Quedius (Raphirus) liangtangi Tephens 2015, nov.sp.
Creators: name: Tephens
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Quedius
Quedius liangtangi

description: Quedius (Raphirus) liangtangi nov.sp. (Figs 1-8)   
T y p e l o c a l i t y. China: Yunnan, Gongshan County, Qiqi, 1900 m.  
T y p e m a t e r i a l. Holotype () and allotype (): China: " China: Yunnan Prov. Gongshan County Qiqi alt. 1,900 m 2-VII-2010 Liang Tang leg." (SNUC). Paratype (): same data as holotype (ASC).  
D e s c r i p t i o n. Head piceous-black, becoming narrowly paler anteriorly, pronotum piceous to piceou-black, with all margins, lateral ones more widely, paler, scutellum pale testaceous, elytra pale testaceous, abdomen pale testaceous. Palpi pale testaceous, antennae with first three segments pale testaceous, following segments becoming gradually darker, with outer segments more or less piceous. Head rounded, distinctly wider than long (ratio 1.36), eyes very large and convex, tempora considerably shorter than length of eyes seen from above (ratio 0.20); two additional setiferous punctures between anterior frontal punctures; posterior frontal puncture almost touching posteriomedial margin of eye, one puncture between it and posterior margin of head; temporal puncture almost touching posterior margin of eye; surface of head with quite fine and dense microsculpture of transverse waves. Antenna long, segment 3 longer than segment 2 (ratio 1.22), following segments longer than wide, gradually becoming shorter, last segment shorter than two preceding segments combined. Pronotum wider than long (ratio 1.20), widest at about posterior third, narrowed anteriad, with lateral margins continuously arcuate with broadly rounded base, transversely convex; dorsal rows each with three punctures, sublateral rows each with one puncture close to anterior margin of pronotum; surface of pronotum with extremely fine (markedly finer and denser than that on head) microsculpture of rudimentary transverse waves, waves becoming more regular and more pronounced near posterior margin of pronotum. Scutellum with a few fine punctures, surface with extremely fine microsculpture of rudimentary transverse waves. Elytra relatively short, at suture somewhat shorter (ratio 0.83), at sides as long as pronotum at midline; punctuation coarse and dense, transverse interspaces between punctures distinctly smaller that diameters of punctures, without microsculpture; pubescence pale testaceous. Wings markedly reduced, non-functional. Abdomen with tergite 7 (fifth visible) without whitish apical seam of palisade setae; tergite 2 (in front of first fully visible tergite) impunctate; punctuation of tergites somewhat finer than that on elytra, more or less evenly covering each tergite, in general becoming finer and sparser toward apex of abdomen; surface between puntures with excessively fine microsculpture of rudimentary striae.  
M a l e. First four segments of front tarsus markedly dilated, subbilobed, each densely covered with tenent setae ventrally; segment 2 markedly wider than apex of tibia (ratio 1.43); segment 4 narrower than preceding two segments. Sternite 7 slightly sinuate medioapically, with three long black setae at each side of sinuation, small narrow area before sinuation impunctate (Fig. 1; sternite 8 with two long black setae on each side, apical margin with rather wide and deep, obtusely triangular medioapical emargination, large triangular area before emargination flattened and smooth (Fig. 2). Genital segment with tergite 10 triangular, markedly narrowed toward arcuate apex, setose as in Fig. 3; sternite 9 with short and wide, rounded basal portion, apical portion with arcuate apex, with differentiated apical and subapical seta on each side, setose as in Fig. 4. Aedoeagus (Figs 5-7) large, elongate, of characteristic shape, median lobe wide, parallelsided in middle portion, anteriorly suddenly narrowed into differentiated attenuate apical portion, on face adjacent to paramere with characteristic carina (Fig. 6); paramere quite long, shaped as in Figs 5, 7, with narrowly arcuate apex slightly exceeding apex of median lobe; four apical setae at apex of paramere, with medial pair conspicuously stronger and longer than lateral pair; two fine setae at each lateral margin below apex and numerous fine setae on each side around and below end of sensory peg setae; sensory peg setae on underside numerous, situated along each lateral margin of apical portion of paramere (Fig. 7).  
F e m a l e. First four segments of front tarsus similar to those of male, but considerably less dilated, segment 2 slightly narrower that apex of tibia (ratio 0.83). Tergite 10 of genital segment of characteristic shape, setose as in Fig. 8.  
Length 12.0- 12.5 mm.  
E t y m o l o g y. The specific epithet is patronymic, the species has been named for Liang Tang, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, who collected all specimens of the original series and whoes exciting company I enjoyed during his study stay in Ottawa.  
 G e o g r a p h i c a l d i s t r i b u t i o n Quedius liangtangi is present known only from the type locality in Gongshan county in northwesternmost Yunnan, west of Salween river.   
B i o n o m i c s.Nothingisknown about the collecting circumstances of the specimens of the original series.  
 R e c o g n i t i o n a n d c o m m e n t s Quedius liangtangi is a very distinctive species both in external characters (size, coloration, chaetotaxy of the head and pronotum, kind of punctuation of scutellum, elytra and abdomen) as well as in the shape of the aedoeagus and tergite 10 of female genital segment. The assignment of this species to the subgenus Raphirus is tentative, there is a possibility that it actually represents a different genus/subgenus level taxon.   
All three specimens of the original series are more or less teneral, therefore the coloration of mature specimens would be somewhat darker than as described.
description: Published as part of Tephens, 2015, Contributions to the knowledge of the Quediina (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae, Staphylinini) of China. Part 52. Genus Quedius STEPHENS, 1829. Subgenus Raphirus STEPHENS, 1829. Section 14. Genus Quetarsius SMETANA, 1996. Section 1., pp. 1855-1864 in Linzer biologische Beiträge 47 (2) on pages 1856-1857, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5286063