Zyras (Zyras) nilgiriensis CAMERON 1939
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Zyras
Zyras nilgiriensis

description: Zyras (Zyras) nilgiriensis CAMERON, 1939
(Figs 12, 60, 101, Map 9)
Zyras (Zyras) nilgiriensis CAMERON, 1939a: 537 f.
Type material examined: Holotype ♀: “ Nilgiri Hills. A.K. Weld Downing / a 967 / Z. nilgiriensis Cam. Type / M. Cameron. Bequest. B.M. 1955-147. / Holotype / Holotype Zyras nilgiriensis Cam., det. R.G. Booth 2016” (BMNH).
Comment: The original description is based on a unique specimen from “Nilgiri Hills” (CAMERON 1939a).
Redescription: Large species: body length 7.5 mm; length of forebody 3.3 mm. Coloration (Figs 12, 60, 101): head and pronotum blackish; elytra dark-yellowish with the postero-lateral portions blackish; abdomen bicoloured, with segments II–V reddish and segments VI–VIII blackish, except for the narrowly reddish anterior margins and the paratergites; legs bicoloured, dark-yellowish with the profemora and the apical halves of the meso- and metafemora blackish-brown; antennae brown with the basal three antennomeres reddish and antennomere XI dark-reddish; maxillary palpi reddish.
Head (Fig. 60) strongly transverse; punctation fine and rather dense in lateral portions, sparse along middle; pubescence brown, long, and erect. Eyes approximately as long as postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna (Fig. 12) 2.3 mm long; antennomeres IV weakly oblong, V approximately as long as broad, VI–X of increasing width and increasingly transverse, X approximately 1.5 times as broad as long, and XI short, shorter than the combined length of IX and X.
Pronotum (Fig. 60) 1.21 times as broad as long and 1.3 times as broad as head, broadest near anterior angles; lateral margins straight in posterior half in dorsal view; punctation rather fine and dense, regularly distributed; midline punctate; pubescence brown, long, and sub-erect to erect.
Elytra (Fig. 60) 0.93 times as long as pronotum; punctation dense, fine, and regularly distributed; whole disc with dense and long, sub-erect to erect brown pubescence. Hind wings fully developed. Metatarsomere I nearly as long as the combined length of II–IV.
Abdomen (Fig. 101) nearly as broad as elytra, with rather deep anterior impressions on tergites III–V; anterior impressions of tergites III–V each with a transverse row of shallow, sparse, and indistinct grooves (not punctation); discs of tergites III–V each with rather numerous setiferous punctures laterally and at posterior margins; tergite VI with extensive and dense non-setiferous punctation in anterior three-fourths, with a group of setiferous punctures on either side, and with setiferous punctures at posterior margin; tergite VI with extensive and dense non-setiferous punctation in anterior three-fourths and with numerous setiferous punctures laterally, posterior margin with palisade fringe; tergite VIII with dense punctation in posterior half; all sternites with long yellowish pubescence on whole surface.
♂: unknown.
♀: posterior margin of sternite VIII weakly concave in the middle.
Comparative notes: Zyras nilgiriensis, too, belongs to the Z. hirtus group, as can be inferred from the habitus (robust body; pronotum weakly convex in cross-section), the short antennomere XI, long pubescence on the whole body, and the punctation pattern of the abdomen. Among the species of this group, it is characterized by the coloration, relatively short antennae, and by the punctation and pubescence of the abdomen.
Distribution: This species is currently known only from the type locality in South India (Map 9).
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 145-146, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.67.1.117-192, http://zenodo.org/record/5742363