Cephennodes (Aculeodes) ovatus
Creators: name: Jałoszyński, Paweł
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Cephennodes
Cephennodes ovatus

description: Cephennodes (Aculeodes) ovatus (Nietner)
(Figs 16, 33–34)
Scydmaenus ovatus Nietner, 1856: 553.
Cephennium ovatum Nietner; Schaufuss, 1884: 394 (in key).
Cephennium (Cephennium) ovatum (Nietner); Csiki, 1919: 12.
Cephennodes (incertae sedis) ovatus (Nietner); Jałoszyński, 2021a: 172.
Type material. Lectotype (here designated): ♂, six labels: “ Ceylon / Nietner..s” (white, printed and handwritten, text in black frame], “TYPE” [red, printed], “ Cephennium / ovatus Nietn. / determ. transcr. ex / coll. Mus. Stettin” [white, handwritten and printed], “ Cephennodes / ovatus Nietn. / Cl. Besuchet / det. III 1970 ” [handwritten and printed”], QR code label with collection number 8205, and newly added “ CEPHENNODES / (ACULEODES) / ovatus (Nietner, 1856) / LECTOTYPUS / P. Jałoszyński, 2025 ” (MIZ).
Revised diagnosis. Pronotum and elytra with dense punctures separated by spaces subequal to their diameters, those on pronotum slightly finer than those on elytra, subhumeral line on each elytron slightly longer than 1/3 EL; male lacking secondary sexual characters; aedeagus in ventral view strongly elongate and asymmetrical, with right lateral margin more convex than left one and subtrapezoidal apical projections tilted towards right side, in lateral view apical projections forming elongate shaft directed distodorsad; parameres asymmetrical.
Redescription. Body of male (Fig. 1) elongate oval, strongly convex, light brown; setae distinctly lighter than cuticle; BL 1.10 mm.
Head broadest across moderately large, strongly convex and coarsely faceted eyes, HL 0.13 mm, HW 0.25 mm; frontal and vertexal regions confluent, weakly convex; supraantennal tubercles distinctly elevated. Punctures on frons and vertex fine but distinct, separated by spaces 2–3 times as wide as punctures; setae sparse, short and suberect. Antennae robust, with trimerous clubs, AnL 0.48 mm; antennomere 1 about as long as broad, 2 slightly elongate, 3 and 4 each distinctly transverse, 5–7 each about as long as broad, 8–10 each transverse, 11 distinctly broader than 10 and about as long as 9–10 combined, about 1.7 times as long as wide.
Pronotum semioval, broadest at base; PL 0.35 mm, PW 0.53 mm; anterior margin strongly rounded and confluent with lateral margins, which are posteriorly barely noticeably sinuate; posterior corners sharp-angled and acute; posterior margins strongly bisinuate; base with one pair of small lateral pits, each situated closer to posterior than lateral margin; sublateral carinae lacking. Punctures on pronotal disc more distinct than those on frons and vertex, punctures small but sharply marked, separated by spaces on average subequal to their diameters, narrow strip along posterior margin impunctate; setae short, moderately dense and suberect.
Elytra together oval, broadest near anterior fourth; EL 0.63 mm, EW 0.55 mm, EI 1.14; humeral denticles large and acute; subhumeral lines developed as sharp borders between impressed mesal region and elevated lateral region, distinctly diverging posterad, about as long as 1/3 EL; basal elytral fovea situated at middle between lateral scutellar margin and subhumeral line; elytral apices separately rounded. Punctures about as dense as those on pronotum but slightly stronger; setae similar to those on pronotum.
Legs moderately long and slender, unmodified.
Aedeagus (Figs 33–34) strongly elongate; AeL 0.28 mm; median lobe in ventral view broadest near middle of basal capsule, asymmetrical, with right lateral margin more convex than left one and subtrapezoidal apical projections tilted towards right side, in lateral view apical projections forming elongate shaft directed distodorsad; parameres asymmetrical, each with one apical and two subapical setae.
Female. Unknown.
Distribution. Sri Lanka, near Colombo.
Remarks. Nietner (1856) stated that he collected C. ovatus from spider webs. Only one specimen is present in his collection, a male, which is here designated as lectotype, because Nietner (1856) did not specify the number of studied specimens.
Csiki placed Cephennium breviusculum Motschulsky, 1858: 32 (currently in Cephennodes) as a junior synonym of C. ovatus. I was able to directly compare the female syntype of Cephennium breviusculum (see Jałoszyński 2021a) with the newly designated lectotype of C. ovatus. These specimens are of a similar size, shape and pigmentation, but they clearly differ in punctures on the pronotal disc, those in Cephennodes breviusculus being larger and denser than those in C. ovatus. Cephennodes breviusculus (Motschulsky) is removed from synonymy with Cephennodes ovatus (Nietner).
description: Published as part of Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2025, John Nietner collection of Sri Lankan Scydmaeninae (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae), pp. 79-109 in Zootaxa 5633 (1) on page 87, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5633.1.4, http://zenodo.org/record/15372835