Medon carpathius ASSING, 2016

Assing, Volker, 2016, On the Staphylinidae of the Greek island Karpathos (Insecta Coleoptera), Linzer biologische Beiträge 48 (1), pp. 235-263 : 251-253

Medon carpathius ASSING nov.sp. ( Figs 23-30 )

T y p e m a t e r i a l: Holotype 3: " Greece: Karpathos [10], W Spoa, 35°38'42''N, 27°07'56''E, 210 m, stream valley, sifted, 25.XII.2015, V. Assing / Holotypus 3 Medon carpathius sp.n. det. V. Assing 2016" (cAss) . Paratypes: 13, 3♀♀: same data as holotype (cAss, MNHUB) ; 13, 2♀♀, 1 ex. without abdomen: same data as holotype, but "[10a] ... 31.XII.2015 " (cAss, MNHUB) ; 333, 1♀: " Greece: Karpathos [9], W Spoa, 35°38'56''N, 27°07'56''E, 230 m, stream valley, sifted, 25.XII.2015, V. Assing" (cAss, MNHUB) ; 1♀: "GR Karpathos, Olympos 250 m, Meybohm 27.4.2000 " (cAss) ; 233, 4 exs.: " Greece, Karpathos , Spoa, 500 mNN, 23.04.1994, leg. J. Frisch " ( MNHUB, cAss) ; 13, 1♀, 12 exs.: " Greece, Karpathos , Olympos, 26.04.1994, 300 mNN, leg. J. Frisch " ( MNHUB, cAss) .

C o m m e n t: The unsexed paratypes collected by J. Frisch have my identification label " Medon cerrutii COIFFAIT , det. V. Assing 2006 " attached to them. The specimens recorded from Karpathos as M. cerrutii COIFFAIT, 1976 by ASSING (2007a) refer to M. carpathius .

E t y m o l o g y: The specific epithet is an adjective derived from Carpathus, the Latin name for Karpathos.

bars: 23: 1.0 mm; 24-29: 0.2 mm; 30: 0.1 mm. D e s c r i p t i o n: Body length 4.0- 4.8 mm; length of forebody 2.4-2.6 mm. Size,

coloration, and other external characters ( Figs 23-25 ) as in M. cerrutii and other species of the M. petrochilosi subgroup. Distinguished only by the male sexual characters:

3: shapes and chaetotaxy of sternites VII ( Fig. 26 ) and VIII ( Fig. 27 ) similar to those of M. cerrutii , except for the setae at the posterior margin of sternite VII (median setae shorter; lateral combs usually composed of five setae); aedeagus ( Figs 28-29 ) approximately 0.6 mm long; apex of ventral process and apical internal structures ( Fig. 30 ) of distinctive shapes.

C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s: Based on the external (punctation and sculpture of head and pronotum) and the male primary and secondary sexual characters, M. carpathius belongs to the M. petrochilosi subgroup of the M. apicalis group. The M. petrochilosi subgroup previously included eight species distributed in the East Mediterranean, all of them with restricted distributions; for a distribution map see ASSING (2013c). The new species is reliably distinguished from the geographically closest representatives of the M. petrochilosi subgroup only by the chaetotaxy of the male sternite VII and the morphology of the aedeagus, particularly the shape of the ventral process of the aedeagus in lateral and in ventral view and the shape of the sclerotized apical internal structures. For illustrations of other related species see ASSING (2004a, 2013c). The geographically closest representatives of the M. petrochilosi subgroup are M. cerrutii (Crete) , M. impar ASSING, 2004 (Rhodos) , and M. caricus FAGEL, 1970 (southwestern Anatolia; Greek island Nikaría).

D i s t r i b u t i o n a n d n a t u r a l h i s t o r y: The known distribution is confined to the environs of Spoa and Olympos in Karpathos. The specimens collected in December 2015 were sifted from moist leaf litter in stream valleys. The altitudes range from 210 to 500 m.

Figures

Figs 23-30: Medon carpathius nov.sp.: (23) forebody; (24) median portion of head; (25) median portion of pronotum; (26) male sternite VII; (27) male sternite VIII; (28) aedeagus in lateral view; (29); apical portion of aedeagus in ventral view; (30) apical internal structure in lateral view. Scale