Scydmoraphes samothracicus, nov.sp.
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Scydmoraphes
Scydmoraphes samothracicus

description: Scydmoraphes samothracicus MEYBOHM nov.sp. (Figs 23-24, 35)
T y p e m a t e r i a l: Holotype ♂: "GR – Samothraki [23], WSW Ano Meria, 40°27'39''N, 25°38'32''E, 900 m, roots and litter 11.IV.2019, V. Assing / Scydmoraphes samothracicus m. Meybohm 2019 det. / Holotypus " (cMey). Paratypes: 3♀♀: same data as holotype (cMey). 1♀: "GR – Samothraki [30a], S Ano Meria, 40°26'54''N, 25°40'07''E, 230 m, Platanus sifted 13.IV.2019, V. Assing / Scydmoraphes samothracicus m. Meybohm 2019 det. / Paratypus " (cMey).
E t y m o l o g y: The specific epithet (adjective) alludes to the hypothesized distribution, which is most likely confined to Samothraki.
D e s c r i p t i o n: External characters as in the widespread S. tricavulus (REITTER, 1881) (Balkans, Hungary, Romania), a species redescribed and illustrated by FRANZ (1961), except as follows:
Body length 1.00- 1.03 mm. Pubescence longer and less erect. Head width including eyes 0.18 mm, head length 0.16 mm. Supra-antennal tubercles more distinct. Eyes much smaller, diameter of eyes as long as antennomere V, distance between eyes about four times as long as diameter of eyes. Antenna longer (0.43 mm); antennomeres II almost twice as long as broad, III as long as broad, IV and V 1.5 times as long as broad, VI as long as broad, VII to X of increasing width, X almost twice as broad as long. Pronotum more slender, 0.30 mm long and 0.25 mm broad, broadest at anterior third, at base 0.19 mm broad. Elytra without sexual dimorphism, 0.64 mm long and 0.40 mm broad, broadest at anterior third, regularly convex, in dorsal view laterally more rounded und apically more narrowed, in lateral view more rounded.
♂: aedeagus shaped as in Figs 23-24, with straight apico-lateral parts ("retinaculum" in CASTELLINI 2007); internal sac with a large dorso-apical plate ("median lobe" in CASTELLINI 2007), a pair of frond-shaped median sclerites ("wedelartige Gebilde" in FRANZ 1961), and with a small horseshoe-shaped plate situated dorsally of these sclerites.
C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s: Scydmoraphes samothracicus belongs to a species group that is mainly characterised by a pair of frond-shaped sclerites in the internal sac of the aedeagus and by a pronotum with carinate lateral margins only in the posterior half. There are several similar, but undescribed species in Northwest Turkey and Samos
(material in cMey), all of which are distinguished by larger eyes and the absence of a horseshoe-shaped structure in the internal sac of the aedeagus.
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: This species is most likely endemic to Samothraki. The specimens were sifted from leaf litter and grass roots between large rocks and beneath an old oak tree at 900 m, and from leaf litter in a stream valley with very old Platanus orientalis and scattered old chestnut trees at an altitude of 230 m. The type locality is identical to that of Cephennium samothracicum and illustrated in Fig. 35.
3.4.4 Pselaphinae
description: Published as part of Assing, Volker, 2019, On the Staphylinidae of the Greek island Samothraki (Insecta Coleoptera), pp. 881-906 in Linzer biologische Beiträge 51 (2) on pages 900-901, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3738343