Achilia cunniceps Sabella & Cuccodoro & Kurbatov 2019, n. sp.
Creators: name: Sabella, Giorgio
name: Cuccodoro, Giulio
name: Kurbatov, Sergey A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Achilia
Achilia cunniceps

description: Achilia cunniceps n. sp.
Figs 7, 11, 23, 35, 37, 39, 57
Holotype: MHNG (# MHNG-ENTO-13837); 1 ♂; SOUTHERN CHILI: Región Los Lagos: Osorno prov.: Puyehue National Park, Antillanca road; 500-1000 m; 18-20.XII.1984; S. & J. Peck; car netting.
Paratypes (3): MHNG (# MHNG-ENTO-13838 & 13839); 2 ♂; SOUTHERN CHILI: Región Los Lagos: Osorno prov.: same data as holotype. – Chiloé prov.: FMNH (FMHD # 2002-77); 1 ♂; road to Miraflores, about 0.6 km W road 5; 42° 46.74’S 73° 47.70’W; 130 m; 12.XII.2002; A. Newton & M. Thayer 1063; secondary Valdivian forest with few conifers, Berlese, leaf & log litter.
Description: Body 1.35-1.40 mm long, entirely dark with reddish brown elytra, antennae, palpi, and legs. Head with eyes moderately protruding, about long as convex temples. Pronotum slightly wider than head; median antebasal fovea smaller than lateral ones. First abdominal tergite with basal striae extending to about one-third of paratergal length, and separated at base by about one-third of tergal width.
Male: Head as in Figs 35, 37, 39, with anterior part flattened; vertexal sulcus indistinct; posterior part conspicuously raised, strongly convex in lateral view (Fig. 37), this hump anteriorly flattened, densely punctate, pubescent, and sulcate medially. Antennae (Fig. 11) with scape longer than wide and pedicel only slightly longer than wide; antennomeres III-IV and VII slightly wider than long; antennomeres V-VI longer than wide, antennomere VIII strongly transverse with mesal margin protruding at middle; antennomeres IX and X strongly transverse with protruding mesal margins; antennomere XI very elongate and distinctly longer than VI-X combined, its surfaces with tubercles. Metaventrite raised at middle, this area distally pubescent and densely punctate, divided by very wide median sulcus. Legs with trochanters very elongate; surface of mesotrochanters bearing numerous long bristles; ventral margin of mesotrochanters projecting posteriorly in a spine (Fig. 23); profemora and mesofemora slightly thickened; protibiae with short subapical spur on medial margin, distal half slightly sinuate and bearing long and thick bristles; distal half of metatibiae slightly sinuate. Abdominal tergites and ventrites unmodified. Aedeagus (Fig. 7, dorsal longitudinal struts not shown) 0.26- 0.27 mm long; medial sclerites with 5-6 apical spines, associated on each side with three pointed sclerites, the first with two tips.
Female: Unknown.
Collecting data: Collected in December, at elevations ranging from 130 to 1000 m, by car netting, and by sifting in Valdivian rainforests.
Distribution: Achilia cunniceps n. sp. is known from Southern Chile (Fig. 57: blue triangles) only in Región Los Lagos (Chiloé and Osorno provinces).
Comments: Achilia cunniceps n. sp. is easily distinguished from the other members of the genus by the very peculiar morphology of the male head (Figs 35, 37, 39), features of the antennae (Fig. 11), and the copulatory pieces of the aedeagus (Fig. 7).
description: Published as part of Sabella, Giorgio, Cuccodoro, Giulio & Kurbatov, Sergey A., 2019, A revision of the Chilean Brachyglutini - Part 4. Revision of Achilia Reitter, 1890: A. puncticeps and A. approximans species groups, with description of seven new species (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae), pp. 127-145 in Revue suisse de Zoologie 126 (1) on page 137, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.2619528