Vanuatiella Besuchet & Hlaváč 2011, gen. nov.
Creators: name: Besuchet, Claude
name: Hlaváč, Peter
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Vanuatiella

description: Vanuatiella gen. nov.
(Figs. 4, 9, 10)
Type species. Vanuatiella tishechkini sp. nov., by present designation.
Diagnosis. Body relatively small, antennae three segmented; last antennal segment considerably longer than pedicel, flat, apically thickened, parallel-sided, with excision in middle; head elongate, with rounded rostrum, well separated from neck, with well-defined lateral trichomes on first visible tergite.
Description. Whole body (Fig. 4) yellowish-brown, matt, pubescence very sparse and irregular.
Head elongate, about 1.3 times as long as wide, rostrum taper and rounded, neck wide, separated from head, head with rough, reticulated and shagreened surface, temporal fovea present but very weakly-defined, eyes well-developed, compact, slightly protuberant. Venter in front of eyes and laterally behind, with same surface structure as dorsal part, disc behind eyes with less intense microsculpture, with two minuscule baso-median foveae, lacking gula. Antennae pubescent, antennomeres I and II very small, scape smaller, entirely hidden by antennal cavity, not visible dorsally, terminal antennomere long, about as long as head, parallel sided, flat laterally, with thickened apex, with excision in middle, truncate apically, with a bunch of apical setae.
Pronotum with same microsculpture as head, almost oval with rounded basal margin, clearly wider than long and much wider than head, widest in basal half where lateral corners are present, with large and deep basal depression, lacking any fovea, scutellum not visible.
Venter of body slightly shiny, meso- and metaventrites lacking pubescence, mesoventrite with rough, reticulated and strongly wrinkled surface; disc of metaventrite convex, smooth, shagreened at sides, about twice as long as mesoventrite; mesocoxae separated by subequal mesoventral and metaventral process; metacoxae separated by large, truncate basal metaventral process; second visible sternite (IV) about twice as long as next three (V–VII) together, third visible sternite (V) about as long as VI–VII combined.
Elytra with shallow, regular punctures, surface shagreened, slightly widened posteriorly, widest at level of posterior corners, at suture clearly longer than pronotum, sutural striae well-defined, humeri projecting anteriorly.
Legs short, tibiae at base shortly pedunculate, mesotibiae with spine, femora clavate.
Abdomen shiny, smooth, composite tergite (IV–VI) convex, with large basal depression and large bunch of trichomes in anterior corner. Tergites VII and VIII not visible dorsally. First two paratergites of composite tergite elongate, third paratergite triangular, slender but well-defined.
Sexual dimorphism. Mesotibiae of female lacking spines.
Differential diagnosis. Vanuatiella gen. nov. can be easily separated within the subtribe Clavigerodina by the doubled, rough microsculpture of the head, pronotum, and mesoventrite, and by the well-defined, complete sutural stria, and primarily by the median excision of the terminal antennomere (Fig. 4).
Etymology. The generic name refers to the country of discovery of this new genus, the Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu. Gender: feminine.
description: Published as part of Besuchet, Claude & Hlaváč, Peter, 2011, Contribution to the knowledge of Clavigeritae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae) from Fiji and Vanuatu, with the catalogue of Clavigeritae of Oceania, pp. 517-528 in Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 51 (2) on pages 525-526, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5328923