Apimela procera Assing, 2019, nov.sp.
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Apimela
Apimela procera

description: Apimela procera ASSING nov.sp. (Figs 1-8, 25-27)
T y p e m a t e r i a l: Holotype ♂: "GR – Samothraki [33], SE Ano Meria, 40°26'52''N, 25°41'46''E, 5 m, stream gravel, 14.IV.2019, V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Apimela procera sp.n. det. V. Assing 2019" (cAss). Paratypes: 10♂♂, 12♀♀: same data as holotype (cAss); 1♀: "GR – Samothraki [24], E Therma, 40°30'09''N, 25°36'38''E, 10 m, river bank, gravel floated, 11.IV.2019, V. Assing " (cAss); 1♂, 3♀♀: "GR – Samothraki [26], E Therma, 40°29'55''N, 25°37'27''E, 10 m, river bank, gravel floated, 11.IV.2019, V. Assing " (cAss); 1♀: "GR – Samothraki [38], SE Kamariotissa, 40°26'48''N, 25°29'53''E, 40 m, stream bank, sift., 16.IV.2019, V. Assing " (cAss); 1♂, 3♀♀: "GR – Samothraki [38a], SE Kamariotissa, 40°26'48''N, 25°29'53''E, 40 m, stream gravel, 16.IV.2019, V. Assing " (cAss); 1♀: "GR. Fthiotis, 470 m, 9, 38°49'31N, 22°04'58E, SW Lamia, Inachos river bank, 05.IV.2001, Assing & Wunderle " (cAss); 1♀: " Turkey (Adana): 6 km NE Osmaniye, 37°06'40''N, 36°18'46''E, 130 m, river bank washed, 10.IV.2004, leg. V. Assing & M. Schülke [T04-31]" (cAss).
E t y m o l o g y: The specific epithet (Latin, adjective: slender) alludes to the habitus of this species, which immediately distinguishes it from the closely related and widespread A. mulsanti (GANGLBAUER, 1895).
D e s c r i p t i o n: Body length 2.9-3.7 mm; length of forebody 1.3-1.7 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 1. Coloration: head and pronotum pale-yellowish to reddish-brown; elytra dark-yellow; abdomen reddish with the preapical segments sometimes slightly darker; legs yellow; antennae brown with the basal three antennomeres reddish.
Head (Fig. 2) weakly oblong, with convex lateral margins, broadest behind eyes; punctation dense and fine; interstices mostly without, rarely with indistinct traces of microsculpture. Eyes small and weakly convex, not distinctly protruding from lateral contours of head and slightly more than half as long as postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna (Fig. 3) approximately 1.0 mm long; antennomeres IV-X approximately 1.5 times as broad as long, or nearly so, and of gradually increasing width.
Pronotum (Fig. 2) slender, weakly oblong, 1.05-1.10 times as long as broad and slightly broader than head, broadest anteriorly, and distinctly tapering posteriad; lateral margins weakly concave in posterior two-thirds in dorsal view; punctation finer and denser than that of head; interstices without distinct microsculpture.
Elytra (Fig. 2) 0.90-0.95 times as long as pronotum; punctation fine, shallow, and dense; interstices without microsculpture. Hind wings fully developed. Metatarsomere I longer than metatarsomere II, but shorter than the combined length of metatarsomeres II and III.
Abdomen (Fig. 4): tergites III-VI with anterior impressions, that of tergite VI usually shallower and narrower than those of tergites III-V; tergite III with pronounced sexual dimorphism; punctation sexually dimorphic, dense, fine, but distinct on tergites III-VI, sparse on tergite VII; posterior margin of tergite VII with pronounced palisade fringe; posterior margin of tergite VIII broadly and shallowly concave, without sexual dimorphism (Fig. 25).
♂: abdominal tergite III broadly triangularly produced and in the middle with pronounced, apically truncate process posteriorly; punctation of abdomen weakly granulose (Fig. 4); sternite VIII (Fig. 26) strongly transverse, posterior margin convexly produced
in the middle; median lobe of aedeagus 0.35-0.40 mm long and shaped as in Figs 5-7.
♀: abdominal tergite III unmodified; punctation of abdomen not granulose; sternite VIII (Fig. 27) approximately as long as broad and with posterior margin of triangular shape; spermatheca as in Fig. 8.
C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s: Based on the similar modifications of the male abdomen, the similar general morphology of the aedeagus, and the similarly shaped spermatheca, A. procera undoubtedly belongs to the A. mulsanti group. Aside from A. procera, this group is represented in the West Palaearctic region by two species, the widespread A. mulsanti (GANGLBAUER, 1895) and an undescribed species from Turkey and the Caucasus region. The new species is readily distinguished from both by the absence of distinct microsculpture on the forebody and by the shape of the median lobe of the aedeagus, and from A. mulsanti additionally by numerous characters, i.e., larger body size, a more slender habitus, distinct punctation of the forebody (A. mulsanti: punctation of forebody extremely fine, indistinct in the pronounced microsculpture), the shape of the head (A. mulsanti: head subquadrate), smaller and less convex eyes, longer antennae with less transverse antennomeres IV-X, the shape of the pronotum (A. mulsanti: pronotum weakly transverse, only indistinctly tapering posteriad, and with practically straight lateral margins), and more pronounced modifications of the male tergite III.
D i s t r i b u t i o n a n d n a t u r a l h i s t o r y: Apimela procera is currently known from four localities in Samothraki, one near Lamia in the Greek mainland, and one near Osmaniye in central southern Turkey. Except for one specimen that was sifted from debris on a stream bank, the material was washed from fine gravel of stream banks. The altitudes range from 5 to 470 m.
description: Published as part of Assing, Volker, 2019, On the Staphylinidae of the Greek island Samothraki (Insecta Coleoptera), pp. 881-906 in Linzer biologische Beiträge 51 (2) on pages 891-892, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3738343