Achilia testacea Jeannel 1962
Creators: name: Kurbatov, Sergey A.
name: Cuccodoro, Giulio
name: Sabella, Giorgio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Achilia
Achilia testacea

description: Achilia testacea Jeannel, 1962
Figs 2, 9-12, 14, 19, 22, 59-64, 84
Achillia testacea Jeannel, 1962: 409, 411 figs 158 (habitus), 159 (aedeagus).
Achillia acicularis Jeannel 1962: 409, 412 fig. 160 (aedeagus) (syn. nov.)
Type material (4 ex.): CENTRAL CHILE: Región Los Lagos: Chiloé prov.: MHNS; 1 ♂ (holotypes of Achilia testacea n° 1690); Chiloé Island, Chepu; 02.X.1958; G. Kuschel. – MNHN; 1 ♂ and 1 ♀ (paratypes of Achilia testacea); Chiloé Island, Chepu; 42° 03’S; 15.X.1958; G. Kuschel. – Región Bío Bío: Concepción prov.: MNHN; 1 ♂ (holotype of Achilia acicularis); Bocas of Bío Bío; 36° 50’S; 24.V.1957; G. Kuschel.
Additional material (103 ex.): See Appendix 1.
Description: Body 1.45-1.55 mm long, entirely reddish with palpi yellowish. Head with eyes longer than temples. Pronotum wider than head, with maximal width on anterior half; median antebasal fovea as large as lateral ones. First abdominal tergite with basal striae diverging, extending to about half of paratergal length, and separated at base by more than one-third of tergal width.
Male: Head as in Figs 59-62, at eye level with simple flattening of the lateral region surmounted by small tooth (Fig. 63), or flanked by lateral pits with outer margin toothed at eye level (Fig. 64). Large frontal protuberance slightly convex at base and anteriorly barely flattened to vertexal sulcus. Antennae (Fig. 14) with scape and pedicel longer than wide; antennomere III slightly longer than wide; antennomeres IV and V as long than wide; antennomeres VI-VIII distinctly wider than long; antennomere IX transverse, with protruding mesal margin pointed at middle; antennomere X wider and longer than IX, with protruding mesal margin bearing two long and large setae; antennomere XI elongate and longer than VIII-X combined, its mesal margin bearing long setae. Metasternum with large median impression. Legs with ventral margin of mesotrochanters (Fig. 22) forming short spine; profemora and mesofemora slightly thickened; mesotibiae (Fig. 19) bearing short and densely pubescent subbasal spur; metatibiae slightly sinuate on distal half. Abdominal tergites unmodified; first abdominal ventrite raised at middle, other ventrites weakly flattened at middle; surface of ventrite I with marked long median carina extending from posterior margin to about its midlength. Aedeagus (Fig. 2) 0.25- 0.28 mm long; dorsal plate ovoid with dorsal longitudinal struts divergent; copulatory pieces consisting of pair of long medial sclerites recurved and strongly sclerotised at base, and apically rounded, associated on each side with four or five pointed sclerite. Parameres very wide with wide and long seta on poorly developed outer lobe; tips broadly recurved posteriorly and bearing wide and long subapical seta.
Female: Similar to male except: head not modified; antennomeres IX and especially X shorter and less protruding than for male; metasternum, abdominal ventrites, and legs unmodified, except ventral margin of mesotrochanters bearing very short spine.
Collecting data: Collected from September to May in Valdivian rainforests, also in remnants and disturbed forests, where it was found from sea level to 450 m. All specimens were collected from sifted samples of leaf and log litter and/or debris.
Distribution: Achilia testacea is known from Central Chile, ranging from Chiloé Province to Ñuble Province (Fig. 84: orange discs).
Comments: The males of A. testacea exhibit great variability in the morphology of the head: some males, including the holotype and the paratype, have at the eye level a simple flattening of the lateral region surmounted by a small tooth, while others have true lateral pits with the outer margin toothed. All of these males share the morphology of the antennae, metasternum, abdominal ventrites, and legs; and their aedeagi have identical dorsal plates and parameres, with the copulatory pieces characterised by little variation (cf. Figs 2, 9-11).
According to Jeannel (1962: 409), A. acicularis differs from A. testacea only by the features of the head of male (with lateral pits in A. acicularis, without lateral pits in A. testacea). Comparison of the holotype of A. acicularis and a paratype of A. testacea showed that their aedeagal conformation is very similar (cf. Figs 2 and 12). It is the same for the morphology of their antennae and legs, and the difference in the morphology of their head, according to us, may be attributed to intraspecific variation of this taxon. Therefore we conclude that A. acicularis Jeannel, 1962 must be placed as a junior synonym of A. testacea Jeannel, 1962 (syn. nov.).
description: Published as part of Kurbatov, Sergey A., Cuccodoro, Giulio & Sabella, Giorgio, 2018, A revision of the Chilean Brachyglutini – Part 3. Revision of Achilia Reitter, 1890: A. frontalis species group (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae), pp. 165-188 in Revue suisse de Zoologie 125 (1) on pages 174-176, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1196048