Dropephylloidea curticollis Shavrin 2025, comb. n.
Creators: name: Shavrin, Alexey V.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Dropephylloidea
Dropephylloidea curticollis

description: Dropephylloidea curticollis (Eppelsheim, 1889) comb. n.
(Figs 1–28)
Homalium (Phyllodrepa) curticolle Eppelsheim 1889: 182
Phyllodrepa curticollis: Luze 1906: 573, Herman 2001: 561, Jászay & Hlaváč 2006: 32
Phyllodrepa (Dropephylla) curticollis: Bernhauer & Schubert 1910: 48, Smetana 2004: 265
Dropephylla curticollis: Schülke & Smetana 2015: 344
Type material examined. Lectotype (here designated) ♀ (left antennomeres 3–11 missing; Fig. 2; labels as in Fig. 3): ‘ App[e]l | Beirut | 1878.’ <printed>, ‘curticolle Typ. ’ <handwritten in black Indian ink>, ‘curticollis Epp. [handwritten in black Indian ink] | det. Luze [underlined by black]’ <printed>, ‘TYPUS’ <red, printed>, ‘LECTOTYPE’ <red, printed> ‘ Dropehylloidea | curticollis (Eppelsheim, 1889) | Shavrin A.V. det. 2024’ <printed> (NMW). Paralectotype ♀ (dissected): same four labels as in the holotype, with additional label: ‘ Dropephylloidea | curticollis (Eppelsheim, 1889) | Shavrin A.V. det. 2024’ <printed> (NMW).
Additional material examined. ITALY: 1 ♂, 1 ♀: Basilicata, Matera, Valsinni (Matera), banks of Sinni River. Trap with vinegar. 19.06.2002. F. Angelini leg. (cZ); CROATIA: 1 ♀: Krk Island, environs of Krk. 01.06. 2003. E. Holzer leg. (cZ); ALBANIA: 1 ♂ (fully dissected prior to the present study), 1 ♀: ‘Albania’, ‘G.C. Champion Coll. B.M. 1927-409.’ (BMNH); TURKEY: 1 ♂, 4 ♀♀: Tunceli, ca 40 km NW Tunceli, road to Ovacik. 1300 m a.s.l., pitfall. 19/ 22.05.2014. C. Reuter leg. (cF, cZ); SYRIA: 2 ♀♀: ‘ ♀ ’, ‘ Latakia Syria’, ‘curticollis Epp’, ‘ex coll. Klima’ (NMW); 1 ♂: ‘1023’, ‘243.’, ‘curticolle Fauv. Syria. Mus. Vindob.’, ‘c. Epplsh. | Steind. d.’, ‘curticollis Epp. det. Luze’, ‘TYPUS’ (NMW); 1 ♀: ‘ Syria. Mus. Vindob.’, ‘c. Epplsh. Steind. d.’, ‘curticollis Epp. det. Luze’, ‘TYPUS’, ‘Coll. Mus. Vindob.’ (NMW); ISRAEL: 1 ♂ (dissected): Galilee, ravin below Safad [Safed]. 500 m a.s.l., sifted accumulation of moist plane-tree (Platanus) leaves. 26.04.1982. C. Besuchet & I. Löbl leg. (cSh); 1 ♀ (dissected): Galilee, 3 km E Ginosar. Siften moist leaves below Eucalyptus trees. 24.05.1973. I. Löbl leg. (MHNG); 1 ♀ (dissected): côte Beit Tzevi. Sifted moist debris under rotten Opuntia. 18.04.1982. C. Besuchet & I. Löbl leg. (MHNG).
Redescription. Measurements (n=11): maximum width of head including eyes: 0.33–0.38; length of head: 0.19–0.24; ocular length (longitudinal): 0.09–0.11; length of antenna (lectotype): 0.57; length of pronotum: 0.24– 0.32; maximum width of pronotum: 0.42–0.47; minimum width of pronotum: 0.35–0.40; sutural length of elytra (length of elytra from apex of scutellum to posterior margin of sutural angle): 0.50–0.59; maximum width of elytra: 0.58–0.64; length of metatibia (lectotype): 0.26; length of metatarsus (lectotype): 0.32 (MTrL 1–4: 0.12; MTrL 5: 0.20); maximum width of abdomen: 0.53–0.60; length of aedeagus (from base of median lobe to apex of parameres): 0.25–0.27; total length of body (from anterior margin of clypeus to apex of abdomen): 1.65–2.05 (lectotype: 1.90).
Habitus as in Figs 1–2. Body reddish-brown, with darker head and sometimes abdomen (some specimens with slightly darker medio-apical part of elytra and yellowish intersegmental membranes of abdomen); antennomeres 3–11 or 4–11 brown; mouthparts, antennomeres 1–2 or 1–3 and legs yellow. Apical part of clypeus with indistinct and middle with distinct transverse microreticulation, infraorbital portions with longitudinal sculpture; neck with dense isodiametric microsculpture, sometimes finer in middle; pronotum with dense irregular and longitudinal sculpture, finer and sometimes invisible in middle; scutellum without or with fine isodiametric meshes. Head with very sparse punctation, slightly denser in middle, some specimens without punctures between middle and anteocellar foveae; neck and scutellum without punctures; punctation of pronotum larger and denser than that on head, finer and sparser in middle; elytra with punctation denser, larger and deeper than that on pronotum, finer and sparser around scutellum and along suture.
Head 1.5–1.7 times as broad as long, sometimes with indistinctly elevated surface in front of each anteocellar fovea. Distance between ocelli slightly shorter than distance between ocellus and posterior margin of eye. Labrum as in Fig. 4. Mandibles as in Fig. 5. Labium and mentum as in Fig. 7. Maxilla as in Fig. 6. Ventral aspect of head as in Fig. 8.Antenna (Fig. 9) with wide oval basal antennomere, about two and a half times as long as broad, antennomere 2 1.5–1.6 times as long as basal antennomere, 3 slightly shorter and distinctly narrower than 2, 4 short, about as broad as 3 and about as long as broad, 5 slightly longer and broader than 3, 6 distinctly broader than 5, 7–8 slightly longer and broader than 6, 9–10 slightly longer and broader than 8, apical antennomere 1.3–1.4 times as long as preceding segment.
Pronotum 1.4–1.7 times as broad as long, 1.2 times as broad as head, widest in anterior portion, gradually narrowed posteriad toward obtuse posterior angles; some specimens with slightly concave posterolateral margins; anterior angles widely rounded, sometimes indistinctly protruded anteriad; anterior margin slightly rounded or somewhat straight, sometimes indistinctly concave in middle, slightly shorter than rounded basal margin; latero-apical margins narrowly and laterobasal portions slightly and widely impressed. Prothorax as in Fig. 10. Mesoventrite as in Fig. 11. Scutellum as in Fig. 13. Metaventrite as in Fig. 14.
Elytra 1.1 times as broad as long, 1.8 times to twice as long as pronotum; hind margins straight or rounded. Ventral aspect of elytron as in Fig. 14. Surface between punctures in middle of each elytron with longitudinal and diagonal elevations.
Legs as in Figs 15–17.
Male. Metatrochanter strongly elongate (Fig. 18). Posterior margin of abdominal tergite VIII indistinctly concave (Fig. 21). Posterior margin of abdominal sternite VIII widely and slightly concave (Fig. 22). Genital segment as in Fig. 23. Aedeagus (Fig. 19) from relatively wide basal portion gradually narrowed toward rounded apex; parameres from basal part gradually broadened apically, slightly exceeding apex of median lobe, with two moderately long apical setae; dorsal plates slightly exceeding apex of parameres, each with rounded apex; flagellum short and narrow, located slightly above middle of median lobe, reaching preapical transverse sclerotized structure; internal sac very short and narrow, located in basal part of the aedeagus. Lateral aspect of the aedeagus as in Fig. 20.
Female. Metatrochanter simple. Abdominal tergite VIII (Fig. 24) and sternite VIII (Fig. 25) narrowed apically, with rounded apex. Genital segment as in Fig. 26. Spermatheca as in Fig. 27.
Remarks. I studied two specimens (females) from NMW with label ‘App[e]l Beirut 1878.’. One specimen I designate as the lectotype in order to fix the identity of the name. Dropephylloidea curticollis is here recorded from Albania, Croatia, Israel, Italy and Turkey for the first time.
description: Published as part of Shavrin, Alexey V., 2025, Dropephylloidea, a remarkable new genus from south Europe and the Middle East (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Omaliinae: Omaliini), pp. 353-362 in Zootaxa 5584 (3) on pages 358-360, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5584.3.3, http://zenodo.org/record/14853314