Nepalota daweiana Assing 2015, nov.sp.
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Nepalota
Nepalota daweiana

description: Nepalota daweiana nov.sp.
(Figs 137-143, Map 6)
Type material: Holotype ♂: " CHINA: Yunnan, SE Pingbian, 22°54'31''N, 103°41'44''E, 2100 m, / primary subtropical broad-leaved forest, litter sifted, 28.VIII.2014, leg. M. Schülke [CH14-22a] / Holotypus ♂ Nepalota daweiana sp.n. det. V. Assing 2015" (cAss).
Etymology: The specific epithet is an adjective derived from the name of the mountain (Dawei Shan) where the type locality is situated.
Description: Body length 4.6 mm; length of forebody 2.0 mm. Coloration: head blackish-brown; pronotum dark-brown; elytra brown, with the postero-lateral angles diffusely darker; abdomen brown, with segments VIII-X and the posterior margins of segments III-VII reddish, and with the anterior portions of segments VI-VII blackish; legs yellowish; antennae dark-brown, with antennomeres I-II reddish.
Head (Fig. 137) transverse, approximately 1.1 times as broad as long, widest behind eyes; dorsal surface with distinct microreticulation; punctation sparse and extremely fine, barely noticeable. Eyes moderately large and weakly convex, approximately as long as postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna (Fig. 138) slender, 1.6 mm long; antennomere distinctly IV oblong; preapical antennomeres as long as broad; antennomere XI apically acute, longer than the combined length of IX and X.
Pronotum (Fig. 137) approximately 1.2 times as broad as long and 1.35 times as broad as head; disc with distinct microreticulation; punctation rather dense and very fine, but slightly more distinct than that of head.
Elytra (Fig. 137) 0.95 times as long as pronotum; punctation very dense and moderately fine; interstices with microreticulation. Hind wings fully developed.
Abdomen with very shallow transverse microsculpture; punctation moderately dense on tergites III-VI, sparser on tergite VII; tergites III and VII without sexual dimorphism.
♂: tergite VIII (Fig. 139) with posterior margin obtusely angled in the middle, not crenulate; sternite VIII (Fig. 140) oblong, distinctly longer than tergite VIII, and strongly convex posteriorly; median lobe of aedeagus (Figs 141-142) approximately 0.7 mm long; ventral process and internal structures of distinctive shapes; crista apicalis pronounced; paramere (Fig. 143) approximately as long as median lobe and with short apical lobe.
♀: unknown.
Comparative notes: This species is distinguished from its congeners particularly by the shapes of the median lobe of the aedeagus and of the male tergite and sternite VIII, from the similar N. martensi additionally by the unmodified male tergites III and VII and the smaller and less convex eyes (N. martensi: eyes distinctly longer than postocular region in dorsal view). For comparison, the aedeagus of N. martensi is illustrated in Fig. 144.
Distribution and natural history: The type locality is situated in the Dawei Shan Virgin Forest Park, to the southeast of Pingbian, southern Yunnan (Map 1). The holotype was sifted from leaf litter at an altitude of 2100 m, together with several other undescribed species of Staphylinidae. For a photograph of the type locality see Fig. 12 in ASSING (2015).
description: Published as part of Assing, Volker, 2015, On the Nepalota fauna of China (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae: Athetini), pp. 207-248 in Linzer biologische Beiträge 47 (1) on pages 244-245, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5414155