Lithocharis boops SCHEERPELTZ , 1957

Assing, Volker, 2015, A revison of the Lithocharis species of the Palaearctic, Oriental and Australian regions (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae: Medonina), Linzer biologische Beiträge 47 (2), pp. 1133-1178 : 1143-1145

Lithocharis boops SCHEERPELTZ, 1957 ( Figs 22-26 )

Lithocharis boops SCHEERPELTZ, 1957: 286 ff.

Type material examined: Paratype ♂ [teneral]: "♂ / 602 W-Sumba, Pogobino, 12.-15.9.49 / Lichtfang / Expedition Bühler-Sutter / Sumba-Exped. Naturhist. Mus. Basel 1949 / ex coll. Scheerpeltz / Cotypus Lithocharis boops O. Scheerpeltz " (NHMW).

Comment: The original description is based on a male holotype and three paratypes (one male and two females) from " Insel Sumba" ( SCHEERPELTZ 1957).

Redescription: Body length 4.5 mm; length of forebody 2.2 mm.

Head ( Fig. 22 ) weakly transverse, 1.05 times as broad as long; punctation very dense and fine. Eyes large, distinctly longer than postocular portion in dorsal view. Antennae 1.5 mm long; preapical antennomeres approximately as long as broad.

Pronotum ( Fig. 22 ) approximately 1.05 times as wide as long and approximately as broad as head; posterior angles rounded, weakly marked; punctation similar to that of head; midline with distinct narrow impunctate band.

Elytra ( Fig. 22 ) approximately 1.05 times as long as pronotum; punctation very dense and fine. Hind wings present. Protarsomeres I-IV distinctly dilated. Metatarsomere I shorter than the combined length of II and III.

Abdomen narrower than elytra; punctation fine and very dense; interstices with distinct microreticulation; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.

♂: sternite VII ( Fig. 23 ) moderately strongly transverse, posterior margin with comb of approximately 25 rather long palisade setae in the middle; sternite VIII ( Fig. 24 ) transverse, extensively without pubescence in median portion, anteriorly with rather sparse dark pubescence, and with a cluster of few long black setae in postero-median portion, posterior excision large and deep; aedeagus ( Figs 25-26 ) 0.68 mm long, apex of ventral process somewhat bifid in ventral view; with two long membranous and an apical sclerotized structure of distinctive shapes in internal sac; dorso-lateral apophyses straight and conspicuously stout.

Comparative notes: This species is characterized particularly by the large eyes in combination with strongly dilated protarsomeres and a distinct impunctate midline on the pronotum, as well as by the male sexual characters (chaetotaxy of sternite VII; shape and chaetotaxy of sternite VIII; shapes of the ventral process, of the internal structures, and of the dorso-lateral apophyses of the aedeagus).

Distribution: Lithocharis boops is known only from Sumba, Indonesia.

Figures

Figs 22-26: Lithocharis boops SCHEERPELTZ, paratype: (22) forebody; (23) male sternite VII; (24) male sternite VIII; (25-26) aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view. Scale bars: 22: 1.0 mm; 23-26: 0.2 mm.