Borboropora corcyrana ASSING, 2018

Assing, Volker, Schülke, Michael, Brachat, Volker & Meybohm, Heinrich, 2018, On the Staphylinidae of the Greek island Corfu (Insecta: Coleoptera), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology (Beitr. Entomol.) 68 (1), pp. 31-67 : 56-57

Borboropora corcyrana ASSING spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:8D35093D-8EBF-4E9C-9876-AB758F4FC973

( Figs 1–7 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “ GREECE: Corfu [17a], NW Zigos, 39°44'N, 19°48'E, 280–310 m, car-net, 4.VI.2017, leg. Schülke & Assing / Holotypus ♂ Borboropora corcyrana sp. n. det. V. Assing 2017” (cAss) . Paratype ♂: “Greece: Kérkyra, Kilada Ropa, 39°40–41'N, 19°47–58'E, 70 m, forest track, car-net, 5.VI.2017, Schülke & Assing [KOR17-09b]” (cSch) .

Etymology: The specific epithet is an adjective derived from Corcyra, the Roman name for Corfu.

Description: Body length 2.4–2.8 mm; length of forebody 1.20–1.45 mm. Coloration: head black; pronotum dark-brown to blackish-brown; elytra yellowish-brown to brown; abdomen dark-brown to blackish-brown, with the posterior margins of the segments paler; legs dark-yellowish to reddish; antennae dark-brown to blackish-brown; maxillary palpi brown, with the apical palpomere yellow.

Head ( Figs 1–3 ) 1.08–1.11 times as broad as long; posterior margin distinctly concave; vertex with sharp median sulcus; punctation distinct, coarse and dense anteriorly, gradually becoming finer and less dense towards posterior constriction; interstices without microsculpture. Eyes shorter than postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna incrassate apically; antennomere IV weakly tranverse; antennomeres V–X increasingly transverse and of gradually increasing width; antennomere X approximately twice as broad as long.

Pronotum ( Fig. 1 ) small and narrow in relation to head, 0.83–0.85 times as broad as head; midline with very fine and indistinct median sulcus; near posterior margin with a small median impression of variable shape; punctation variable, very fine to distinct; interstices without microsculpture.

Elytra ( Fig. 1 ) 0.87–0.89 times as long as pronotum; punctation rather dense and fine; interstices with or without indistinct traces of microsculpture. Hind wings fully developed.

Abdomen narrower than elytra; punctation dense and distinct; interstices without microsculpture; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe; posterior margin of tergite VIII convex and pectinate ( Fig. 4 ).

♂: sternite VIII with convex posterior margin; median lobe of aedeagus 0.25 mm long, shaped as in Figs 5–6 .

♂: sternite VIII of similar shape as that of male; spermatheca ( Fig. 7 ) minute, 0.12 mm long, and with very short capsule.

Intraspecific variation: The paratype is distinguished from the holotype by distinctly larger size, coarser and denser punctation of the head ( Figs 2–3 ), and by slightly darker coloration. Since only two specimens are available, it is unknown whether these differences are an expression of a sexual dimorphism or non-sexual intraspecific variation.

Comparative notes: The genus Borboropora KRAATZ, 1862 was previously represented in the Palaearctic region by four species. Borboropora corcyrana is distinguished from the three previously known West Palaearctic species as follows: from B. kraatzi FUSS, 1862 by a slightly smaller pronotum (in relation to the head), slightly finer punctation of the head, a posteriorly more strongly produced tergite VIII, and particularly by an aedeagus of completely different shape; from B. reitteri (WEISE, 1877) by distinctly more transverse antennomeres IV–X, a larger head (in relation to pronotum), relatively smaller eyes, sparser punctation of the pronotum and the posterior portion of the head, longer and stouter modified setae at the posterior margin of tergite VIII, a smoothly convex posterior margin of sternite VIII, and by a much shorter spermatheca (male sexual characters of B. reitteri unknown); from B. myrmecophila ASSING, 2009 by a more depressed head with a median sulcus (absent in B. myrmecophila ), by differently shaped preapical antennomeres ( B. myrmecophila : antennomeres VI–X of more conical shape), relatively smaller eyes, the punctation of the head ( B. myrmecophila : coarse everywhere, not denser anteriorly than posteriorly), shorter elytra ( B. myrmecophila : elytra approximately as long as pronotum), denser punctation of the posterior abdominal tergites, a posteriorly more strongly convexly produced tergite VIII with longer modified setae at the posterior margin, and by the completely different shape of the aedeagus (female sexual characters of B. myrmecophila unknown).

For illustrations of B. reitteri and B. myrmecophila see ASSING (2009g, h). The aedeagus of B. kraatzi is figured in Figs 8–9 . Borboropora indica ASSING, 2015 , the sole representative of the genus in the East Palaearctic region, is illustrated in ASSING (2015d).

Distribution and natural history: The type specimens were found in two localities in North Corfu. Since they were collected on the wing (with a car-net), the species is likely to be more widespread and present also in the close Albanian and Greek mainland. The type locality is a road along a stream valley with forest and arable land. The locality where the paratype was found is a forest track at the margin of a wetland with lakes and swamps.

Figures

Figs 1–11. Borboropora corcyrana (1–7; 2, 5–6: holotype; 1, 3–4, 7: paratype), B. kraatzii (8–9), Meotica parasita (10), and Ocypus corcyranus, holotype (11): forebody (1, 10); head (2–3); tergite VIII (4); median lobe of aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (5–6, 8–9); spermatheca (7); habitus (11). Scale bars: 11: 5.0 mm; 1, 10: 0.5 mm; 2–3, 4: 0.2 mm; 5–9: 0.1 mm.