Pseudobium creticum ASSING, 2019

Assing, Volker, Brachat, Volker & Meybohm, Heinrich, 2019, Monograph of the Staphylinidae of Crete (Greece). Part II. Descriptions of new species (Insecta: Coleoptera), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 69 (2), pp. 239-289 : 265

Pseudobium creticum ASSING spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:98EA1ABE-EA17-4F90-A7BF-6069D9FDF481

( Figs 92–96 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “GR – Crete [61], WSW Ag. Nikolaos , Katharo plateau , 1110 m, stream, 35°08'14"N, 25°34'15"E, 28.III.2018, V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Pseudobium creticum sp. n. det. V. Assing 2018” (cAss) . Paratypes: 2 ♂♂, 5 ♀♀: same data as holotype (cAss); 5 ♀♀: “GR – Crete [12], WSW Ag. Nikolaos, Katharo plateau, 1110 m, stream, 35°08'14"N, 25°34'15"E, 10.IV.2014, V. Assing ” (cAss); 3 ♀♀ : same data, but leg. Wunderle (cWun) .

Etymology: The specific epithet is an adjective derived from Crete.

Description: Body length 4.2–5.4 mm; length of forebody 2.4–2.6 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 92 . Coloration: body black with the posterior margin and often also the posterior portion of the suture of the elytra and the posterior portion of abdominal segment VIII yellowish to reddish; legs bicoloured with the femora blackish-brown and the tibiae and tarsi yellowish to dark-yellowish; antennae and maxillary palpi reddish.

Head ( Fig. 93 ) approximately 1.3 times as long as broad; punctation rather coarse and dense, sparse in median dorsal portion; interstices without microsculpture. Eyes large, approximately 0.7 times as long as postocular portion in dorsal view. Antenna approximately 1.5 mm long; antennomeres IV approximately 1.5 times as long as broad, V–X decreasingly oblong, and X weakly oblong.

Pronotum ( Fig. 93 ) 1.55–1.60 times as long as broad and 0.85–0.90 times as broad as head; median portion broadly impunctate, delimited by a dorsal series of approximately 15 punctures on either side; punctation of lateral portions similar to that of head; interstices without microsculpture.

Elytra ( Fig. 93 ) 1.05–1.10 times as long as pronotum; punctation rather coarse (similar to that of head and pronotum), dense, and seriate; interstices without microsculpture. Hind wings fully developed.

Abdomen slightly narrower than elytra, broadest at segment VII; punctation fine and rather dense; interstices with shallow microsculpture composed of irregular transverse meshes, this microsculpture more distinct on posterior than on anterior tergites; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe; posterior margin of tergite VIII strongly convex.

♂: sternite VII with weakly concave posterior margin, otherwise unmodified; posterior excision of sternite VIII small and not very deep ( Fig. 94 ); median lobe of aedeagus approximately 0.5 mm long, with slender and sinuately spine-shaped ventral process and with dorsal plate of derived shape ( Figs 95–96 ).

Comparative notes: In external characters, P. creticum is most similar to P. hellenicum ASSING, 2006 , presumably its closest relative, as is suggested by the similarly derived shape of the dorsal plate of the aedeagus. It differs from this species by the posteriorly less extensively yellowish elytra and by the differently shaped aedeagus, especially the much longer and more slender ventral process. The shape of the ventral process of the aedeagus somewhat resembles that of P. anatolicum ASSING, 2006 , from which P. creticum is distinguished by paler antennae and tibiae, darker and shorter elytra with more distinct and less dense punctation, smaller body size, and by the completely different shape of the dorsal plate of the aedeagus. For illustrations of P. hellenicum and P. anatolicum see ASSING (2006b).

Distribution and natural history: The absence of records from mainland Greece and Turkey, as well as from other East Mediterranean islands suggests that P. creticum is endemic to Crete. The type locality is situated in the Katharo plateau in the Dikti range, to the southwest of Agios Nikolaos, East Crete. The female paratypes collected in 2014 were reported as P. hellenicum by ASSING (2015). The specimens were floated from gravel on the banks of a small stream surrounded by cultivated land at an altitude of 1110 m. The sex ratio appears to be remarkably biased: all eight specimens collected in 2014 and five of the eight specimens found in 2018 are females.

Figures

Figs 85–99: Cretotyphlus idanus (85), C. chanianus (86–91), Pseudobium creticum (92–96), and Gabrius candicus (97–99): male sternite VIII (85, 88, 94); habitus (86, 92, 97); forebody in ventral view (87); aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (89–90, 95–96, 98–99); female genital segments (91); forebody (93). Scale bars: 92–93, 97: 1.0 mm; 86: 0.5 mm; 98–99: 0.2 mm; 85, 87–91, 94–96: 0.1 mm.