Xanthophius Motschulsky 1860
Creators: name: Zhou, Yu-Lingzi
name: Zhou, Hong-Zhang
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Xanthophius

description: Genus Xanthophius Motschulsky, 1860
Xanthophius Motschulsky, 1860: 75 (species included: serpentarius); Gemminger and Harold, 1868: 607 (catalog; cited as Xanthophyus); Duvivier, 1883: 159 (catalog; cited as Xanthophyus); Bernhauer and Schubert, 1914: 292 (synonym of Leptacinus); Cameron, 1932: 6 (synonym of Leptacinus); Blackwelder, 1943: 493 (synonym of Leptacinus; type species: serpentarius); Blackwelder, 1952: 405 (type species: serpentarius); Smetana, 1958: 86 (synonym of Leptacinus); Coiffait, 1972: 134 (synonym of Leptacinus); Smetana, 1982: 92 (synonym of Leptacinus); Bordoni, 2002: 576 (valid genus; characters, keys to oriental species); Smetana, 2004: 698 (catalog of oriental region); Bordoni, 2005: 575 (characters; key to species from Australia); Bordoni, 2007: 76 (catalog).
Type species: Xanthophius serpentarius Motschulsky, 1860: 76, fixed by monotypy.
Diagnosis: Xanthophius can be distinguished from all other genera within the tribe Xantholinini by the following characters (Fig. 1 C): a) body slender and poorly sclerotized, small sized (3–4.5 mm); b) head subrectangular, with medium sized punctures on lateral parts; c) frontal furrow deep and long, anteocular furrow distinct and slightly shorter; d) labrum bilobed and with a median longitudinal groove; e) segment III of maxillary palpus longest, last segment subaciculate; segment II of labial palpus longest, last segment slender and subaciculate; f) gular sutures not fused, separated by subtriangular gular plate; g) neck medium-sized wide, shorter than 1/2 of head width; h) number of punctures in admedian row of pronotum usually 8–13; lateral row of 8–10; i) antesternal plate with median longitudinal furrow; j) superior line of hypomeron bending toward prosternum before anterior angle of pronotum, but not joining inferior line; k) protibia not dilated, with both apical ctenidium and subapical ctenidia; metatibia only with apical ctenidium; l) elytra bearing numerous rows of punctures; m) aedeagus of variable shape, with a pair of varied parameres; n) female sternite of genital segment pentagon-shaped, attached with a pair of semi-oblong supplementary sclerites (Fig. 5 H; Fig. 6 G).
Except for X. luridipennis Bordoni and X. minor Bordoni endemic to Australia region (Fig. 2), the remaining species of genus Xanthophius Motschulsky belong to the fauna of Oriental region, and are distributed along the south boundary of Tibet Plateau, and expand their distributional range toward the monsoon region of the Eastern Asia (from Indonesia through mainland China to Japan). Xanthophius benguetensis Bordoni is endemic to Philippine; X. unicidentatus sp. n. ranges north to Yangzi River, while X. angustus Sharp and X. filum (Kraatz), are widly distributed to north of Yellow River.
description: Published as part of Zhou, Yu-Lingzi & Zhou, Hong-Zhang, 2013, Two new species of Xanthophius Motschulsky (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae, Staphylininae, Xantholinini) from China with notes on X. filum (Kraatz), pp. 363-380 in Zootaxa 3626 (3) on page 364, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3626.3.5, http://zenodo.org/record/221592