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

description: Zyras (Zyras) elegantulus CAMERON, 1939
(Figs 16, 20, 35, 53–55)
Zyras (Zyras) elegantulus CAMERON, 1939b: 20.
Type material examined: Lectotype ♂, present designation: “ F. C. Drescher, G. Tangkoeban Prahoe, 4000–5000 Voet, Preanger, Java, 12–18.I.1933 / Syntype / M. Cameron. Bequest. B.M. 1955-147 / Lectotypus ♂ Zyras elegantulus Cameron, desig. V. Assing 2017” (BMNH). Paralectotype ♀: “ F. C. Drescher, G. Tangkoeban Prahoe, 4000–5000 Voet, Preanger, Java, VII.1934 / Z. elegantulus Cam. Cotype / Syntype / M. Cameron. Bequest. B.M. 1955-147” (BMNH).
Comment: The original description is based on an unspecified number of syntypes from “G. Tangkoeban Prahoe” (CAMERON 1939b). Two syntypes, a male and a female, were located in the Cameron collection. The male is designated as the lectotype.
Redescription: Body length 5.3–5.7 mm; length of forebody 2.5 mm. Coloration (Figs 16, 20, 35): head pale-brown to reddish-brown; pronotum pale-reddish; elytra yellowish to yellowish-red, with the postero-lateral portions more or less extensively infuscate (very extensively so in the paralectotype); abdomen pale-reddish to dark-reddish, with the posterior halves of tergites V–VII darker; legs pale-yellowish; antennae dark-brown with antennomeres I–II pale-reddish to reddish-brown and X–XI yellowish-brown to brown; maxillary palpi reddish with the apical palpomere yellowish.
Head (Fig. 20) moderately transverse, median portion extensively impunctate; punctures in lateral portions sparse and coarse. Eyes longer than postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna (Fig. 16) approximately 1.5 mm long; antennomeres IV–X transverse, of gradually increasing width and increasingly transverse, X approximately twice as broad as long, and XI approximately as long as the combined length of IX and X.
Pronotum (Fig. 20) large in relation to head, 1.15– 1.18 times as broad as long and 1.36–1.43 times as broad as head, broadest near anterior angles, moderately convex in cross-section; punctation rather coarse, sparse, and very irregularly distributed, with extensive impunctate areas on either side of midline; midline broadly impunctate.
Elytra (Fig. 20) 0.75–0.79 times as long as pronotum; punctation variable, moderately coarse to coarse, moderately sparse to moderately dense, defined, sparser posteriorly than anteriorly. Hind wings present. Metatarsomere I slender, slightly to distinctly shorter than the combined length of II–IV.
Abdomen (Fig. 35) narrower than elytra, with deep anterior impressions on tergites III–V; anterior impressions of tergites III–V each with a transverse row of weakly defined non-setiferous punctures; tergite III with two lateral punctures on either side and with approximately 15 setiferous punctures at posterior margin; tergite IV–V with a median pair of punctures, with 3–5 lateral setiferous punctures on either side, and with approximately 20 setiferous punctures at posterior margins; tergite VI with a narrow transverse row of coarse non-setiferous punctures anteriorly, with a median pair of punctures, with a lateral transverse series of three setiferous punctures on either side, and with approximately 20 setiferous punctures at posterior margin; tergite VII with a narrow transverse band of non-setiferous punctures anteriorly and with two transverse series of setiferous punctures in posterior portion, posterior margin with palisade fringe; tergite VIII with few setiferous punctures bearing long black setae only near posterior margin, posterior margin convex, in the middle truncate or indistinctly concave.
♂: posterior margin of sternite VIII convex; median lobe of aedeagus (Figs 53–54) 0.57 mm long, of compact shape, ventral process short and broad; paramere (Fig. 55) much longer than median lobe, 0.84 mm long, and with very short apical lobe.
♀: posterior margin of sternite VIII concave in the middle.
Comparative notes: This species is characterized by a rather large pronotum (in relation to head), its coloration, a pronotum with very irregular punctation, the punctation pattern of the abdomen, and by the morphology of the aedeagus.
Distribution: Zyras elegantulus has been recorded only from the type locality in Java.
description: Published as part of Assing, Volker, 2017, On Zyras sensu strictu in the East Palaearctic and Oriental regions III, with a focus on the Southeast of Continental Asia and the Sunda Islands (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae: Lomechusini), pp. 213-246 in Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 67 (2) on pages 227-228, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.67.2.213-246, http://zenodo.org/record/5742339