Tychus spurius Sabella

Sabella, Giorgio, Besuchet, Claude & Kurbatov, Sergey A., 2011, New species of Tychini from Turkey and Japan (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae), Zootaxa 2764, pp. 22-34 : 28

Tychus spurius Sabella , sp. n.

( Figs. 5 , 16–17 )

Type material. Holotype: TURKEY: Sinop Prov.: ɗ, above Bektas, 23 km N of Boyabat, 1100 m, fagetum leal litter, 20.V.1976 (C. Besuchet & I. Löbl) ( MHNG). Paratypes: TURKEY: Sinop Prov.: 2ɗɗ, Lala, near Sinop, 20.V.1976 (C. Besuchet & I. Löbl) ( MHNG).

Description. Body length 1.7–1.75 mm. Winged. Body uniformly brown with reddish elytra and yellow legs and palpi.

Head sligthly wider (0.31 mm) than long (0.30 mm), frontal rostrum 0.165–0.17 mm wide and 0.06 long, a small tooth in front. Eyes well developed with 20–26 ommatidia. Occipital region slightly convex. Last segment of maxillary palpi 0.2 mm long and 0.08 mm wide.

Pronotum wider (0.37–0.385 mm) than long (0.35–0.365 mm) with small and slightly impressed lateral antebasal foveae.

Elytra wider (0.685 mm) than long (0.50 mm) with humeri not very protruding. Discal fovea extended posteriorly in large and deep discal stria reaching more than half elytral length.

Abdomen with 1st tergite 0.22–0.235 mm long, basal impression extending more than 1/3 of tergite width.

Male. Antennae ( Fig. 5 ) 0.75 mm long, club 0.31 mm long; scapus and segment 2 distinctly longer than wide; segment 3 longer than wide and narrowed at base; 4 slightly longer than wide; 5 slightly wider than 4 and slightly longer than wide; 6 wider than long, 7 longer than wide; 8 wider than long and shorter than previous segments. Metaventrite with deep median impression. Legs with femora and tibiae of all legs slightly thickened, posterior margin of mesotrochanters extended into small median spine, mesotibiae with small subapical spur, metatibiae with apical spur. All abdominal sternites not modified. Aedeagus ( Figs. 16–17 ) 0.44 mm long, dorsal apophysis of median lobe sinuate and canaliculate, slightly enlarged at apex, with medial margin prolonged into short spine-like process extended medially and in basal third extendend into short spine. Ventral portion of median lobe slightly shorter than dorsal apophysis, at base relatively large, extended into two spine-like apophyses: the lateral distinctly longer, almost straight, in distal third turned upwards, in basal third of lateral margin with short spine; the medial slightly recurved and directed medially.

Female. Unknown.

Comparative notes. Tychus spurius sp. n. is similar to T. anser Sabella & Kurbatov, 2002 but distinguished from the latter by the shape of ventral portion and dorsal apophysis of the median lobe of aedeagus.

Tychus florentinus species group ( Sabella & Poggi, 1997)

Note. In the original description of Tychus coiffaiti Besuchet, 1958 the author outlined that this species is similar to T. florentinus Reitter, 1884 , T. jonicus Holdhaus, 1908 and T. serbicus Reitter, 1884 . All three were placed in the florentinus species group established by Sabella and Poggi (1997), but T. coiffaiti remained unassigned. The discovery of T. grassator , a species very similar to T. coiffaiti , convinced us to include both species in this group of which they present all the diagnostic characters.

Figures

FIGURES 5 – 9. Antennae of Tychus and Tainochus. 5 — Tychus spurius sp. n., holotype, male from Bektas (Sinop). 6 — Tychus grassator sp. n., holotype, male from Kemalpasa (Izmir). 7 — Tychus altivagus sp. n., holotype, male from Saklikent (Antalya). 8 — Tychus latebrosus sp. n., paratype, female from Saklikent (Antalya). 9 — Tainochus bastardus sp. n., holotype, male from Fuji-Yoshida (Yamanashi). Scale bar 0.1 mm.

FIGURES 16 – 17. Aedeagus of Tychus spurius sp. n., holotype, male from Bektas (Sinop). 16 — Ventral view. 17 — Lateral view. Scale bar 0.1 mm.