Zyras (Zyras) hirsutiventris
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Zyras
Zyras hirsutiventris

description: Zyras (Zyras) hirsutiventris (CHAMPION, 1927)
(Figs 13, 63, 97, 178–181, Map 7)
Myredonia (Zyras) hirsutiventris CHAMPION, 1927: 245.
Type material examined: Holotype ♀: “3573 / 3573 / 1929. 3u7 / C. Almora Dn. Kumaon, U.P., July ‘20 HGC. / Myrmedonia (Zyras) hirsutiventris Ch. Type / Holotype / Holotype Myrmedonia (Zyras) hirsutiventris Champ., det. R.G. Booth 2016” (BMNH).
Comment: The original description is based on a unique specimen from “Central Almora, Kumaon” (CHAMPION 1927).
Additional material examined: Nepal: 1 ♂, Khandbari district, Arun river, Num env., 1500–1600 m, 10.IV.1982, leg. Smetana (MHNG). India: 1 ♂, Assam, Bhalukpong, 27°02'N, 92°35'E, 150 m, 26.V.–3.VI.2006, leg. Pacholátko (BMNH).
Redescription: Large species: body length 6.5–7.5 mm; length of forebody 2.9–3.3 mm. Coloration (Figs 13, 63, 97): forebody black; abdomen blackish-brown to black; legs dark-yellowish, with the profemora dark-brown and the apical two-fifths or the apical halves of the meso- and metafemora blackish; antennae blackish, with the basal three antennomeres dark-brown; maxillary palpi darkbrown with palpomere IV yellowish.
Head (Fig. 63) distinctly transverse, median portion extensively impunctate; punctures in lateral portions moderately sparse and moderately coarse. Eyes longer than postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna (Fig. 13) 2.1–2.5 mm long and rather slender; antennomeres IV oblong or as long as broad, V–VI approximately as long as broad or weakly transverse, VII–X of increasing width and increasingly transverse, X approximately 1.5 times as broad as long, and XI of distinctly conical shape, short, much shorter than the combined length of IX and X.
Pronotum (Fig. 63) approximately 1.15 times as broad as long and approximately 1.3 times as broad as head, broadest in anterior half; lateral margins distinctly sinuate in posterior half in dorsal view; punctation rather fine and dense, regularly distributed; midline narrowly impunctate; pubescence brown, long, and sub-erect to erect.
Elytra (Fig. 63) approximately 0.9 times as long as pronotum; punctation dense and fine, only slightly less dense posteriorly than anteriorly; whole disc with dense and sub-erect brown pubescence. Hind wings fully developed. Metatarsomere I nearly as long as the combined length of II–IV.
Abdomen (Fig. 97) approximately as broad as elytra, with moderately deep anterior impressions on tergites III–V; anterior impressions of tergites III–V each with a transverse row of shallow and indistinct grooves (not punctation); tergites III–V each with two transverse rows of rather numerous setiferous punctures posteriorly; tergite VI with extensive non-setiferous puncturation in anterior half, with micropunctation and with scattered setiferous punctures in posterior half; tergite VII with non-setiferous punctation in anterior half and with setiferous punctation not arranged in distinct rows in posterior half, posterior margin with palisade fringe; tergite VIII (Fig. 180) with moderately dense punctation everywhere, except near anterior margin, posterior margin shallowly concave in the middle; all sternites with long brown pubescence posteriorly.
♂: sternite VIII (Fig. 181) strongly convex posteriorly; median lobe of aedeagus (Figs 178–179) 0.78–0.83 mm long; paramere 0.87 mm long and with short apical lobe.
Comparative notes: Like Z. gardneri, this species belongs to the Z. hirtus group. It is readily distinguished from Z. gardneri by the different coloration of the antennae, the elytra, the abdomen, and the legs, by less slender antennae with distinctly more transverse preapical antennomeres, as well as by the different punctation pattern of the abdomen. Regarding the shape of the ventral process of the aedeagus, Z. hirsutiventris is similar to Z. flexus ASSING, 2016 from Fujian (China), from which it differs by darker coloration of the whole body (including the legs and antennae) and the larger aedeagus (Z. flexus: length of median lobe 0.7 mm) with an apically less strongly angled ventral process (lateral view). For illustrations of Z. flexus see ASSING (2016a).
Distribution and natural history: The currently known distribution is confined to three localities in North India (Uttarakhand, Assam) and Nepal (Map 7). The above male from East Nepal was already reported by PACE (1992). The altitudes range from 150 to approximately 1550 m.
description: Published as part of Assing, Volker, 2017, On Zyras sensu strictu in the East Palaearctic and Oriental regions, with a focus on the faunas of the Himalaya, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Sulawesi (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae: Lomechusini), pp. 117-192 in Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 67 (1) on pages 144-145, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.67.1.117-192, http://zenodo.org/record/5742363