Zyras (Zyras) morvani Pace 1986
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Zyras
Zyras morvani

description: Zyras (Zyras) morvani PACE, 1986
(Figs 25, 51, 93, 148–149, Map 3)
Zyras (Zyras) morvani PACE, 1986c: 182.
Type material examined: Holotype ♂: “ Takumsibang, 1750 m. IV.73, P. Morvan / Coll. Rougemont / Holotypus Zyras morvani m., det. R. Pace 1983 / Zyras morvani n. sp., det. R. Pace, 1983 / Zyras morvani Pace, det. V. Assing 2016” (MCSNV).
Comment: The original description is based on a unique male from “ Nepal, Takum Sibang” (PACE 1986c).
Additional material examined: Nepal: 1 ♀, Annapurna, Marsyangdi valley, Syangde env., 1100 m, 30.V.1993, leg. Schmidt (cAss).
Redescription: Body length 5.6–6.0 mm; length of forebody 2.6–2.7 mm. Coloration (Figs 25, 51, 93): head black; pronotum and elytra dark-brown to blackishbrown; abdomen dark-brown to blackish-brown with the anterior portions of the paratergites paler; legs yellow with the apices of all femora blackish; antennae with the basal 3–4 antennomeres dark-brown to blackish-brown and the remainder gradually becoming paler towards apex, apical 3–5 antennomers dark-yellowish; maxillary palpi brown to dark-brown with palpomere IV yellowish.
Head (Fig. 51) moderately transverse, median portion extensively impunctate; punctures in lateral portions sparse and fine. Eyes large and bulging, more than twice as long as distance from posterior margin of eye to posterior constriction of head in dorsal view. Antenna (Fig. 25) approximately 2.0 mm long and moderately slender; antennomeres IV weakly oblong, V approximately as broad as long, VI–X of gradually increasing width and increasingly transverse, X approximately 1.5 times as broad as long or nearly so, and XI barely as long as the combined length of IX and X.
Pronotum (Fig. 51) weakly transverse, 1.03–1.07 times as broad as long and 1.13–1.15 times as broad as head, broadest in anterior half, distinctly tapering posteriad; lateral margins distinctly sinuate in posterior half in dorsal view; punctation fine and slightly irregularly distributed; lateral margins each with five long and erect black setae, anterior margins with an additional long and erect black seta on either side; pubescence of disc rather long, sub-erect, and pale.
Elytra (Fig. 51) 0.78–0.82 times as long as pronotum; punctation fine, moderately dense, and regularly distributed; whole disc with dense, long, and sub-erect pale pubescence, laterally with long, stout, and erect setae. Hind wings fully developed. Metatarsomere I longer than the combined length of II and III.
Abdomen (Fig. 93) slightly narrower than elytra, with rather deep anterior impressions on tergites III–V; anterior impressions of tergites III–V each with a transverse row of numerous rather weakly defined grooves; tergite III with a lateral setiferous puncture on either side and with numerous fine setiferous punctures at posterior margin; tergites IV and V with a median pair of setiferous punctures, with a lateral setiferous puncture on either side, and with numerous fine setiferous punctures at posterior margin; tergite VI with a transverse row of non-setiferous punctures anteriorly, with a transverse row of rather numerous setiferous punctures at posterior third, and with numerous setiferous punctures at posterior margin; tergite VII with a transverse band of non-setiferous punctures anteriorly and with two transverse rows of setiferous punctures posteriorly, posterior margin with palisade fringe; posterior margin of tergite VIII with a shallow median concavity (Fig. 148).
♂: sternite VIII (Fig. 149) oblong, strongly convex posteriorly; median lobe of aedeagus approximately 0.7 mm long and shaped as figured by PACE (1986c); paramere slightly longer than median lobe, apical lobe not distinctly modified, moderately long and apically acute.
♀: posterior margin of sternite VIII convex, in the middle indistinctly concave.
Comparative notes: Though similar in size and habitus to Z. condignus, Z. morvani differs from this species in numerous characters, such as much shorter and less slender antennae with more transverse antennomeres VI–X, the coloration of the antennae and the legs, much larger eyes, a more slender pronotum with sinuate lateral margins and a smooth surface, finer and practically regular punctation of the pronotum and the elytra, a different punctation pattern of the abdomen (particularly the much more numerous setiferous punctures at the posterior margins of the tergites), a completely different shape of the male sternite VIII, and the shapes of the median lobe and the parameres of the aedeagus.
Distribution and natural history: The currently known distribution is confined to two localities in the Dhaulagiri and Annapurna ranges, Nepal (Map 3), where the two known specimens were collected at altitudes of 1100 and 1750 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 page 135, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.67.1.117-192, http://zenodo.org/record/5742363