Amaurodera bicarinata Assing 2017, spec. nov.
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Amaurodera
Amaurodera bicarinata

description: Amaurodera bicarinata spec. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org: act: 6504024F-CF61-4071-A1BA-E11A73AE16B0
(Figs 9, 43–46, 129–132)
Type material: Holotype ♂: “ INDIA: Meghalaya #12c, East Khasi Hills dist., Cherrapunjee, below Mawmluh, 1200 m, 24.x.2004, 25°14'59"N; 91°41'52"E / Leg. G. Cuccodoro, C. Carlton, R. Leschen & D. Erne / Holotypus ♂ Amaurodera bicarinata sp. n., det. V. Assing 2016” (MHNG). Paratype ♂: “ INDIA Meghalaya, Khasi Hills 1000 m, Mawsynram–Balat, Besuchet-Löbl 27.X.78 ” (cAss).
Etymology: The specific epithet (Latin, adjective) alludes to the pair of carinae on the male pronotum.
Description: Body length 4.4–4.7 mm; length of forebody 2.1–2.2 mm. Other measurements: head width: 0.63–0.66 mm; length of pronotum: 0.87–0.95 mm; width of pronotum: 0.66–0.70 mm; elytral length at suture: 0.42–0.45 mm; elytral width: 0.80–0.83 mm. Coloration (Figs 9, 43, 46): head and elytra brown to dark-brown; pronotum dark-reddish to reddish-brown; abdomen: tergite II brown to dark-brown; tergites III–IV yellowish with broadly infuscate posterior margins (particularly the posterior portion of paratergites infuscate), tergite V dark-brown to blackish-brown with the anterolateral portions and the anterior portions of the paratergites yellowish, tergites VI–VIII blackish brown; legs brown to blackish-brown with the femoral bases extensively pale-yellowish and the tibial apices and the tarsi yellowish; antennae uniformly yellowish or with antennomeres III–VIII indistinctly darker; maxillary palpi yellowish to dark-yellowish with the terminal palpomere pale-yellowish.
Head (Fig. 43) approximately as broad as long, broadest across eyes; postero-lateral outline between eyes and posterior constriction weakly convex in dorsal view; median dorsal portion not impressed; median and anterior dorsal portions without punctation, lateral and posterior portions of dorsal surface with sparse and very fine punctures; posterior portion of dorsal surface with more or less pronounced, anterior portion with very shallow and indistinct microreticulation. Eyes strongly convex, approximately 0.7 times as long as distance from posterior margin of eye to posterior constriction. Antenna (Fig. 9) conspicuously elongate and very slender, 2.8–2.9 mm long; antennomeres IX and X 2.5 times and two times as long as broad, respectively.
Pronotum (Figs 44–45) evidently with distinct sexual dimorphism; dorsal surface opaque due to very dense microgranules; antero-median portion as opaque as the posterior portion or more glossy; midline with long and narrow sulcus reaching neither anterior nor posterior margins, this sulcus situated in more or less pronounced median impression in anterior two-thirds; antero-lateral portions with sparse short setae.
Elytra (Fig. 43) approximately 0.45 times as long as pronotum; punctation fine and very sparse; interstices with very shallow microreticulation visible only at high magnification. Hind wings present, but apparently of reduced length. Metatarsomere I as long as, or slightly longer than the combined length of II and III.
Abdomen (Fig. 46) broader than elytra; tergites III–V with moderately deep anterior impressions; tergites III–VII with a lateral puncture on either side and with fine punctation only at and near posterior margins, otherwise impunctate; anterior tergites with more distinct, posterior tergites with very indistinct or without microreticulation; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe; posterior margin of tergite VIII truncate and serrate.
♂: pronotum antero-laterally with a carina on either side, these carinae each with seven stout erect setae, mediad of this carina with or without an edge approximately halfway between carina and median sulcus; median lobe of aedeagus (Figs 129–132) approximately 0.6 mm long; ventral process strongly bulging in lateral view, apically nearly truncate in ventral view; crista apicalis narrow in lateral view.
♀: unknown.
Comparative notes: As can be inferred from external characters (pronotum sexually dimorphic) and the morphology of the aedeagus (robust, with short, broad, and bulging ventral process), A. bicarinata belongs to the A. bomfordi group (see ASSING 2003). The only other representatives with a similarly coloured abdomen are A. elegans and A. schuelkei (with which it also shares the anterior carinae with a row of setae on the male pronotum), from which A. bicarinata differs as follows: from A. elegans by much smaller body size, more slender antennae, the presence of hind wings of reduced length (absent in A. elegans), completely different modifications of the male pronotum, and the different shape of the median lobe of the aedeagus; from A. schuelkei by smaller body size, shorter antennae, different modifications of the male pronotum, and an aedeagus with a ventral process and a crista apicalis of slightly different shapes.
Distribution and natural history: The known distribution is confined to two localities in the Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, Northeast India. The specimens were collected at altitudes of 1000 and 1250 m.
description: Published as part of Assing, Volker, 2017, On the Lomechusini fauna of the East Palaearctic and Oriental regions, with a focus on the genera Orphnebius and Amaurodera (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae), pp. 63-106 in Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 67 (1) on pages 91-92, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.67.1.063-106, http://zenodo.org/record/5742262