Geodromicus alticola Cameron 1945
Creators: name: Shavrin, Alexey V.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Geodromicus
Geodromicus alticola

description: Geodromicus (s.str.) alticola Cameron, 1945
(Figs. 70–73, 78–79)
Geodromicus alticola Cameron, 1945: 65
Geodromicus peraffinis Cameron, 1945: 65 syn.n.
Geodromicus brancuccii Coiffait, 1984: 142 syn.n.
Type material examined. Holotype of Geodromicus alticola Cameron, 1945, ♂ (Figs. 71, 73): ‘Type’ <round label with red margin, printed>, ‘Kashmir | Lianmarg | 10,000 ft. | vi-vii-1931 | Dr.Cameron’ <printed>, ‘G. | alticola | TYPE [red] Cam’ <handwritten>, ‘M.Cameron. | Bequest. | B.M. 1955-147.’ <printed>, ‘ Geodromicus | alticola Cameron [handwritten] | Shavrin A. det. 2016’ <printed> (BMNH).
Holotype of Geodromicus peraffinis Cameron, 1945, ♀ (Fig. 72): ‘Type’<round label with red margin, printed>, ‘Kashmir | Lianmarg | 10,000 ft. | vi-vii-1931 | Dr.Cameron’ <printed>, ‘M.Cameron. | Bequest. | B.M. 1955-147.’ <printed>, ‘G. | peraffinis | TYPE [red] Cam’ <handwritten>, ‘ Geodromicus | alticola Cameron [handwritten] | Shavrin A. det. 2016’ <printed> (BMNH).
Holotype of Geodromicus brancuccii Coiffait, 1984, ♂: ‘ Pakistan 1979 | W. Wittmer’ <printed>, ‘Sharan 1.-2.7. | 2400–2700 m’ <printed>, ‘TYPE’ <red, printed>, ‘ Geodromicus | brancucii | H.COIFFAIT [printed] det. 19[printed]83’ <handwritten> ‘ Geodromicus | brancuccii | Coiffait, 1984 | Shavrin A.V. det. 2015 [printed] <handwritten> (NHMB).
Additional material examined. PAKISTAN: KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA: 2 ♀♀: Swat, Kalâm, Falakser Glacier, Matiltan. 2500 m a.s.l. 19.08.1987. Heinz leg. (cSh); 1 ♂: Kaghan Valley, high meadows N Sharan. 2900–3100 m a.s.l. 27– 29.07.2001. Heinz leg. (NME); AZAD JAMMU AND KASHMIR: 1 ♂: NW Junkar. 3500 m a.s.l. 25.07.2003 (cSch); INDIA: KASHMIR: 1 ♀: Margan Pass. 3000 m a.s.l. 20.07.1980. H. Aspöck & C. Rausch leg. (NHMB); 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀: ‘ Kashmir Lianmarg 10,000 ft. vi-vii-1931 Dr.Cameron’ (BMNH).
Redescription. Measurements (n=12): HW: 1.00–1.10; HL: 0.73–0.85; OL: 0.25–0.27; TL: 0.17–0.22; AL: 3.67–4.15; PL: 1.01–1.25; PWmax: 1.25–1.45; PWmin: 0.85–0.97; ESL: 1.55–1.95; EW: 1.97–2.35; MTbL (averaged): 1.70; MTrL (averaged): 0.62 (MTrL 1–4: 0.32; MTrL 5: 0.30); AW: 1.87–2.17; AedL: 1.25–1.34; BL: 5.60–6.95 (holotype of G. alticola: 6.75; holotype of G. peraffinis: 6.95; holotype of G. brancuccii: 6.00).
Habitus as in Figs. 71–72. Body reddish-brown to dark-brown, sometimes with slightly paler elytra and abdomen; mouthparts, legs and antennae yellow-brown to brown (antennomeres 4–11 sometimes paler; apical maxillary palpomere usually yellow). Clypeus with very fine, transverse microreticulation; latero-apical portions between supra-antennal elevations and apical margin of eye with dense and coarse meshes between punctures; portion between ocelli and neck with very dense and coarse isodiametric microsculpture; medioapical portion with indistinct transverse meshes in some specimens; scutellum with very fine transverse microsculpture in middle, indistinct in some specimens; abdominal tergites with fine and dense transverse microreticulation.
Head 1.2–1.3 times as broad as long, with strongly convex supra-antennal elevations and slightly elevated infraorbital portions, with deep and wide, subtriangular anterio-median depression; temples slightly shorter than longitudinal length of eyes; interocellar depression subrectangular, moderately narrow and deep, separated from infraorbital portions by moderately narrow and deep anteocellar foveae, reaching level of apical third of eyes, or slightly longer. Eyes large, very convex, strongly protruded laterad. Ocelli moderately large, distance between ocelli about as long as distance between ocellus and posterior margin of eye, or slightly broader. Punctation irregular, moderately fine and sparse or somewhat large and deep, finer and sparser in middle or in infraorbital portions. Antenna reaching apical third of elytra when reclined; antennomere 2 narrow, 1.6–1.8 times as long as basal antennomere; 3 about as broad and 1.3–1.4 times as long as 2, 4 slightly shorter than 3, 5–8 slightly longer than 4, 9–10 slightly broader in their apical portions than 8, apical antennomere slightly longer than 10.
Pronotum 1.1–1.2 times as broad as long, from widest anterior third strongly narrowed posterio-laterad toward acute apex; mediolateral margins slightly concaved in some specimens; laterobasal margins moderately long, subparallel; middle portion without or with indistinct longitudinal depression (one specimen), with shallow or moderately deep transverse mediobasal depression; anterior margin straight or slightly concave, about as broad as or slightly broader than straight or broadely concave posterior margin; lateral margins widely impressed and slightly reflexed; median part of pronotum separated from lateral flattened margins by slightly elevated and long ridge, starting from latero-apical and extending to laterobasal portions (Fig. 73). Punctation slightly larger and deeper than that on pronotum, dense or sparse, finer and sparser in mediobasal portion in front of mediobasal depression.
Elytra somewhat flattened, strongly broader than long and strongly broadened posteriad, 1.4–1.5 times as long as pronotum; hind margins rounded. Punctation variable, from sparse and moderately fine (about as that on pronotum) or distinctly larger, deeper, and significantly denser than that on pronotum.
Metatibia significantly more than twice as long as metatarsus.
Abdomen slightly narrow than elytra, with a pair of wide, transverse tomentose spots in middle of abdominal tergite IV.
Male. Profemuri and protarsomeres 1–4 wide.Apical margin of abdominal tergite VIII rounded.Apical margin of abdominal sternite VIII concave. Aedeagus with moderately wide basal part, gradually narrowed toward moderately wide preapical portion, with subacute apex; parameres narrow, distinctly shorter than apex of median lobe, with four short apical setae; preapical portion of median lobe with a pair of long sclerotized structures; internal sac weakly sclerotized, long, with strongly sclerotized, wide, moderately long flagellum, spirally folded in basal portion (Fig. 78). Lateral aspect of the aedeagus as in Fig. 79.
Female. Profemuri and protarsomeres 1–4 narrow. Apical margins of abdominal tergite VIII and sternite VIII truncate or rounded.
Comparative notes. Geodromicus (s.str.) alticola differs from other species of the genus by the unusual shape of lateral portions of the pronotum with the presence of long lateral ridge between it and the median portion, and by details of the external and internal morphology of the aedeagus.
Distribution. The species is known from several localities in north-eastern Pakistan and India (Kashmir) (Fig. 70).
Bionomics. Specimens were collected from 2400 to 3500 m a.s.l. The detailed bionomical data are unknown.
Remarks. Geodromicus alticola was originally described based on the holotype (“Type in my collection”) from “Kashmir: Lianmarg…”.
Geodromicus peraffinis was originally described based on the holotype (female) from the same locality with G. alticola. It was compared by Cameron with G. alticola (“Extremely like alticola Cam., from which it only differs in the shorter, slightly transverse thorax.. the puncturation scarcely differing from that of alticola …”). I have not found external morphological differences between this type and other studied specimens of G. alticola. Proportions of the pronotum and elytra, as well as the punctation of the forebody vary in this species. Thus, I synonymyzed G. peraffinis with G. alticola.
Geodromicus brancuccii was originally described based on the holotype from “ Pakistan, Sharan…”. I have not found sufficient morphological differences between it and other studied specimens of G. alticiola. Consequently, G. brancuccii is synonymized with it.
Besides that, the original description and the general shape of the aedeagus (Coiffait 1984: figs. 37–38) of G. pakistanus Coiffait, 1984, originally described from “ Pakistan, Murree-Abbottabad…” are also similar to that of studied specimens of G. (s.str.) alticola. But the study of the holotype of this species is required.
description: Published as part of Shavrin, Alexey V., 2022, The bodemeyeri and the convexicollis species groups of the genus Geodromicus Redtenbacher, 1857, and additional taxonomic and faunistic data for some species of the Eastern Palaearctic Region (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Omaliinae), pp. 451-496 in Zootaxa 5213 (5) on pages 486-489, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5213.5.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7381607