Cephennium vitsiense, Assing, 2021

Assing, Volker, 2021, On the Cephennium fauna of Greece (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 52 (2), pp. 869-889 : 875-876

Cephennium vitsiense nov.sp. ( Figs 6 , 24-25 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: " GR. [1] Flórina, 20 km SSW Flórina , Oros Vitsi , N-slope, 1850-1900 m, 40°38'32N, 21°22'46E, 22.V.2005 V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Cephennium vitsiense sp. n. det. V. Assing 2020" ( cAss).

Etymology: The specific epithet is an adjective derived from Vitsi, the name of the mountain where the type locality is situated.

Description: Body length 1.25 mm; antenna 0.55 mm long. Habitus ( Fig. 6 ) moderately slender. Body reddish.

Eyes composed of approximately ten ommatidia. Antenna with antennomeres V approximately as long as broad, VII weakly transverse, IX and X barely 1.5 times as broad as long, and XI less than twice as long as broad.

Pronotum relatively weakly transverse, 1.12 times as broad as long, moderately convex in cross-section. Punctation rather sparse and very fine, approximately as fine as that of elytra.

Elytra broader than pronotum; humeral carinae weakly pronounced, nearly as long as the combined length of the basal four antennomeres; anterior impressions transverse and with tomentose pubescence.

♂: protibia apically distinctly bent and excavate; aedeagus ( Figs 24-25 ) 0.30 mm long; median lobe apically very acute in ventral view; internal sac with a pair of large clawshaped structures; parameres thin, straight, not reaching apex of median lobe, and with rather long apical seta.

Comparative notes: Based on the similar shape of the aedeagus and the similar shapes and arrangement of its internal structures, C. vitsiense is closely allied to C. angelinii. It is distinguished from this species by the apically much more acute median lobe, distinctly claw-shaped internal structures, and the modifications of the male protibiae.

Distribution and natural history: The type locality is situated in Oros Vitsi, a mountain rich in endemics to the south-southwest of Flórina, Northwest Greece. The holotype was sifted from grass and moss in the alpine zone of the peak region at an altitude of 1850-1900 m.

Comment: The holotypes of this and the following species were returned by Miroslav Stevanović to the second author with paratype labels reading " Paratypus Cephennium (s.str.) acuminatum m., det. M. Stevanović 2013". This species, however, was never described.

Figures

Figs 6-10: Male habitus of Cephennium vitsiense (6), C. catax (7), C. dramanum (8), C. fibuliferum (9), and C. cornutum (10). Scale bar: 1.0 mm.

Figs 20-29: Cephennium pellucidum (20-22), C. brachati (23), C. vitsiense (24-25), C. vellicans (26-27), and C. catax (28-29): (20-24, 26, 28-29) aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view; (25, 27) internal structures of aedeagus. Scale bars: 20-24, 26, 28-29: 0.1 mm; 25, 27: 0.05 mm.