Zyras (Zyras) championi CAMERON 1939
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Zyras
Zyras championi

description: Zyras (Zyras) championi CAMERON, 1939
(Figs 7, 46, 87, Map 1)
Zyras (Zyras) championi CAMERON, 1939a: 537
Type material examined: Syntypes: 1 ♀: “Theog 7600', Simla Hills. / Dr. Cameron. 11.IX.1921. / Championi Cam Type / M. Cameron. Bequest. B.M. 1955-147 / Syntype” (BMNH); 1 ♀: “Nainital, Kumaon, U.P., India. H.G.C. / Myrmedonia (Zyras) [specific epithet illegible] Ch / E.M.M. 1921. det. G.C.C. / 1921-141. / Championi Cam. / Syntype / Syntype Zyras championi Cam., det. R.G. Booth 2016” (BMNH).
Comment: The original description is based on an unspecified number of syntypes from “Simla Hills: Theog, alt. 7000 feet. Kumaun: Naini Tal” (CAMERON 1939a). Two syntypes were located in the Cameron collection at the BMNH. Since both of them are females and clearly conspecific, a lectotype is not designated.
Redescription: Relatively large species: body length 6.7–7.0 mm; length of forebody 3.0– 3.1 mm. Coloration distinctive (Figs 7, 46, 87): head and pronotum black; elytra reddish-yellow, with the postero-lateral portions sharply black; abdomen distinctly bicoloured: tergites II black, III–IV pale-reddish, V black with the anterior margin and the antero-lateral portions pale-reddish, VI black with the antero-lateral portions reddish, and VII–X pale-reddish; legs yellow; antennae blackishbrown to blackish, with (the apical half of) antennomere XI slightly paler; maxillary palpi yellowish to yellowishbrown with palpomere III weakly infuscate.
Head (Fig. 46) distinctly transverse, median portion extensively impunctate; punctures in lateral portions sparse and rather fine. Eyes longer than postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna (Fig. 7) 2.3 mm long and rather massive; antennomeres IV–V weakly oblong or as long as broad, VI–X increasingly transverse and of gradually increasing width, X approximately 1.5 times as broad as long, and XI approximately as long as the combined length of IX and X. Pronotum (Fig. 46) approximately 1.15 times as broad as long and approximately 1.3 times as broad as head, broadest in anterior half; punctation rather fine, sparse, and very irregularly distributed, with rather large impunctate areas on either side of midline; midline broadly impunctate.
Elytra (Fig. 46) approximately 0.8 times as long as pronotum; punctation moderately coarse, defined, and very irregularly distributed, rather dense anteriorly and near scutellum, less dense laterally, and very sparse or absent in postero-median portion. Hind wings fully developed. Metatarsomere I approximately as long as the combined length of II–IV.
Abdomen (Fig. 87) nearly 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 not very dense and mostly weakly defined non-setiferous punctures; tergites III–IV with a lateral setiferous puncture on either side and with four setiferous punctures at posterior margin; tergite V with a lateral setiferous puncture on either side and with six setiferous punctures at posterior margin; tergite VI with a transverse row of non-setiferous punctures anteriorly, with a lateral setiferous puncture on either side, and with six setiferous punctures at posterior margin; tergite VII with a narrow transverse band of non-setiferous punctures anteriorly and with two transverse rows of setiferous punctures in posterior half, posterior margin with palisade fringe; tergite VIII with setiferous punctures only in posterior portion, posterior margin convex and with indistinct concavity in the middle.
♂: unknown.
Comparative notes: This species is readily distinguished from all other Himalayan representatives of similar size by the conspicuous coloration of the abdomen alone.
Distribution: The known distribution is confined to two localities in Uttar Pradesh, North India (Map 1).
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 130-131, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.67.1.117-192, http://zenodo.org/record/5742363