Achilia franzi Sabella & Cuccodoro & Kurbatov 2020, n. sp.
Creators: name: Sabella, Giorgio
name: Cuccodoro, Giulio
name: Kurbatov, Sergey A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Achilia
Achilia franzi

description: Achilia franzi n. sp.
Figs 4, 14, 25, 33, 47-48, 63-66, 83
Holotype: MHNG (# MHNG-ENTO-81580); 1 ♂; SOUTHERN CHILE: Región Los Lagos: Llanquihue prov.: Alerce Andino National Park, Laguna Triángulo; 41° 40’S 72° 35’W; 550 m; 05-06.I.1993; sclerophyll rainforest, site 38b, sifting of moss on tree trunks and forest floor, and of vegetational debris; D. Burckhardt.
Paratypes (96 ex.): SOUTHERN CHILE: Región Los Lagos: Llanquihue prov.: MHNG (# MHNG- ENTO-81581-672); 51 ♂ and 40 ♀; same data as holotype. – MNHS; 1 ♂ and 1 ♀, same data. – Osorno prov.: UNHC; 1 ♂; Puyehue National Park, Antillanca road; 690 m; 18-24.XII.1982; site 661, valdivian rainforest, window trap; A. Newton & M. Thayer. – FMNH; 1 ♂; same data. – MHNG (# MHNG- ENTO-81673); 1 ♂; Puyehue National Park, Antillanca road; 500-1000 m; 18-20.XII.1984; car netting; S. & J. Peck.
Description: Body 1.45-1.60 mm long, dark brown with reddish elytra; antennae and legs reddish, palpi yellowish. Pronotum with disc moderately convex; posterior portion of lateral margins subparallel. First abdominal tergite with diverging basal striae extending to about one-fourth of paratergal length, and separated at base by more than one-third of tergal width.
Male: Head as in Figs 63-66, with occipital region and basal half of frons raised with V-shaped median notch; lateral arms of notch densely pubescent apically; anterior portion of frons deeply excavated; median apophysis curved and directed backwards, originating from very large median sub-basal clypeal hump, tip in dorsal view fusiform; sub-basal clypeal hump sparsely pubescent. Antennal tubercles very prominent. Antennae (Fig. 14) with scape and pedicel distinctly longer than wide; antennomeres III and V distinctly longer than wide; antennomeres IV and VI-VIII wider than long; antennomere IX wider than long with protruding mesal margin pointed at distal angle; antennomere X wider than long, with protruding mesal margin; antennomere XI elongate, slightly longer than VII-X combined, with denticulate margins. Metaventrite with distal half pubescent, raised at middle for two thirds of its distal portion, this surface entirely divided by median sulcus. Protrochanters (Fig. 25) bearing one long seta; profemora slightly enlarged at middle and slightly hollowed medially near ventral margin; mesotrochanters (Fig. 33) with ventral margin forming spine at basal third; mesofemora (Fig. 33) with basal third of ventral margin covered by broad, short and thick setae, very similar to mesofemora of A. jeanneli n. sp.; mesotibiae with medial margin bearing recurved setae (Fig. 48), or not recurved (Fig. 47) and forming very short and rounded apical spine; apical margin denticulate. Aedeagus (Fig. 4) 0.27- 0.29 mm long; similar to that of A. grandiceps except parameres wider with larger outer lobe, and copulatory pieces with lateral sclerites wider, longer, pointed and apically bent outwards.
Female: Similar to male except: head not modified, but frons flattened behind frontal sulcus, which is well impressed, anterior margin of the frontal lobe pointed in the middle.
Collecting data: Collected from December to January in sclerophyll or valdivian rainforest, at elevations ranging from 550 m to 1000 m. The specimens came from sifted samples of moss and vegetational debris, windows traps, and car netting.
Distribution: Achilia franzi n. sp. is known only from southern Chile (Fig. 83: squares edged in fuchsia) in Llanquihue and Osorno provinces (Región Los Lagos).
Etymology: This species is dedicated to the Austrian entomologist H. Franz.
Comments: Within the A. grandiceps group, the males of A. franzi n. sp. are easily distinguished from the other species by the peculiar shape of their head (Figs 63-66) and antennae (Fig. 14). The females of this species are characterized by antennomeres wider than long, or at most as wide as long, the frontal sulcus well-impressed, the anterior margin of frontal lobe distinctly pointed in middle, and the frons flattened behind the frontal sulcus.
description: Published as part of Sabella, Giorgio, Cuccodoro, Giulio & Kurbatov, Sergey A., 2020, A revision of the Chilean Brachyglutini - Part 6. Revision of Achilia Reitter, 1890: A. grandiceps, A. valdiviensis, and A. bicornis species groups (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae), pp. 129-156 in Revue suisse de Zoologie 127 (1) on page 136, DOI: 10.35929/RSZ.0013, http://zenodo.org/record/5743391