Creophilus imitator, CAMERON

Clarke, Dave J., 2011, Testing the phylogenetic utility of morphological character systems, with a revision of Creophilus Leach (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (Zool. J. Linn. Soc.) 163 (3), pp. 723-812 : 782-784

7. CREOPHILUS IMITATOR CAMERON

( FIGS 4I , 7D , 9A, B, 27 , 28 )

Creophilus imitator Cameron, 1952: 255 . Type locality: ‘New Guinea (Irian Jaya), Snow Mountains, Top Camp, 2100 m’; Herman, 2001b: 3317.

Type material: Creophilus imitator Cameron. Holotype (original designation). ♂, ‘Neth. Ind. – American| New Guinea Exped.| Top Camp 2100 m | 25.I.1939 L.J. Toxopeus/ [blue] typus/ [blackbordered] MUSEUM LEIDEN | Creophilus | imitator| Cam.| det. M. Cameron/ M. Cameron det., 19| Creophilus | imitator| [red ink] TYPE [black ink] Cam/ [red] Holotype / [red] HOLOTYPE | Creophilus | imitator Cameron, 1952 | teste D.J. Clarke 2010’ (in RMNH). Pinned through right elytron; missing both antennae; wings out, intact; genital segment (in two parts) and aedeagus dissected (by Cameron?) and mounted on old card beneath specimen; pinned with brass-headed pin. Paratypes (4). 1♂, ‘[circular with yellow border] Para-| type/ Neth. Ind. –American| New Guinea Exped.| Mist Camp 1800 m | 18.I.1939 L.J. Toxopeus| op rottend aas [on rotting carrion]/ ♂ / M. Cameron det., 19| Creophilus | imitator| P-TYPE Cam./ M. Cameron.| Bequest.| B.M. 1955–147/ imitator/ FMNH-INS 0000 016 771’; 1♀, same collecting data, ‘M. Cameron.| Bequest.| B.M. 1955–147/ FMNH-INS 0000 016 772’ (in BMNH); 1♂, aedeagus and genital segment in glycerin, same collecting data, except no collecting method, ‘[blue] Paratypus / Creophilus | imitator| Cam.| det. M. Cameron/ FMNH-INS 0000 012 322’ (in AMNH); 1♀, ‘Neth. Ind.-American| New Guinea Exped.| Top Camp 2100 m | 30.I.1939 L.J. Toxopeus/ ‘[Cameron’s handwriting] Creophilus | imitator Cam. | paratype | dt. Cameron ′51’ (in MBBJ).

Description of type locality: Top Camp, in the Snow Mountains ( Indonesia: Papua), is described by Toxopeus (1940: 279) as ‘an outpost of Mist Camp, situated on a sparsely overgrown summit, less cloudy [than Mist Camp]’. He provided a map illustrating the location of Top and Mist Camps in the Snow Mountains (p. 272).

Other material examined: 91 specimens. See supporting information, Appendix S1.

Diagnosis: With characters of the erythrocephalus - group; head orange-red, with transverse diameter of circular medial black spot less than 0.5¥ EYL ( Fig. 7D ); right mandible with two distinct teeth ( Fig. 27A ); pronotal basolateral impressions present ( Fig. 27E ); elytra and abdomen black; basiantennal and basolateral pronotal macrosetae absent; tergal chaetotaxic formula 6-6-6-4-2–4.

Description: Measurements (N = 10♂, 10♀). Forebody length: ♂ 7.0– 10.2 mm, ♀ 7.1–8.8 mm. See supporting Table S5 for comparison of ranges of male and female ratios. Head. Head orange-red, narrowly black around mouthparts and antennal fossae, with small circular and sharply delimited black spot situated posterior to and not concealing dorsal tentorial pits, with transverse diameter less than 0.5¥ EYL ( Fig. 7D ); black and orange coloration strongly contrasting; strongly trapezoidal and much wider posteriorly in large males, almost subrectangular in females and smaller males; HW/HL = 1.43–1.70; surface dull, with distinctive micropunctate microsculpture and very shallow indistinct and moderately dense impressions ( Fig. 9A, B); eyes large, protruding somewhat laterally ( EYL / HL = 0.40–0.55), lateral margins of head only visible in dorsal view in largest males, obscured by eye in smaller specimens; HL1/HL2 greater in females than males (♂ = 1.13–1.88, ♀ = 1.71–2.33); antennae as in Figure 27B ; antennomeres 1–6 black, 7–11 greyishblack, 11 elongate, as long as or longer than 9–10 together; mandibles as in Figure 27A , moderately longer than head in large males, slightly shorter than head in females ( ML /HL ♂ = 0.86–1.22, ♀ = 0.89– 0.96), right mandible with two teeth, T 3 much larger than T 2. Thorax and abdomen. Pronotum characteristic ( Fig. 27E ), subquadrate ( PW / PL = 1.03–1.16), in females wider at hind angles than anterior angles; sides subparallel, almost straight to only slightly convex in large males; PL 1.12–1.33 ¥ ESL; basolateral margins very slightly emarginate, hind angles distinctly rounded; with sparse peripheral setae and short, sparse vestiture on lower anterolateral declivities; shallow basolateral impressions present, smooth and asetose ( Fig. 27E ); elytra distinctly widened posteriorly, uniformly black, sparsely and finely setose, finely rugose, especially around humeral regions; humeri glabrous, impunctate, not distinctly callused; wings fully developed, clear yellowish-brown, without black spot in medial field between MP 3 and MP 4 veins; abdomen shining and uniformly black; vestiture fine, moderately dense; microsculpture extremely fine, producing weak iridescent reflection, particularly on ventral side; tergite VII with well-developed palisade fringe. Male genitalia and secondary sexual characters. Sternites VI and VII of males with scattered micropores, those on sternite VII situated in asetose impressed transverse region. Aedeagus as in Figure 27D ; median lobe with apex produced obliquely dorsad into short and narrow globular process ( Fig. 27C ), with paired apicolateral sclerites (as) separated from sclerotized median lobe by distinct membranous strip. Paramere as in Figure 27G , widely emarginate apically. Internal sac inverted as in Figure 27D . Female internal genitalia. Internal female genitalia as in Figure 27F ; vaginal plate (vp) without median sclerotized strip, with paired lateral sclerites (pls); vaginal fold (vf) with pair of separate sclerites dorsal to posterolateral lobes of vaginal plate, with small sclerotic ridges medially ( Fig. 27F , arrow). Chaetotaxy. Basiantennal and basolateral pronotal macrosetae absent; elytral discal series with three or four macrosetae; tergal chaetotaxic formula 6-6-6-4-2–4, tergites VI – VIII without inner lateral macrosetae, tergite VII without medial macrosetae.

Comparison: Creophilus imitator has been historically confused with C. erythrocephalus but is readily distinguished from that species by the much smaller black spot on the head and the combination of black finely rugose elytra and basolateral pronotal impressions. The distinctive micropunctate microsculpture of the head (shared with C. albertisi ) also distinguishes it from both C. erythrocephalus and C. lanio .

Distribution ( Fig. 28 , triangles): New Guinea: Papua New Guinea, Irian Jaya ( Indonesia).

Biology and ecology: Rare in collections; most specimens without habitat or collection data. Twenty specimens were collected from dung traps set in montane rainforest. Other records are from mercury vapour light traps and carrion. Habitat: montane rainforest. Toxopeus (1940) recorded details of the habitat at Mist Camp as ‘on the mountain ridge S. of Bernhard Camp on the Idenburg R. Dense, very damp forest in a saddle’. Altitude: 1200–2591 m. Phenology: January–March, June–December. Other life-history characteristics are unknown. Larvae and pupae are unknown.

Remarks: The original description indicates that Cameron saw five specimens from two localities: ‘Top Camp, 2100 m, 25.i.39 (Type); Mist Camp, 1800 m, 18.i.39, L.J. Toxopeus. Five specimens’. According to the editor of the original description, ‘types’ in Cameron’s paper were deposited in ‘Leiden Museum’ ( RMNH), with paratypes and duplicates deposited in ‘Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense’ ( MBBJ) and ‘in the author’s collection’ (in BMNH). No details about how a paratype came to be deposited in AMNH could be determined but this is not inexplicable, as Richard Archbold, who funded the 1939 New Guinea expedition, was affiliated with AMNH.

Last (1987) recorded Creophilus from New Guinea, but did not list the species, nor did he provide any records.

Figures

Figure 4. Male copulatory pieces of selected species in the Creophilus-complex, dorsal view. In each figure the large paired dark structures are the sclerotized arms of the copulatory piece. A, C. variegatus; B, C. maxillosus maxillosus; C, C. m. villosus; D, C. galapagensis; E, C. flavipennis; F, C. incanus; G, C. oculatus; H, C. erythrocephalus; I, C. imitator; J, C. lanio; K, C. albertisi; L, Hadrotes crassus; M, Thinopinus pictus; N, Hadropinus fossor; O, Liusus hilleri. Abbreviations: iedg, apical inner edge of arms of copulatory piece; por, parallel oblique ridges of copulatory piece (see also Fig. 10); xbar, ‘cross-bar’ of appendix. Additional abbreviations as in Figure 3. Scale bar = 1 mm.

Figure 7. Heads of some species of the Creophilus erythrocephalus species-group (antennal flagella omitted). A, C. erythrocephalus; B, C. lanio; C, C. oculatus; D, C. imitator; E, C. albertisi. A–D, large males; E, small female. Scale bars = 5 mm.

Figure 27. Creophilus imitator, details of morphology (setae of mandibles, antenna, and pronotum omitted). A, mandibles, dorsal (bases omitted); B, right antenna, dorsal (only apical setae shown); C, median lobe apex, ventral; D, aedeagus with details of inverted internal sac, right lateral (parameral setae omitted); E, pronotum (female); F, female internal genitalia, ventral – arrow indicates small sclerotic ridges of vaginal fold; G, paramere, dorsal; H, ventral sclerite of internal sac, ventral (lower) and apical (upper). Abbreviations: T2, T3, mandibular teeth. Additional abbreviations as in Figure 3 (male) and Figure 5 (female). Scale bars: H = 0.1 mm; rest = 1 mm.

Figure 28. Distribution of all georeferenced specimens of C. albertisi (circles), C. erythrocephalus (square) and C. imitator (triangles) in New Guinea.