Zyras (Zyras) nitens Cameron 1944
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Zyras
Zyras nitens

description: Zyras (Zyras) nitens CAMERON, 1944
(Figs 10, 71, 109, 216–221, Map 8)
Zyras (Zyras) nitens CAMERON, 1944: 108.
Type material examined: Holotype ♂: “The Gap, Selangor, F.M.S., Dr. Cameron / Bank of Stream / Debris / Z. nitens Cam. Type / Holotype / Holotypus Zyras nitens Cameron, rev. V. Assing 2016” (BMNH).
Comment: The original description is based on a unique specimen from “ SELANGOR: The Gap” (CAMERON 1944).
Additional material examined: Malaysia: 1 ♀, Selangor, Ulu Gombak Field Studies Centre, 250 m, flight interception trap, III.2004, leg. Maruyama et al. (cMar).
Redescription: Body length 5.0– 5.8 mm; length of forebody 2.7–2.8 mm. Coloration (Figs 10, 71, 109): head and pronotum dark-brown; elytra brown or dark-reddish with the postero-lateral portions slightly and diffusely darker; abdomen dark-brown, with tergite II, the anterior and antero-lateral portions of tergites III–VI, and most of the paratergites yellowish to yellowish-brown, and with segments IX–X dark-yellowish; legs yellowish with the apices of the meso- and metafemora slightly darker; antennae brown with the basal 2–3 antennomeres pale-reddish and XI pale yellowish to dark-yellowish; maxillary palpi yellowish.
Head (Fig. 71) moderately transverse, median portion extensively impunctate; punctures in lateral portions sparse and fine to moderately coarse. Eyes at least twice as long as distance from posterior margin of eye to posterior constriction of head in dorsal view. Antenna (Fig. 10) 2.4 mm long and slender; antennomeres IV–VIII oblong, IX approximately as long as broad to weakly oblong, X very weakly transverse, and XI slightly shorter than the combined length of IX and X.
Pronotum (Fig. 71) 1.09–1.12 times as broad as long and 1.1–1.2 times as broad as head, broadest in anterior half, weakly tapering posteriad; lateral margins weakly sinuate in posterior half in dorsal view; punctation coarse and irregularly distributed, on either side of midline with extensive impunctate areas; lateral margins each with four long and erect black setae, one of them inserting near anterior and one near posterior angle, and two in between; anterior margin with an additional long seta on either side; pubescence of disc moderately long, suberect, and pale.
Elytra (Fig. 71) 0.77–0.79 times as long as pronotum; punctation coarse, moderately dense anteriorly and rather sparse near posterior margins; pubescence suberect, rather long, and pale on disc, dark and stouter at lateral margins. Hind wings present. Metatarsomere I longer than the combined length of II and III.
Abdomen (Fig. 109) as broad as, or slightly broader than elytra, with rather deep anterior impressions on tergites III–V; anterior impressions of tergites III–V each with a transverse row of rather weakly defined grooves; tergites III–VI with a lateral setiferous puncture on either side and with a transverse row of six setiferous punctures at or near posterior margin, tergite VI additionally with scattered non-setiferous punctures anteriorly; tergite VII anteriorly with a narrow transverse band of non-setiferous punctures and posteriorly with two transverse rows of sparse setiferous punctures, posterior margin with palisade fringe; tergite VIII (Fig. 219) with approximately twelve long dark setae in posterior fourth, arranged in two transverse rows, posterior margin convex; all sternites with numerous long dark setae posteriorly.
♂: sternite VIII (Fig. 220) apically conspicuously acute, apex somewhat bifid (Fig. 221); median lobe of aedeagus (Figs 216–217) 0.84 mm long and with a ventral process of distinctive shape, particularly in lateral view; paramere (Fig. 218) approximately 0.9 mm long, apical lobe distinctly modified, long, depressed, and apically rounded.
Comparative notes: As can be inferred from the slender habitus, the long and slender appendages, the glossy appearance, and particularly by the posteriorly strongly produced male sternite VIII, the morphology of the aedeagus (shape of apex of ventral process; long and flattened apical lobe of paramere), Z. nitens is closely allied to Z. truncatus, Z. glabricollis, and allied species. Among the species of this group, it is characterized by large eyes, the morphology of the antennae, coarse punctation of the elytra, the punctation pattern of the pronotum, and particularly by the distinctive shapes of the male sternite VIII and the median lobe of the aedeagus.
Distribution and natural history: This species is currently known from two close localities in Selangor, Peninsular Malaysia (Map 8). The holotype was collected from debris on a stream bank, the additional specimen with a flight interception trap at an altitude of 250 m.
description: Published as part of Assing, Volker, 2017, On Zyras sensu strictu in the East Palaearctic and Oriental regions, with a focus on the faunas of the Himalaya, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Sulawesi (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae: Lomechusini), pp. 117-192 in Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 67 (1) on pages 154-155, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.67.1.117-192, http://zenodo.org/record/5742363