Zuluclavodes, Hlavac, 2007

Hlaváč, Peter & Baňař, Petr, 2020, New species of Clavigeritae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae) from Malawi and South Africa, Zootaxa 4877 (3), pp. 587-597 : 592

Zuluclavodes sp.

( Fig. 2 )

Material examined. 1 ♀: MLW/sift 13 S MALAWI 2018, MT. ZOMBA, S15 o 20’37,2’’ E35 o 16’40.2’’, sifted forest litter, Winkler App. Extraction, 27.11., 1846 m, P. Baňař & P. Hlaváč lgt. ( PCPH) .

Note. This female, 2.45 mm long, clearly represents another new species of the genus. It can be easily separated from the larger congeners Zuluclavodes bryantaylori and Zuluclavodes mulanjensis by its different antennal morphology with minuscule scape and transverse pedicel that is partly hidden in antennal cavity. Additionally, antennomeres III–V are of different length, and the relative lengths of antennomeres III–VI is 1.00: 1.45: 2.18: 4.73. The pronotum of this species bears shallow lateral foveae. Although the differences are clear, we prefer not to name this species on account of our opinion that in general, new Staphylinidae taxa should not be named based on females alone.

Biology. The single specimen was sifted in the remnant of the mountainous forests ( Fig. 17 ) and extracted using Winkler apparatus.

Host ant. Unknown.

Distribution. Malawi, Mount Zomba.

Figures

FIGURES 1–4. Zuluclavodes species, dorsal habitus. 1, Zuluclavodes mulanjensis sp. nov., male holotype; 2, Zuluclavodes sp., female; 3, Zuluclavodes minor sp. nov., male holotype; 4, Zuluclavodes minor sp. nov., female paratype. Scale bars in mm.

FIGURES 17–18. 17, Mount Zomba forest, where undescribed female of Zuluclavodes sp. was collected, southern Malawi; 18, wet pasture with stones, type locality of Articerodes jaloszynskii sp. nov., KwaZulu-Natal, Republic of South Africa (photo by Paweł Jałoszyński).