Aphodius (Liothorax) kraatzi Harold 1868
Creators: name: Angus, Robert B.
name: Maté, Jason F.
name: Angus, Elizabeth M.
name: Král, David
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Aphodius
Aphodius kraatzi

description: Aphodius (Liothorax) kraatzi Harold, 1868
Figs 3 a, b, 5 o, p, 8 a, b, 14 b, 17 j, 18 f, g, 20 g – i, 22 y, z, 25 h, 26 o – s, 30 f – h
Aphodius kraatzi Harold, 1868: 84.
Type material examined.
(MNHP), seen but not studied in detail by DK.
Additional material examined.
SK: S. Slovakia, E. of Chlaba, sandy place S of the railway. 47.842 ° N, 18.844 ° E. 107 m a. s. l .. 11. vi. 2014. leg. D. Král. 1 ♂, 5 ♀♀ (NHMUK). Martovce. 47.858 ° N, 18.127 ° E. 2 ♀♀ (NHMUK). Velké Kosíhy. 47.734 ° N, 18.127 ° E. 1 ♀ (NHMUK). Virt. 47.742 ° N, 18.324 ° E. 31. vii – 2. viii. 2012. Martinů Ivo leg. 2, unsexed (NMP).
GR: Lesbos, Petra. 39.399 ° N, 26.181 ° E. 2, unsexed (NMW).
RU: Astrakhan obl. Dosang. 46.904 ° N, 47.916 ° E. Cattle dung. A. Frolov & L. Akhmetova. 2 ♀♀, 4 unsexed, 23. v. 2007, 1 ♀, 1–3. v. 2004 (NHML). Novosibirsk obl. Karasuk. 53.5 ° N, 78 ° E. vi – vii. 1982. R. B. Angus. 1 ♀ (NHMUK). SE Siberia, S Chita reg. 50.071166 ° N, 115.663446 ° E. Zun Tore Lake. 30. v. 2002. 1 ♂ (JFMC)
IN “ O. Ashur-ade ” (Ashooradeh Island). 36.91 ° N, 53.96 ° Е. Solovkin 1. v. 1913. 4, unsexed (ZIN)
KZ: Dzhulek, Orenburg – Tashkent railway, Syr Darja (Taken as Zholek near Baigakum, 44.314 ° N, 66.466 ° E), 3 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀, 9, unsexed (NHML). Kozakhit, Almaty obl. Altyn Emel NP Ul; ken Kalkan. 43.874 ° N, 78.749 ° E. N bank of R. Ile, at light, 5. v. 2012. D. J. Mann & J. Cooter. 1 ♂, 3 unsexed (OUM).
UZ: Kyzylkum desert Baymachan distr. 11. v. 1995. 2, undissected (NHMUK).
AF: Kabul. 34.548 ° N, 69.213 ° E. 1 ♂, 1 ♀ (NMP), 1 ♀, 1 unsexed (NMW).
Differential diagnosis.
A conspicuously narrow elongate black beetle, with the scutellum wide, generally wider than elytral interstice 2. Elytral interstices weakly raised, not flat as in most other species. Smaller, length 3.7–4.8 mm. Basal line of pronotum completely effaced over middle 1 / 3 (Fig. 14 b). ♀ with spermatheca smaller (Fig. 26 o – s), length ca 0.25 mm.
Redescription.
General appearance (Fig. 3 a, b). Black, elongate, parallel-sided, and conspicuously narrow. Length: 3.4–4.8 mm, width 1.5–1.9 mm.
Head black with anterior and lateral margins of the clypeus narrowly brown. Anterior margin of clypeus emarginated, the sides of this emargination bluntly rounded. Central part of clypeus bulging upwards, frontoclypeal suture occasionally slightly raised medially but without any trace of a real tubercle, straight or slightly curved backwards over middle 1 / 2, angled forward to run to the junction of the clypeus and genae laterally. Punctation double, varying from close and strong to rather sparse, generally weaker and sparser in the central area of the frons and becoming rugose anteriorly and laterally (head and pronotum: Fig. 5 o, p) Maxillary palpi dark brown, the apical segment blackish. Antennae brown, the clubs darker. Epipharynx (Fig. 8 a, b) with the anterior margin of the clithra almost straight either side of the median tylus and the acropariae very well-developed. The prophobae are well-developed on each side of the mesoepitorma and there are three or four chaetopedia on each side. Pronotum black, hemicylindrical, highly arched transversely, only weakly so longitudinally. Entire lateral margins visible from above. Surface with double punctation of variable strength, generally weaker medially. Hind margin bordered only in lateral 1 / 4 s (Fig. 14 b). Scutellum rather wide, generally wider than elytral interstice 2, pentagonal, moderately elongate, sides parallel in basal 1 / 2, then angled to apical convergence. Metaventrite variable. Median diamond-shaped plate sometimes excavated and quite strongly punctured (Fig. 20 g), or flatter and more finely punctured (Fig. 20 h, i). Legs brown, longer spur of mid tibiae clearly longer than the basal segment of the tarsus (Fig. 18 f, g). Elytra glossy black, interstices very weakly convex, finely reticulate and with sparse fine punctation, and 6–8 × width of the striae (Fig. 17 j).
Aedeagus (Fig. 22 y, z) ca 0.8 mm long, apical 1 / 3 of parameres slightly more expanded than in A. rutilipennis and A. chellala sp. nov., its outer margin more rounded. Endophallus with fine bristles.
Remarks.
Aphodius kraatzi is widely distributed in the drier regions of the western and central Palaearctic, from southern Slovakia to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and the Chita region of Transbaikal in Russia (Fig. 29 b, c). Most specimens are taken at light but Andrey Frolov (St Petersburg) mentions that it can sometimes be found at the roots of grass and other herbaceous plants, as in the area of the Astrakhan oblast’ (Russia) shown in Fig. 28 d. He adds that material flying to light often arrives from the direction away from neighbouring water (pers. comm. to RBA, April 2015). In 1982 RBA took one specimen in a water-filled ditch at Karasuk on the Kulundinskaya Steppe in Western Siberia.
description: Published as part of Angus, Robert B., Maté, Jason F., Angus, Elizabeth M. & Král, David, 2024, Towards a revision of the Palaearctic species of Aphodius Hellwig, 1798, subgenus Liothorax Motschulsky, 1860 (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Aphodiinae), pp. 205-299 in ZooKeys 1207 on pages 205-299, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1207.117225