Achilia zaurda Sabella & Cuccodoro & Kurbatov 2019, n. sp.
Creators: name: Sabella, Giorgio
name: Cuccodoro, Giulio
name: Kurbatov, Sergey A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Achilia
Achilia zaurda

description: Achilia zaurda n. sp.
Figs 8, 10, 18, 26, 42, 44, 46, 58
Bryaxis puncticeps. – Reitter, 1885: 324, 326 pl. II fig. 5 (head and antennae) (nec Bryaxis puncticeps Reitter, 1883).
Achilia puncticeps. – Jeannel, 1962: 414-415 (pro parte, description of male) figs 166 (habitus), 168 (aedeagus). – Kurbatov & Sabella, 2015: 304, fig. 63 (habitus).
Holotype: MHNG (# MHNG-ENTO-13846); 1 ♂; SOUTHERN CHILI: Región Los Lagos: Llanquihue prov.: Vicente Perez Rosales National Park, Salto Petrohué; 150 m; 23.XII.1984; S. & J. Peck; mixed forest litter, Berlese.
Paratypes (507): MNHN (ex coll. Raffray, sub A. punticeps); 5 ♂; Chili. – SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL CHILI: Región Los Lagos: Llanquihue prov.: MHNG; 24 ♂ and 28 ♀; same data as holotype. – FMNH (FMHD #85-938, # 85-54) 2 ♂ and 5 ♀; same data as holotype. – MHNG; 1 ♂; same data, but FIT. – FMNH (FMHD #85-939, # 85-55); 1 ♂; same locality; 23.XII.1984 / 04.II.1985; S. & J. Peck; FIT mixed moist forest. – FMNH (FMHD #97-8); 4 ♂; Vicente Perez Rosales National Park, 9.2 km NE Ensenada, on road to Petrohué; 41° 10.20’ S 72° 27.10’ W; 125 m; 02-28.I.1997; A. Newton & M. Thayer 987; Valdivian rainforest w/ Nothofagus ssp., flight intercept trap. – MHNG; 1 ♂; Frutillar Bajo, Universidad Chile Forest Reserve; 100 m; 22.XII.1984 / 02.II.1985; S. & J. Peck; FIT ravine mixed forest. – Chiloé prov.: MHNS (n. 1801); 1 ♂ (mislabeled as paratype of Achilia monstrata chilota n. 1801); Chiloè. – Osorno prov.: MHNG; 1 ♂; Puyehue National Park, Aguas Calientes, station 25a; 400 -500 m; 31.XII.1990 / 01.I.1991; D. Agosti & D. Burckhardt. – UNHC; 4 ♂; Puyehue National Park, Aguas Calientes; 440 m; 26.XII.1982; A. Newton & M. Thayer; Valdivian rainforest, at UV light. – FMNH; 4 ♂; same data. – MHNG; 1 ♀; Puyehue National Park, road Aguas Calientes-Antillanca, station 19b; 40° 45’S 72° 15-20’W; 750-850 m; 30.XI/ 01.XII.1992; D. Burckhardt; sifting of moss on tree trunks and forest floor and vegetational debris. – Región Araucanía: Cautín prov.: MHNG; 4 ♂; 15 km NE Villarrica, Flor del Lake; 300 m; 14.XII.1984 / 10.II.1985; S. & J. Peck; FIT Nothofagus forest. – MSNG; 2 ♂; Rio Pedregoso, Fundo Nueva Pomerania; TC-433; 25.I.1995; T. Cekalovic. – Región Bío Bío: Concepción prov.: FMNH; 62 ♂ and 137 ♀; Patagual; TC-369; 29.XI.1993; T. Cekalovic. – MSNG; 5 ♂ and 25 ♀; Puente Pelun; TC-358; 21.II.1993; T. Cekalovic. – MSNG; 32 ♂ and 154 ♀; Fundo El Manzano; TC-503; 17.XI.1996; T. Cekalovic. – MHNS; 2 ♂ and 2 ♀; same data.
Description: Body 1.50-1.60 mm long, entirely dark brown with reddish elytra darker at base and along sutural stria, or entirely reddish with darker head and sometimes abdomen, or entirely reddish, with legs and antennae reddish, and yellowish palpi. Head with protruding eyes, shorter than convex temples. Pronotum as wide as head; median antebasal fovea smaller than lateral ones. First abdominal tergite with basal striae extending to about one-third of paratergal length, and separated at base by about a one-third of tergal width.
Male: Head as in Figs 42, 44 and 46, posterior region raised in apically truncated and laterally rounded subconic median protuberance, the latter dorsally flattened and densely punctuate; frontal lobe with convergent sides. Antennae (Fig. 18) with scape and pedicel longer than wide; all funicular antennomeres wider than long with antennomere VIII strongly transverse; antennomeres IX two times wider than long; antennomere X very big, slightly wider than long, its surface with some tubercles; antennomere XI very elongate and distinctly longer than VI-X combined, its surface with many tubercles. Metaventrite raised at middle, this area punctuate and depressed; posterior margin densely covered with long backward bristles. Legs with trochanters elongates; ventral margin of mesotrochanters projecting at middle as spine (Fig. 26); profemora and mesofemora slightly thickened; distal third of mesotibiae (Fig. 10) sinuate and with long and thick bristles; its medial margin projecting as large and stout spur; distal half of metatibiae slightly sinuate. Abdominal tergites unmodified; surface of first abdominal ventrite raised and flattened at middle with distinct and stout median carina extending from posterior margin to more than third of ventrite length; second and third ventrites slightly flattened at middle; fourth abdominal ventrite hollowed at middle. Aedeagus (Fig. 8) 0.40-0.42 mm long with dorsal plate quadrangular with slightly sinuate sides, apical part narrowed and rounded; dorsal longitudinal struts divergent (not shown in Fig. 8). Copulatory pieces consisting of pair of long and large medially sinuated sclerites slightly enlarged apically and with pointed lateral margin; a robust spine-like process with distal third strongly curved laterally projects from middle of left sclerite, apex of this process bifid and forming two small spines directed ventrally. Parameres sinuate and bearing two short subapical setae, and two long spines directed ventrally and medially projecting from distal third.
Female: Similar to male except: head unmodified with frons slightly convex and with small vertexal fovea beside each eye, vertexal sulcus present. Antennae unmodified, with shorter and less thickened antennomeres, thinner than male; metaventrite, abdominal ventrites and legs unmodified.
Collecting data: Collected from November to February in Valdivian rainforests, Nothofagus ssp., and mixed forests, at elevations ranging from 100 m to 850 m. Most specimens came from sifted samples of leaf and log litter, moss, dead trunks, vegetable debris, and sometimes mushrooms, but also were collected by flight intercept traps and UV light.
Distribution: Achilia zaurda n. sp. is known from Southern and Central Chile (Fig. 58: red circles), ranging from Llanquihue to Concepción provinces.
Comments: The males of this species have been described and illustrated under the name A. puncticeps by Reitter (1885: 324, 326, pl. II, fig. 5) and Jeannel (1962: 414, figs 166-168). See also comments under Achilia approximans and A. puncticeps species groups, and under A. puncticeps.
Achilia zaurda n. sp. differs from all the other species treated above with respect to various characters, notably by the presence of two spines on the distal edge of the parameres. The structure of the aedeagus as well as the shape of the male head and antennae are diagnostic.
description: Published as part of Sabella, Giorgio, Cuccodoro, Giulio & Kurbatov, Sergey A., 2019, A revision of the Chilean Brachyglutini - Part 4. Revision of Achilia Reitter, 1890: A. puncticeps and A. approximans species groups, with description of seven new species (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae), pp. 127-145 in Revue suisse de Zoologie 126 (1) on pages 143-145, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.2619528