Marcepania princesa, Jałoszyński, 2019

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2019, The first Philippine species of Marcepania (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 4668 (1), pp. 141-144 : 142-143

Marcepania princesa sp. n. ( Figs 1–4 )

Type material. Holotype: PHILIPPINES, PALAWAN: ♁, two labels: "PHIL.: Palawan, P. Princesa / SSW Maratarpi / 10°09.760'N 118°49.940'E / 15.7.2001, leg. Freitag (x18)" [white, printed], " MARCEPANIA / princesa m. / P. Jałoszyński, 2019 / HOLOTYPUS" [red, printed] ( NHMW).

Diagnosis. Body very slender, EI> 1.50; aedeagus elongate, pear-shaped, with a darkly sclerotized pair of slender median components in subapical region of median lobe.

Description. Body of male ( Fig. 1 ) elongate and slender, flattened, brown, covered with yellowish vestiture; BL 0.81 mm.

Head broadest at large, strongly convex, bean-shaped and coarsely faceted eyes, HL 0.10 mm, HW 0.18; vertex and posterior part of frons confluent and weakly convex; anterior portion of frons flattened; supraantennal tubercles barely marked; frons between eyes and vertex nearly impunctate, frons on sides with fine but dense, inconspicuous punctures; setae sparse and short, suberect. Antennae short, AnL 0.30 mm; antennomeres I–II strongly elongate; III indistinctly transverse, IV–VI each about as long as broad; VII–VIII each slightly transverse; IX and X each distinctly transverse, XI only slightly longer than broad, with evenly and broadly rounded apex.

Pronotum nearly semi-oval, broadest slightly in front of middle; PL 0.24 mm, PW 0.28 mm. Anterior margin nearly straight; lateral margins weakly and nearly evenly rounded; hind corners nearly right-angled; posterior margin weakly arcuate; lateral ante-basal impressions shallow but distinct. Punctures on disc fine and shallow, inconspicuous; vestiture sparse, short, suberect.

Elytra together oval, broadest near anterior fourth; EL 0.48 mm, EW 0.31 mm, EI 1.52; apices broadly, separately rounded; punctures more distinct than those on pronotum but still shallow and inconspicuous, those on anterior half separated by spaces shorter than diameters of punctures, punctures reducing in diameter and depth toward sides and apices; setae short, sparse, only slightly suberect.

Legs short, robust; unmodified.

Aedeagus ( Figs 2–3 ) pear-shaped, broadest in sub-basal region, apical margin broadly and weakly rounded; endophallus with a pair of slender median sclerites in subapical region; parameres slender, exceeding apex of median lobe, each with one apical seta; AeL 0.125 mm.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution. Philippines, central Palawan ( Fig 4 ).

Etymology. Locotypical, after Puerto Princesa City (used as a noun in apposition). Coincidentally, "Princessa" is a Polish chocolate bar of the same etymology as the Philippine city (except that not dedicated to any particular princess), which combines well with the generic name, as Marcepania has been derived from the Polish word 'marcepan', i.e., mar- zipan.

Remarks. Species of Marcepania are morphologically very uniform, including male genital structures. They can be distinguished by differences in proportions of body parts, the general shape of the aedeagus, and, to a lesser extent, by weakly sclerotized and often poorly visible endophallic structures. Marcepania princesa resembles most its closest geographical relative, M. elongata , known to occur in the northern region of Borneo. These are the only such slender, strongly elongate species with the elytral indices exceeding 1.50. Marcepania princesa is distinctly smaller than M. elongata (BL 0.81 mm vs. 0.95 mm, respectively), and its aedeagus is much more elongate, ~ 1.7 × as long as broad in ventral view, whereas in M. elongata it is conspicuously stout, only ~ 1.3 × as long as broad.

Figures

FIGURES 1–4. Dorsal habitus (1) and aedeagus in ventral view (2–3) of Marcepania princesa sp. n.; distribution of Marcepania species (4).