Mastigus deustus Thunberg 1789
Creators: name: Jałoszyński, Paweł
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Mastigus
Mastigus deustus

description: Mastigus deustus (Thunberg, 1789)
(Figs. 1–18)
Notoxus deustus Thunberg, 1789: 101.
Mastigus promontorii Péringuey, 1908: 298.
Australostigus deustus (Thunberg, 1789); Leleup, 1968: 47, Figs. 37–38.
Mastigus glabratus Klug, 1824: 166, syn. nov.; Leleup, 1968: 102; Bordoni & Castellini, 1973: 321, Fig. 15 B (as Australostigus).
Type material. Lectotype, designated here: Ƥ: dry-mounted specimen (Figs. 1–2) with parts of antenna and maxillary palp mounted in euparal on microscopic slide (Fig. 3), labels under the pinned specimen (Fig. 4): "Uppsala Univ. Zool. Mus. / Thunbergsaml. nr. 6597 / Mastigus deustus / Mus. Thunb. TYP" [red, printed], "N. Leleup / vid. 1964" [white, handwritten], " HOLOTYPUS " [pink, printed], additional label was added during the present study: " MASTIGUS / deustus / (Thunberg, 1789) / LECTOTYPUS / des. P. Jałoszyński, '12" [white, printed]; labels on the microscope slide (Fig. 3): "Zool. Mus. / Uppsala / UPS ZTY 99Z78" [white, handwritten], "antennae + / premiers arti- / cles palpes max" [yellowish, handwritten], " Australostigus / deustus (Thunb.) / N. Leleup det., 1966" [white, handwritten and printed], " HOLOTYPUS " [pink, printed] (UUZM).
Additional material. Lectotype of Mastigus glabratus Klug, designated here (Figs. 5–7): 3: "Pr.b.sp. Krebs" [i.e., Promontorium bonae spei, the Cape of Good Hope; blue-greenish, handwritten], "N. Leleup det., 1974 / Australostigus / deustus (Thunb.) " [white, printed and handrwitten], "5111" [yellowish, printed], " Australostigus / glabratus KLUG / Holotypus 3 / Bordoni & Castellini / det. 1973" [white, handwritten and printed], additional label was added during the present study: " MASTIGUS / glabratus / Klug, 1824 / LECTOTYPUS / des. P. Jałoszyński, '12" [white, printed] (MNHUB); 3, "Swedish South Africa / Expedition / 1950-1951 / Brinck - Rudebeck" [white, printed], "S. Afr. Cape Prov. / Langebaan / 31.X.50. No. 20" [white, printed], " Mastigus / promontorii / Perring. / det. H. Franz" [white, printed and handwritten], " Australostigus / deustus (Thunb.) / N. Leleup det., 1966" [white, printed and handwritten], "ALLOTYPUS" [pink, printed] (MZLU); 2 ƤƤ, same collecting data (MZLU); 1 3, 4 ƤƤ, "S.Afr., S.W. Cape / Langebaanweg / 29.57 S - 18.08 E " [white, printed], " 24.8.1983; E-Y: 1970 / groundtraps, 71 days / leg. Endrödy, Penrith" [white, printed], "singled around / traps at setting" [white, printed] (TMSA, cPJ).
Diagnosis. This species can be distinguished from all other congeners on the basis of brown elytra with darkened apices, nearly black head and pronotum, often with reddish hue; fine transverse microsculpture of elytra; and moderately elongate aedeagus with rudimentary short paramere.
Redescription. Body of male (Fig. 8) strongly elongate and strongly convex, BL 5.58–5.75 mm (mean 5.64 mm); dorsum distinctly bicolorous, head and appendages nearly black, pronotum dark brown, nearly black but with indistinct reddish hue, elytra in color of raw umber, with darkened apices; vestiture silverish.
Head (Figs. 10–12) broadest at eyes, HL 0.80–0.85 mm (mean 0.83 mm), HW 0.93–0.98 mm (mean 0.94); occipital constriction distinctly broader than 0.5 × HW; vertex more than twice as broad as long, distinctly concave in middle, with posterior margin bearing narrow median notch extended anterad by indistinct and shallow median longitudinal groove not reaching frons, lateral parts of vertex convex; frons transverse, impressed between weakly convex supraantennal tubercles, anterior part located between antennal insertions convex and bulging anteriorly to form rounded median projection; vertex and frons uniformly covered with fine and moderately shallow punctures separated by spaces subequal to puncture diameters, without microsculpture; vestiture extremely short but dense, composed of recumbent setae; clypeus nearly four times as broad as long, with rounded anterior margin and glossy surface and transverse row of several very long, thick and erect macrosetae directed anterad; labrum 2.5 × as broad as long, with distinct median emargination and glossy surface bearing row of several very long and thick macrosetae directed anteriorly and curved ventrally. Eyes large and moderately coarsely faceted, each in lateral view oval and elongate, distinctly shorter than temple. Antennae slender, shorter than body, AeL 3.34 mm, lengths of antennomeres (from I to XI): 0.95 mm, 0.43 mm, 0.23 mm, 0.22 mm, 0.23 mm, 0.21 mm, 0.20 mm, 0.20 mm, 0.23 mm, 0.20 mm, 0.25 mm; scape strongly, pedicel slightly thickened, all flagellomeres slender and hardly noticeably thickening towards antennal apex; scape about 6 × as long as broad, distinctly broadening distally, broadest near apex, with two longitudinal ventral setal rows each composed of 4–5 moderately long and thick, strongly erect bristles and surface covered uniformly with moderately sparse, short suberect setae; pedicel 5 × as long as broad, covered with moderately sparse, short suberect setae and with 1–2 strongly erect but very thin and long ventral setae; all flagellomeres much narrower than scape but comparable in width to pedicel, each covered with short and nearly recumbent setae, without bristles.
Pronotum inversely pear-shaped in dorsal view, strongly elongate and broadest near anterior third, PL 1.43– 1.48 mm (mean 1.45 mm), PW 0.98–1.08 mm (mean 1.03 mm); anterior margin weakly arcuate; lateral margins strongly rounded in anterior half, broadly constricted posterior to middle and weakly rounded in posterior fourth; posterior margin strongly arcuate; pronotal disc without median longitudinal carina or impunctate line, uniformly covered with punctures and setae similar to those on vertex and frons.
Elytra oval and more convex than pronotum, broadest near middle, EL 3.30–3.50 mm (mean 3.37 mm), EW 1.83–2.00 mm (mean 1.90 mm), EI 1.75–1.81; basal part of elytra without impressions, apices separately rounded; each elytron with several indistinct and irregular longitudinal rows of small and shallow punctures and slightly raised suture; surface of elytra covered with fine, indistinct microsculpture composed of transverse rows of flat granules; setae fine, dense and recumbent.
Legs long and slender; protrochanters unmodified; protibiae distinctly curved, meso- and metatibiae nearly straight; all tibiae with two long apical spurs.
Venter (Fig. 13) largely brown, with median part of abdominal sternites darkened.
Aedeagus (Figs. 14–17) moderately slender, AeL 1.13 mm, in abparameral view with oval median lobe, short paramere rudimentary, subtriangular, long paramere stout, subtriangular; copulatory piece recurved, with single subapical tooth.
Female. Similar to males but distinctly larger and with indistinct pair of circumsutural impressions in anterior third of elytra; protibiae nearly straight; BL 5.58–6.80 mm (mean 6.40 mm); HL 0.80–0.90 mm (mean 0.87 mm), HW 0.98–1.05 mm (mean 1.03 mm), AnL 3.80 mm, lengths of antennomeres (from I to XI): 1.10 mm, 0.50 mm, 0.28 mm, 0.25 mm, 0.23 mm, 0.21 mm, 0.22 mm, 0.21 mm, 0.25 mm, 0.25 mm, 0.30 mm; PL 1.50–1.70 mm (mean 1.59 mm), PW 1.13–1.20 mm (mean 1.15 mm); EL 3.58–4.20 mm (mean 3.93 mm), EW 2.15–2.38 mm (mean 2.33 mm), EI 1.53–1.87.
Spermatheca (Fig. 18) subglobose, diameter 0.14 mm, thick-walled, with small accessory gland and simple ductus spermathecae.
Distribution. Republic of South Africa, Western Cape Province, along Atlantic coast from near Cape Town in the south to the Langebaan Lagoon to the north.
Remarks. The aedeagus of M. deustus is most similar to those of M. andrae (Lhoste) (Leleup 1968; Figs. 42– 43) and M. spinicornis (Fabricius) (Leleup 1968; Figs. 46–47). However, the aedeagus of M. andrae is distinctly stouter and its parameres have clearly different proportions than in M. deustus. The short paramere of M. spinicornis is well-developed and cannot be mistaken compared to the rudimentary short paramere of M. deustus.
description: Published as part of Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2012, New synonymy and redescription of Mastigus deustus (Thunberg) (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae), pp. 68-76 in Zootaxa 3482 on pages 72-76, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.214740