Achilia valdiviensis
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 valdiviensis

description: Achilia valdiviensis (Blanchard, 1851)
Figs 6, 18-19, 28, 35, 39, 43, 75-78, 84
Pselaphus valdiviensis Blanchard, 1851: 563.
Achilia valdiviensis Raffray, 1904: 138; Raffray, 1908: pl. 2, fig. 13 (habitus); Jeannel, 1962: 424, fig. 189 (aedeagus); (nec valdiviensis Reitter, 1885).
Bryaxis nasuta Reitter, 1885a: 327, pl. 2, fig. 7 (head and antennae).
Bryaxis anas Reitter, 1885b: 317 (new name for Bryaxis nasuta).
Bryaxis nasina Reitter, 1893: 261 (new name for Bryaxis nasuta).
Achilia kuscheli Jeannel, 1962: 424, 425, figs 186 (habitus), 187 (head of female), 188 (aedeagus) (syn. nov.).
Type material (14 ex.): SOUTHERN CHILE Región Los Rios: Valdivia prov.: MNHN; 1 ♂ (Lectotype, here designated); label verbatim: “Lectotype / Museum Paris, Chili, Gay 1849 / H 49 / Valdivia / Gen. Achilia Reitt. =, Bryaxis Raffr., = Pselaphus Blanchard / valdiviensis, Blanch. = nasina Reitter, = nasuta Reitt., A. Raffray det. 1904 / valdiviensis Bl. (handwritten by Jeannel) / Achilia valdiviensis Sabella, Cuccodoro & Kurbatov det. 2019”. – MNHN; 1 ♂ (Paralectotype, here designated); label verbatim: “Paralectotype / Museum Paris, Chili, Gay 1849 / H 49/ Valdivia / Achilia valdiviensis Blch., A. Raffray det. 1904 / Achilia valdiviensis Sabella, Cuccodoro & Kurbatov det. 2019”. Región Los Lagos: Chiloé prov.: MHNS; 1 ♂ (holotype of A. kuscheli); labels verbatim “Type / Chepu, 03.X.1958, G. Kuschel / Achillia kuscheli / kuscheli (handwritten by Jeannel) / CHILE; M.N.H.N.; Typo, n. 1850”. – MNHN, 1 ♂ and 9 ♀ (paratypes of A. kuscheli); labels verbatim “Paratype / Chepu, 03.X.1958, Kuschel ”. – MNHN; 1 ♀ (paratype of A. kuscheli); labels verbatim “Paratype / Chepu, 11.X.1958, Kuschel ”.
Additional material examined (65 ex.): MNHN; 1 ♂ (probably holotype of A. nasina Reitter, 1893); labels verbatim “Chili / Museum Paris, 1917, coll. Raffray / Type / chilensis Reitter / A. valdiviensis, A. Raffray det. / valdiviensis Bl. (handwritten by Jeannel)”. SOUTHERN CHILE: Región Los Lagos: Chiloé prov.: MHNG; 1 ♂; Chiloe; H. Franz. – MHNS; 7 ♀ (mislabelled as paratypes of A. kuscheli n. 1851 and n. 2072-77); Chepu; 03.X.1958; G. Kuschel. – FMNH (FMHD# 97-21); 15 ♂ and 17 ♀; Puente La Caldera, 9.8 km E of Cucao; 42° 39.96’S 74° 00.70’W 10 m; 14.I.1997; site 991, valdivian rainforest, berlese, leaf & log litter; A. Newton & M. Thayer. – MHNG; 7 ♂ and 6 ♀; same data. – MHNS; 2 ♂ and 2 ♀; same data. – PCPH; 1 ♂ and 1 ♀; same data. – Región Los Ríos: Valdivia prov.: MHNG; 1 ♂; Corral, 39° 95’S 73° 20’W; 06.XII.2013; car net. – PCPH; 2 ♂; Reserva Costera Valdiviana, Chaihuín; WDS-T-207; 39°58.6’S 73° 35’W; 27.II.2008; sifting litter; W. D. Shepard. – FMNH; 1 ♂; same data. – MHNG; 1 ♂; same data.
Description: Body 1.50-1.70 mm long; dark brown with reddish elytra, the latter generally darker at apex and along sutural stria, sometimes also at base; antennae and legs reddish; palpi yellowish. Head wider than long. Pronotum slightly wider than head and wider than long; disc moderately convex; median antebasal fovea slightly smaller than lateral ones; lateral margins with anterior portion distinctly convergent and sinuate anteriorly, and posterior portion slightly convergent and not sinuate. Elytra with discal stria extending to about elytral midlength. First abdominal tergite with slightly diverging basal striae extending to about one-third of paratergal length, and separated at base by more than one-third of tergal width.
Male: Head as in Figs 75-78, sub-triangular; frons slightly raised, its surface with some sparse big punctures at middle; two very big and deep vertexal foveae at center of frons at point even with center of eyes, at same distance from each other as from nearest eye; frontal sulcus lacking; frontal lobe pointed in middle, with thick tuft of straight yellowish bristles extended forwards; clypeus strongly prolonged forward, duck’s beak-shaped. Eyes protruding, distinctly longer than short, with convex temples. Antennae (Figs 18-19) with scape longer than wide, more (Fig. 19) or less (Fig. 18) elongated; pedicel misaligned, flattened and excavated on medial surface, as long as wide with mesal apical edge very pronounced (Fig. 18), or subrectangular in shape and distinctly longer than wide (Fig. 19); antennomere III slightly longer than wide; antennomere IV wider than long; antennomere V as long as wide; VI slightly wider than long; antennomere VII slightly longer than wide; antennomere VIII transverse; antennomere IX transverse with denticulate margins and protruding mesal margin; antennomere X wider than IX, wider than long with denticulate margin and protruding mesal margin; antennomere XI very elongate, also with denticulate margins, distinctly longer than VII-X combined, usually bearing long subbasal seta on mesal margin. Metaventrite with distal half covered by convergent long bristles, raised at middle for twothirds of its distal portion, this surface entirely divided by median sulcus. Protrochanters (Fig. 28) with ventral margin formed as spine bearing one long basal seta; mesotrochanters (Fig. 35) with ventral margin forming long spine at basal third; mesofemora (Fig. 35) with basal third of ventral margin covered by broad, short and thick setae, those setae longer than in A. grandiceps. Protibiae (Fig. 39) enlarged for distal half, with medial margin forming small apical spine; mesotibiae (Fig. 43) with medial margin without recurved setae, apical margin forming two short spines. First abdominal sternite very long, projecting over second sternite which is thus almost entirely concealed. Aedeagus (Fig. 6) 0.29-0.31 mm long; with suboval dorsal plate, dorsal longitudinal struts slightly divergent. Parameres relatively wide with large and short seta on small outer lobe; tips rounded bearing large median seta. Copulatory pieces consisting of a pair of long wide medial sclerites basally recurved, sclerotized and apically rounded, with pair of thin lateral sclerites subequal in length, recurved, enlarged, sclerotized at base, with distal half thickly pitted near lateral margin.
Female: Similar to male except eyes smaller and less protruding, frontal lobe barely pointed at middle and without tuft of setae, clypeus just slightly elongated, antennae with pedicel barely misaligned, subrectangular and not excavated. Metaventrite, abdominal sternites, and legs unmodified.
Collecting data: Collected from October to February in valdivian rainforests, presumably at low elevations. All specimens came from sifted samples of leaf and log litter, except for one male collected by car net.
Distribution: The species is known only from southern Chile (Fig. 84: green squares) from Chiloé and Valdivia provinces.
Comments: Blanchard described Pselaphus valdiviensis (1851: 563) based on an unspecified number of specimens from Valdivia. The description, very concise, did not report clear diagnostic characters such that subsequent authors (Reitter, 1885a; Schaufuss, 1886; and Raffray, 1895) thought this species was a member of the Tyrini.
Reitter (1883: 50) described Bryaxis valdiviensis (technically valvidiensis in the original description due to a lapsus calami) based on an unspecified number of specimens from Valdivia, without any mention of Pselaphus valdiviensis, and two years later he described (Reitter 1885a: 325 and 327) Bryaxis nasuta based on a single male specimen from Valdivia that had been collected by the cousins Elsbeth and Elfride Kindermann. In the same year Reitter (1885b: 317), realizing that the name Bryaxis nasuta was preoccupied, proposed to change the species name to Bryaxis anas. Later Reitter (1893: 261), apparently forgetting he already done so, proposed a second name for Bryaxis nasuta, but this time as Bryaxis nasina.
Raffray (1904: 138), having studied the type of Pselaphus valdiviensis Blanchard, 1851, which he believed to be in the MNHN collections, established that this species was not a member of the Tyrini, but should be transferred to Achilia in the Brachyglutini, and therefore proposed the substitute name Achilia blanchardi Raffray, 1904 for Bryaxis valdiviensis Reitter, 1883, and pointing out that Bryaxis nasuta Reitter, 1885 (= Bryaxis nasina Reitter, 1893) was identical to Achilia valdiviensis (Blanchard, 1851).
Then Jeannel (1962: 424-425) claimed that the types of Bryaxis nasuta Reitter, 1885 and Achilia valdiviensis (Blanchard, 1851), both collected in Valdivia, were present in the MNHN collections, and among the material examined, he mentions only three specimens: Central Chile: Valdivia prov.: Env. of Valdivia (39 ° 50 ‘lat. S) male and female (Cl. Gay), and another male (E. and E. Kindermann).
However in MNHN we could find only 3 males of this species: 1 male in the Raffray collection labeled “Chili / Museum Paris, 1917, coll. Raffray / Type / chilensis Reitter / A. valdiviensis, A. Raffray det. / valdiviensis Bl. (handwritten by Jeannel)”, and 2 males in the general Chile collection – one labeled: “Museum Paris, Chili, Gay 1849 / H 49 / Valdivia / Gen. Achilia Reitt. =, Bryaxis Raffr., = Pselaphus Blanchard / valdiviensis; Blanch. = nasina Reitter, = nasuta Reitt., A. Raffray det. 1904 / valdiviensis Bl. (handwritten by Jeannel)”, and the second labeled “Museum Paris, Chili, Gay 1849 / H 49/ Valdivia / Achilia valdiviensis Blch., A. Raffray det. 1904”. We think that these two males collected by Gay and studied by Raffray are part of the typical series of Achilia valdiviensis (Blanchard, 1851), and therefore designate them here as lectotype and paralectotype of Achilia valdiviensis (Blanchard, 1851). It is very likely that the male in the Raffray collection, which is labeled as the type of A. valdiviensis despite the handwritten label chilensis by Reitter, is the holotype of Achilia nasuta (Reitter, 1885) (= A. nasina Reitter, 1893).
We have also compared the types and other supplementary material of A. kuscheli Jeannel, 1962 with the types and other supplementary material of A. valdiviensis. The only difference we could find between these two potential taxa is the morphology of the first two antennomeres (see Figs 18 and 19), but for all other characters, including the aedeagus, they are identical. Our opinion is that the different morphology of the first two antennomeres (scape and pedicel), although it has some geographical bearing, pertains to infraspecific variability and, we consequently decided that Achilia kuscheli Jeannel, 1962 must be considered a junior synonym of Achilia valdiviensis (Blanchard, 1851) (syn. nov.).
The males of this species are easily distinguished from their congeners by the peculiar morphology of the head (Figs 75-78) and antennae (Figs 18-19). The females (note here that we could examine only female specimens from Chiloe) are characterized by the subtriangular head with a prolonged clypeus and especially by the misaligned antennal pedicel, which is subrectangular and distinctly longer than wide.
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 pages 140-146, DOI: 10.35929/RSZ.0013, http://zenodo.org/record/5743391