Tetartopeus lomnickii ( ROUBAL , 1913)

Assing, V., 2014, A revision of Tetartopeus IV. A new species from Turkey, new synonymies, and additional records (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae), Linzer biologische Beiträge 46 (2), pp. 1119-1131 : 1122-1124

Tetartopeus lomnickii ( ROUBAL, 1913)

( Figs 1-6 , 8 )

Material examined: Russia: 1, Krasnodar, Temnolesskaia near Mezmai , 850 m, 19.VI.1999, leg. Smetana [R18] ( cAss) ; 1, Krasnodar, S Labisnk , Mostovskoj env., 500 m, forest along Khodz river valley, edge of a water pool, 14.V.1996, leg. Solodovnikov ( ZMUC) ; 1, Krasnodar, foothills of Bambaki mountain range, ca. 20 km SW Psebai, Port Artur , ca. 1000 m, stream bank, 8.VIII.1993, leg. Solodovnikov ( ZMUC) .

Comment: The identity of this species has been addressed in several previous articles ( ROUBAL 1913; BORDONI 1980; COIFFAIT 1982; GUSAROV 1991). However, the descriptive details (especially regarding the coloration) and the illustrations of the male sexual characters, particularly those of the aedeagus, are either incorrect, misleading, or insufficient for a reliable identification. Therefore, a complete redescription and new illustrations are provided below.

Redescription: Body length 6.6-8.0 mm; length of forebody 3.7-4.3 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 1 . Coloration distinctive: head black; pronotum red, posterior margin reddish or weakly infuscate; elytra bicoloured, with the anterior half more or less distinctly and more or less extensively infuscate, and with the posterior half reddish; abdomen black, segments VIII-X brown; legs dark-yellowish; antennae dark-brown, with the basal and the apical antennomeres reddish.

Head ( Fig. 2 ) weakly oblong, approximately 1.05 times as long as broad; punctation moderately coarse and dense, distinctly sparser in median dorsal portion; interstices without microsculpture. Eyes moderately large and weakly convex, approximately half as long as distance from posterior margin of eye to posterior constriction in dorsal view. Antenna slender, 2.2-2.8 mm long.

Pronotum ( Fig. 2 ) rather large, approximately 1.15 times as long as broad and 1.15 times as broad as head; punctation dense, slightly coarser than that of head; interstices on average slightly narrower than diameter of punctures, without microsculpture; midline narrowly impunctate.

Elytra ( Fig. 2 ) 0.8-0.9 times as long as pronotum; punctation rather fine, dense, and weakly defined. Hind wings present. Metatarsomere I as long as II.

Abdomen slightly narrower than elytra; surface nearly completely matt due to extremely dense and fine punctation and distinct microsculpture; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.

: tergite VIII with broadly and rather weakly convex posterior margin; sternites IV-V in the middle with some coarse and irregularly spaced puncture-like impressions; sternite VI weakly impressed along the middle; sternite VII ( Fig. 3 ) strongly transverse, with shallow median impression and with fine and dense pubescence, at posterior margin with transverse row of long marginal setae, posterior margin broadly and weakly concave; sternite VIII ( Fig. 4 ) approximately 1.3 times as broad as long, with moderately deep, narrowly and asymmetrically V-shaped posterior excision in slightly asymmetric position, near this excision with denser pubescence; aedeagus ( Figs 5-6 ) 1.5 mm long; ventral process conspicuously long and straight with weakly curved apex (lateral view); dorsal plate broad and apically acute in dorsal view ( Fig. 8 ).

: tergite VIII with strongly convex posterior margin.

Comparative notes: Tetartopeus lomnickii is characterized particularly by the coloration, the shape and chaetotaxy of the male sternite VIII, and by the morphology of the aedeagus. It is readily distinguished from all other red-winged Tetartopeus species with a dark abdominal apex ( T. czwalinai (JAKOBSON, 1909) from West Anatolia; T. unguis ASSING 2010 , T. vomer ASSING 2010 , and T. inexcisus ASSING 2009 from North Anatolia; the widespread T. scutellaris (NORDMANN, 1837) and T. angustatus (LACORDAIRE, 1835)) by the distinctly broader and more robust body and by the reddish pronotum alone. Aside from T. lomnickii , five Tetartopeus species have been recorded from the West Caucasus: T. terminatus (GRAVENHORST, 1802) , T. quadratus (PAYKULL 1789) , T. rufonitidus (REITTER, 1909) , T. scutellaris , and T. stylifer (REITTER, 1909) . In all these species the pronotum is usually black. The first four species have the elytra blackish, sometimes with the postero-lateral angles more or less distinctly yellowish. In T. stylifer , the abdominal apex is reddish and in T. scutellaris the head is distinctly more slender than in T. lomnickii . For illustrations of the aedeagi of these species see COIFFAIT (1982) and ASSING (2012b).

Distribution and natural history: The known distribution of T. lomnickii is confined to the West Caucasus. For previous records see ROUBAL (1913), GUSAROV (1991), and SOLODOVNIKOV (1998a, b). The examined male from Temnolesskaia was sifted from wet leaf litter and other debris along a stream in a beech forest (SMETANA pers. comm.) at an altitude of 850 m, the other two specimens at the edge of a water pool and on a stream bank at altitudes of 500 and 1000 m (SOLODOVNIKOV pers. comm.).

Figures

Figs 1-7: Tetartopeus lomnickii (ROUBAL) (1-6) and T. lentus RYVKIN (7): (1) habitus; (2) forebody; (3) male sternite VII; (4) male sternite VIII; (5-6) aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view; (7) female sternite VIII. Scale bars: 1-2: 1.0 mm; 3-7: 0.5 mm.

Figs 8-10: Tetartopeus lomnickii (ROUBAL) (8) and T. lentus RYVKIN (9-10): (8) apical portion of dorsal plate of aedeagus in dorsal view; (9) female tergite VIII; (10) female tergite IX. Scale bars: 9-10: 0.5 mm; 8: 0.2 mm.