Zyras (Zyras) nigrihirtus Assing 2017, spec. nov.
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Zyras
Zyras nigrihirtus

description: Zyras (Zyras) nigrihirtus spec. nov.
urn: lsid:zoobank.org:act: 4BCA38DF-D00B-4833-81D4-05557C34488E
(Figs 38, 78, 116, 255–259, Map 10)
Type material: Holotype ♂ [elytra missing]: “INDONESIA: SULAWESI UTARA, Dumoga-Bone N.P., Feb–April 1985. / Plot C, ca 400 m, Lowland forest / Pit fall trap / R.Ent.Soc. Lond., Project Wallace, B.M. 1985-10 / 29.123 / Holotypus ♂ Zyras nigrihirtus sp. n., det. V. Assing 2016” (BMNH).
Etymology: The specific epithet (adjective) is composed of the Latin adjectives niger (black) and hirtus (pubescent). It alludes to the black coloration of the body and the hypothesized close relationship to Z. hirtus.
Description: Body length 6.8 mm. Coloration (Figs 38, 78, 116): body black (note that the elytra of the holotype are missing); legs pale-yellowish; antennae with antennomeres I–II pale-brown, III–VII blackish-brown, and VIII–XI gradually becoming paler, XI yellowish-brown; maxillary palpi blackish-brown, with the terminal palpomere yellow.
Head (Fig. 78) moderately transverse, extensively impunctate along middle; lateral dorsal portions with moderately dense and coarse punctation. Eyes large and bulging, much longer than postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna (Fig. 38) 1.9 mm long; antennomeres IV approximately as long as broad, VI–X of gradually increasing width and increasingly transverse, X approximately twice as broad as long, and XI of conical shape, approximately as long as the combined length of VIII–X. Pronotum (Fig. 78) rather weakly transverse, 1.08 times as broad as long and 1.3 times as broad as head, broadest in anterior half; lateral margins straight in posterior twothirds (dorsal view); punctation coarse, dense, and nearly regularly distributed; midline very narrowly impunctate; lateral margins each with seven long and erect black setae; anterior and posterior margins each with one long and erect black seta on either side.
Hind wings fully developed. Legs very slender; metatarsomere I as long as the combined length of II–IV.
Abdomen (Fig. 116) with moderately deep anterior impressions on tergites III–V; anterior impression of tergite III with a transverse row of sparse, anterior impressions of tergites IV–V with a transverse row of denser non-setiferous punctures; discs of tergites III–V with fine non-setiferous punctation on whole surface and with interspersed setiferous punctures; tergites VI–VII with an anterior transverse band of dense non-setiferous punctures, on remainder of disc with less dense nonsetiferous punctures everywhere and with interspersed setiferous punctures; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.
♂: tergite VIII (Fig. 258) with numerous long and erect black setae in posterior third, posterior margin convex, without median concavity; sternite VIII (Fig. 259) with numerous long black setae in posterior half, posterior margin strongly convex; median lobe of aedeagus (Figs 255–256) 0.9 mm long; ventral process of sub-triangular shape and apically acute in ventral view, at base with median carina (lateral view); paramere (Fig. 257) as long as median lobe and with very small and flattened apical lobe.
Comparative notes: As can be inferred from the subconical shape of antennomere XI, the shape of the ventral process of the aedeagus, and particularly from the short and flattened apical lobe of the paramere, Z. nigrihirtus belongs to the Z. hirtus group. Among the species of this group, it is characterized particularly by the coloration, the dense and coarse punctation of the pronotum, the conspicuous punctation pattern of the abdomen, the rather sparse long setation of the forebody, and by the shape of the median lobe of the aedeagus.
Distribution and natural history: The type locality (Map 10) is identical to that of Z. densissimus, Z. titan, and Z. densihirtus. The holotype was collected with a pitfall trap in lowland forest at an altitude of approximately 400 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 165, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.67.1.117-192, http://zenodo.org/record/5742363