Orphnebius spinans, Assing, 2016

Assing, Volker, 2016, On some Lomechusini of the Palaearctic and Oriental regions (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 66 (1), pp. 13-111 : 46

Orphnebius spinans spec. nov.

( Figs 1, 23 , 197–201 )

Type material: Holotype ♂: “NE India, Arunachal Pr., Etalin vicinity , 700 m, 28°36'56"N, 95°53'21"E, FIT (flight interception trap), L. Dembický leg., 12.–25.v.2012 / Holotypus ♂ Orphnebius spinans sp. n., det. V. Assing 2015” ( ZFMK).

Etymology: The specific epithet is the present participle of the Latin verb spinare (to sting) and alludes to the spine-shaped ventral process of the aedeagus (ventral view).

Description: Body length 3.3 mm; length of forebody 1.5 mm. Coloration: head black; pronotum and elytra blackish-brown, with the humeral and sutural portions of the elytra indistinctly paler; abdomen pale-reddish; legs with reddish-brown femora and reddish tibiae and tarsi; antennae blackish-brown with antennomeres I–III reddish-yellow and IV brown.

Head ( Fig. 23 ) 1.17 times as broad as long and of subcircular shape; posterior angles completely obsolete; punctation extremely fine, barely visible, and very sparse; median and posterior dorsal portions extensively impunctate; interstices without microsculpture. Eyes very large, approximately as long as distance from posterior margin of eye to posterior constriction of head. Antenna ( Fig. 1 ) 1.1 mm long, moderately incrassate, and weakly asymmetric; antennomere IV small and weakly transverse; antennomere V distinctly larger than IV and moderately transverse; antennomeres VI–X of gradually increasing width and increasingly transverse; X approximately 1.5 times as broad as long; XI strongly elongate, nearly as long as the combined length of VII–X.

Pronotum ( Fig. 23 ) 1.26 times as broad as long and 1.20 times as broad as head, moderately convex in crosssection; posterior angles moderately marked; disc with a median pair of punctures, otherwise impunctate; margins with additional punctures.

Elytra ( Fig. 23 ) 0.75 times as long as pronotum; suture distinctly gaping posteriorly; punctation sparse and fine. Hind wings fully developed. Metatarsomere I approximately as long as the combined length of II and III.

Abdomen broad, approximately as broad as combined width of elytra; tergites III–VI practically impunctate, except for fine setiferous punctures at posterior margins; tergite VII extensively with dense and coarse, oblong non-setiferous punctation leaving only a narrow transverse band at anterior margin glossy, posterior margin with distinct palisade fringe; tergite VIII with a marginal and a submarginal row of long setae, posterior margin broadly convex.

♂: hemi-tergites IX and tergite X with extremely dense and long pubescence ( Fig. 197 ); median lobe of aedeagus ( Figs 198–199 ) 0.78 mm long; ventral process spineshaped in ventral view ( Fig. 200 ); paramere ( Fig. 201 ) 0.55 mm long, paramerite with four long setae subapically; condylite stout and much shorter than paramerite. ♀: unknown.

Comparative notes: Based on the modifications of the abdominal tergites IX and X, the shapes and chaetotaxy of tergite and sternite VIII, the coloration pattern of the body, the morphology of the aedeagus (large and bulbous capsule; shapes of internal structures), and particularly the shape of the paramere, O. spinans belongs to the O. hauseri subgroup. The new species is distinguished from all the previously known representatives of this group particularly by the distinctive shapes of the ventral process of the aedeagus and of the parameres.

Distribution and natural history: The type locality is situated in Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India. The circumstances of collection are identical to those of O. dispar .

Figures

Figs 1–26. Antenna (1–21) and forebody (22–26) of Orphnebius spp. of the O. hauseri group: spinans (1, 23), cernens (2, 24), lunatus (3, 25), bakeri (4, 26), breviceps (5), extensus (6), serratus (7), integer (8), bicuspis, Laos (9), bicuspis, NE India (10), fusicollis (11), retunsus (12), fodens (13), opticus (14), dilatatus (15), fuscapicalis (16), grandicollis (17, 22), reductus (18), biformis, male (19), biformis, female (20), effeminatus (21). Scale bars: 22–26: 1.0 mm; 1–21: 0.5 mm.

Figs 197–215. Orphnebius spinans (197–201), O. cernens (202–206), O. lunatus (207–210), and O. grandicollis (211–215): male segments IX–X (197); median lobe of aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view (198–199, 202–203, 208–209, 212); ventral process of aedeagus in ventral view (200, 214); paramere (201, 204, 210, 215); apex of paramere (205); spermatheca (206); tergite VIII (207, 211); ventral process of aedeagus in lateral view (213). Scale bars: 0.2 mm.