Huoyanodytes tujiaphilus Tian & Huang

Tian, Mingyi, Huang, Sunbin, Wang, Xinhui & Tang, Mingruo, 2016, Contributions to the knowledge of subterranean trechine beetles in southern China's karsts: five new genera (Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Trechinae), ZooKeys 564, pp. 121-156 : 138-141

Taxon classification Animalia Coleoptera Carabidae

Huoyanodytes tujiaphilus Tian & Huang sp. n.

Holotype.

female, Cave Tujiamei Dong, Huoyan Karst, Huoyan Xiang, Wulongshan Geopark, Longshan County, NW Hunan Province, China, 29°12'20.11"N / 109°18'37.21"E, 427 m in altitude, VII-3-2014, leg. Mingyi Tian, Weixin Liu, Haomin Yin, Sunbin Huang & Xinhui Wang, deposited in SCAU.

Diagnosis.

A large cavernicolous beetle, with light dark brown fore body, light brown elytra, tubiform head and prothorax, strongly convex elytra and 4-setose on each of visible abdominal ventrites.

Description.

Length: 7.0 mm including mandibles, width: 2.0 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 12.

Head, pronotum legs excluding tarsi, antennomeres 1-2 light dark brown, elytra, antennomeres 3-11 light brown, palps pale; upper- and underside of head, pro-, meso- and metasterna sparsely covered with rather long setae; elytra glabrous; pronotum with two short hairs in middle portion along mid suture; microsculptural engraved meshes moderately transverse on head, vanishing on pronotum, and strongly transverse on elytra.

Body quite large sized, rather stout, head (including mandibles) plus pronotum slightly longer than elytra, (HLm+PnL)/EL = 1.03.

Head evenly slender, much longer than wide, HLm/HW = 2.90, or HLl/HW = 2.08, genae well-developed and elongated, making head tube-like, nearly parallel-sided; frons, vertex and genae moderately convex; frontal furrows wide and deep, but short, ending at about middle of head from labrum, almost parallel to each other; anterior supra-orbital pores located at about basal 4/7th of head, lateral to frontal furrow and a little before its ending points, posterior ones located at about basal 1/5th of head excluding mandibles; distance between anterior pores as great as that between anterior and posterior pores of each side; clypeus 8-setose; labrum strongly transverse, straight at frontal margin, 6-setose; mandibles long and thin, gently incurved in apical half and distinctly unciform at apex; labial suture clear; mentum widely and deeply concave at base, bisetose, mental tooth simple, blunt at apex; submentum 10-setose; ligula 10-setose, setae being short; palps elongated, slender and subcylindrical, 3rd maxillary palpomere longer than 4th, both glabrous; 2nd labial palpomere longer than 3rd, bisetose at inner margin, and with two additional setae in subapical and apical parts, respectively; antennae long and pubescent, 1st antennomere stouter, about 2/3rds as long as 2nd, which is about 3/4ths as long as 3rd, 4th slightly longer than 3rd, 5th longest, slightly longer than 4th, 6th-11th as long as 4th; head (including mandibles) plus pronotum slightly longer than elytra.

Prothorax barrel-shaped, longer than wide, PrL/PrW = 1.53, widest at about third from base; longer or shorter than head excluding or including mandibles, PrL/HL = 0.76 or 1.09; much wider than head, PrW/HW = 1.45; propleura distinctly tumid, wholly visible from above; wider than pronotum, PrW/PnW = 1.17; pronotum much longer than wide, PnL/PnW = 1.79, wider than head, PnW/HW = 1.24; subparallel-sided, but narrowly and broadly contracted at both ends, making front and hind angles round off, albeit front ones fairly angulate; lateral margins not beaded; PrW/PnW = 1.17; base nearly as wide as front, frontal margin not beaded, finely emarginated in the middle, basal margin widely beaded and nearly straight; both fore and hind lateromarginal setae placed a little mesal to dorsolateral suture, at about basal fourth and apical fifth of pronotum, respectively; disc slightly convex; median line clear, reaching both ends; both transverse impressions not well-marked. Scutellum small and short.

Elytra ovate-oblong, strongly convex; twice as wide as prothorax, much longer than wide, EL/EW=1.89; widest a little behind middle, lateral margins smooth throughout, neither ciliated nor dentate; without prehumeral angles; apex broadly rounded; striae completely disappeared; two dorsal pores present on the location of 3rd stria, at about basal 2/7ths and 3/5ths of elytra, respectively; pre-apical pores located at about apical 2/11ths of elytra; basal pore present, a little distant from scutellum; humeral group of marginal umbilicate pores not aggregated, composed of five pores, 1st pore transversally removed mesad and backward, at a little behind level to 2nd, but a little before the anterior dorsal pore; 3rd pore close to 2nd; 3rd, 4th and 5th pores widely and equidistantly located; 6th and 7th pores of middle group shifted behind, lying at about apical fourth of elytra; apical group composed of three pores, apical pore located closer to suture than to elytral margin; only 2nd and 9th pores close to marginal gutter, others widely distant from the gutter.

Legs moderately long, femora gradually dilated from base towards subapical portions, then suddenly narrowed towards apices, covered with sparse, long and erect setae; tibiae and tarsi covered with dense and short hairs; tibiae thin, without longitudinal grooves; protarsi short, 1st tarsomere wider than others, longer than 2ndand 3rd combined, but shorter than 2nd-4th combined; meso- and metatarsi longer, 1st tarsomere as long as 2nd-4th combined.

Male: Unknown.

Etymology.

tujia + philus, to refer to the fact that the new species is occurring in the country of Tujia people.

Distribution.

China (Hunan)(Fig. 5e). Known only from the limestone Cave Tujiamei Dong, Wulongshan Geopark, Longshan County, northwesternmost Hunan Province.

This cave (Fig. 13A, B) lies very close to Feihu Dong, the longest cave in Huoyan Karst, along the main road, and opposite Tujiamei Restaurant. This is a water source cave, with a small underground stream running throughout, the length still being unknown. It is highly moist and muddy. We surveyed as long as about 400 m in the cave, and collected the unique specimen in the dark zone when it was wandering on the wall. The other three trechine species found in the cave are Cathaiaphaenops delprati Deuve, 1996 (Fig. 13C), Sinotroglodytes bedosae Deuve, 1996, and Toshiaphaenops ovicollis Uéno, 1999. We visited this and adjacent caves in July, 2015 in order to find more specimens of this interesting beetle, but failed to catch anything.