Pseudolathra cyanea Assing 2014, nov.comb.
Creators: name: Assing, V.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Pseudolathra
Pseudolathra cyanea

description: Pseudolathra cyanea (LAST, 1984), nov.comb.
(Fig. 13, Map 2)
Lathrobium cyanea LAST, 1984: 121 f.
Type material examined: Holotype: " Middle Waria, New Guinea, 29-7-1970, R. Hornabrook / Holotype / Brit. Mus. 1985-401 / Lathrobium cyanea sp.n., H.R. Last. det., Type / Pseudolathra cyanea (Last), det. V. Assing 2014" (BMNH).
Comment: The original description is based on a unique female holotype from "Middle Waria, ..., beaten from foliage"" (LAST 1984). The species clearly does not belong to Lathrobium. Based on the external characters (punctation pattern, habitus, presence of an epipleural line), it is attributed to Pseulolathra.
Redescription: Body length 8.2 mm; length of forebody 3.9 mm. Coloration highly distinctive: body shiny and black, with pronounced metallic greenish-blue hue; abdomen black with weak bluish hue; legs blackish, with the tarsi and the narrow bases of the tibiae yellowish-brown; antennae reddish, with the median antennomeres somewhat darker.
Head (Fig. 13) 1.05 times as broad as long; posterior angles obsolete; lateral margins behind eyes smoothly rounded towards posterior constriction in dorsal view; dorsal surface with few scattered coarse macropunctures in anterior and lateral portions, otherwise impunctate; microsculpture absent. Eyes large, much longer than distance from posterior margin of eye to posterior constriction. Antenna slender, 2.6 mm long; all antennomeres oblong; antennomeres IV-X gradually decreasing in length and decreasingly oblong.
Pronotum (Fig. 13) strongly convex in cross-section, 1.11 times as long as broad and approximately as broad as head, widest near anterior angles, distinctly tapering posteriorly; dorsal series broadly separated, each composed of 1+3 coarse punctures; lateral portions with few scattered macropunctures; microsculpture absent.
Elytra (Fig. 13) 0.93 times as long as pronotum; epipleural line pronounced (lateral view); dorsal surface with a sutural series composed of 6-7 punctures, a median series composed of 3-4 punctures, and a lateral series composed of 5-7 punctures, otherwise impunctate. Hind wings fully developed. Metatarsomere I shorter than II. Protarsomeres I-IV moderately strongly dilated.
Abdomen slightly narrower than elytra; punctation rather sparse, sparser on posterior than on anterior tergites; interstices with microsculpture; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.
: unknown.
Comparative notes: This species is distinguished from all its congeners by the conspicuous coloration alone.
Distribution and natural history: Thetypelocalityisapparently a river valley in the Bowutu Mountains in eastern Papua New Guinea (Map 2). According to LAST (1984), the holotype was beaten from the foliage of a tree.
description: Published as part of Assing, V., 2014, A revision of Palaearctic and Oriental Pseudolathra. IV. New species, new combinations and additional records (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae), pp. 1151-1166 in Linzer biologische Beiträge 46 (2) on page 1159, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5307614