewski & Langor, 2011) Figure 5 a–l, Map 3

Gnathusa minutissima Klimaszewski et al. 2011: 55.

Diagnosis.

Body length 2.0-2.3 mm, sides subparallel; body colour dark brown, with tarsi and often tibiae rust-brown, antennae brown; forebody with dense microsculpture, glossy and with moderately dense punctation and pubescence; head round, narrower than pronotum; pronotum transverse, rectangular in shape with sides feebly arcuate, and as wide as elytra; elytra at suture as long as pronotum (Fig. 5a); abdomen subparallel, narrower than elytra with deep basal impressions on first three visible tergites; antennae with articles V-X strongly transverse, with the outer segments at least twice as wide as long (Fig. 5a). MALE: male tergite VIII widely truncate apically (Fig. 5c); sternite VIII slightly produced at apex (Fig. 5d); median lobe of aedeagus with straight venter of tubus slightly arched laterally and internal sac with band-formed, subapical structure (Fig. 5b). FEMALE: tergite VIII truncate apically (Fig. 5f); sternite VIII rounded apically (Fig. 5g); spermatheca with small spherical capsule with small invagination, short L-shaped neck, and long, thin and broadly curved stem (Fig. 5e).

Distribution.

This native Nearctic species was described from Newfoundland and is herein recorded for the first time from New Brunswick (Map 3).

Bionomics.

Adults were collected from May to July using pitfall traps in an old boreal balsam fir forest in Newfoundland; by sifting moss near a brook, sifting deep conifer litter at base of large red spruce in a mature red spruce forest, and from Lindgren funnel traps in a rich Appalachian hardwood forest in New Brunswick.

Locality data.

CANADA: Newfoundland: Little Grand L., 2 km E. Martin Pond, 24. VI– 15.VII.1992, old fir forest, pitfall 13, (LFC) 1 male [holotype]; same data except: pitfall 19, (CFS-CB) 1 male and 1 female [paratypes]; same data except: pitfall 20, 2 males and 1 female [paratypes]; pitfall 16, 1 female [paratype]; pitfall 13, 1 female [paratype]; pitfall 20, (LFC) 1 female paratype; Little Grand L., Bakeapple Brook, 24. VI– 15.VII.1992, old fir forest, pitfall 1, (CFS-CB) 1 male [paratype]; same data except: pitfall 4, 1 male; pitfall 11, 1 female [paratype]; pitfall 3, (LFC) 1 female [paratype]; Manuals R., 8 km W. St. John’s, 10.VI.1984, D. Langor, Lot, (CFS-CB) 1 female [paratype]. New Brunswick: Sunbury Co., Acadia Research Forest, 45.9799°N, 66.3394°W, 14.V.2007, 18.VI.2007 // mature red spruce and red maple forest, sifting moss near brook, R.P. Webster (LFC, RWC) 3 males, 2 females; same locality data and forest type but 14.V.2007 // sifting deep conifer litter at base of large red spruce (RWC) 2 females: Carleton Co., Jackson Falls, "Bell Forest", 46.2200°N, 67.7231°W, 4-12.VI.2008, R.P. Webster // Rich Appalachian Hardwood Forest with some conifers, Lindgren funnel trap (RWC) 1 female; same locality data and forest type but 1-8.VI.2009, 8-16.VI.2009, R. Webster & M.-A. Giguère, Lindgren funnel trap (RWC) 2 males.