Zaitzeviaria chenzhitengi Jiang, Wu & Chen 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Jiang, Ri-Xin
name: Chen, Xiang-Sheng
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Elmidae
Zaitzeviaria
Zaitzeviaria chenzhitengi

description: Zaitzeviaria chenzhitengi Jiang, Wu & Chen sp. nov. (DZoiaeṃDzę)
(Figs 1A–B, 2A–I)
Type material (62 exs: 16 ♂♂, 16 ♀♀, 30 exs., sex unidentified): Holotype: CHINA: ♂, labelled 'China: Yunnan, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (ȅẑäânśṅ), Deqin County (ẽü县), Benzilan Town (奔Ŧť ª), Yujie Village (īżñ), 02.IV.2021, Zhi-Teng Chen leg.' (GUGC). Paratypes: 15 ♂♂, 16 ♀♀, 30 exs., sex undetermined: with same label data as the holotype (GUGC).
Description. Male. Body (Fig. 1A) small, long-oval, moderately convex dorsally. Coloration: body dark brown, antenna, anterior margin of pronotum, tibiae, and tarsi with claws light brown. Plastron setae cover following areas: cranium around eyes on dorsal and ventral surface, hypomera, lateral portion of prosternum, elytra from carinate interval VII outwards, mesoventrite, metaventrite, abdomen and femora.
Head (Fig. 2A), wider than long, dorsal surface except disc with plastron setae and sparse large punctures with distances 2.9–3.0× diameter of a puncture; each puncture bears a long seta. Clypeus with sparse long setae, anterior margin nearly straight. Labrum transverse, slightly narrower than clypeus, surface finely covered with sparse long setae, anterior parts of lateral margins rounded, with long bristles, anterior margin weakly curved, reddish brown. Antenna relatively short, much shorter than length of pronotum, and 8-segmented.
Pronotum (Fig. 2B) about as long as wide, PL/PW: 0.95, disc shiny and smooth, nearly regularly punctured with round, setiferous punctures; puncture diameter ca. 0.75× diameter of an eye facet, and their distance varies between 1.0–4.0× of a facet diameter. Surface in anterior and posterior angles with microgranules and fine wrinkles.Anterior margin arcuate, angles weakly produced. Posterior margin trisinuate, emarginated before scutellum, posterior angles obtuse. Medial longitudinal impression thin, distinct but short, and confined to middle 2/5 of pronotal length. Sublateral carinae thin, present along 3/5 length of pronotum, posterior half subparallel, and anterior one distinctly curved outwards. Prosternal process (Fig. 2D) with rounded apex, surface with sparse long setae, disc shiny, surface of marginal portions wrinkled and microreticulated.
Elytra (Fig. 2C), about 1.7 times as long as wide, EL/EW: 1.67–1.68; widest at apical 1/3. Surface smooth and covered with sparse, long setae arranged in longitudinal rows. Each elytron with granulate carina on intervals VII and VIII, other intervals flat. Hind wings long, fully developed. Scutellum (Fig. 4B) narrow and triangular, margins finely curved, surface shiny, hairless.
Metaventrite (Fig. 2D). Disc smooth with sparse small punctures, each puncture bearing a long seta, sides with plastron. Discrimen well impressed, extending and widening from nearly anterior margin to posterior margin. Area behind each mesocoxa with a large round puncture and several smaller irregular macropunctures. Metakatepisternal suture marked with a row of smaller irregular macropunctures.
Abdomen (Fig. 2D). Middle regions of ventrites I–IV and anterior part of ventrite V smooth and shiny, with sparse small punctures, each bearing a long seta. Other parts of abdomen covered with plastron setae intermixed with sparse, long setae. Admedian carinae of ventrite I distinct, straight, extending from base to apex.
Legs simple; femora widened, surface covered with sericeous tomentum; inner side of tibiae with cleaning fringes; tarsi slightly shorter tibiae; tarsal claws simple. Protibiae (Fig. 2E) in males moderately wider than in females.
Aedeagus (Figs 2G–I) slender, widest near middle, apex of median lobe distinctly narrowed. A pair of curved sclerotizations at middle of median lobe.
Measurements of males (n= 10): CL: 1.73–1.81 mm (1.76±0.03); PL: 0.54–0.55 mm (0.55±0.01); PW: 0.57– 0.58 mm (0.57±0.01); EL: 1.19–1.25 mm (1.22±0.03); EW: 0.71–0.75 mm (0.73±0.01).
Females (Fig. 1B), externally similar to the males, averagely larger, protibiae (Fig. 2F) slightly narrower than in males. Without another distinct sexual character to males.
Measurements of females (n= 10): CL: 1.69–1.91 mm (1.77±0.07); PL: 0.51–0.57 mm (0.55±0.02); PW: 0.55– 0.61 mm (0.58±0.02); EL: 1.17–1.34 mm (1.22±0.07); EW: 0.72–0.81 mm (0.76±0.03).
Distribution. The species is reported only from the type locality.
Biology. All adults were collected from the bottom crack of stone in a small ravine stream (Figs 5A–B).
Etymology. The species epithet honors to Dr Zhi-Teng Chen (Jiangsu University of Science and Technology), the collector of the new species. The name is treated as an adjective.
Comparative diagnosis. Z. chenzhitengi sp. nov. is similar to Z. gotoi (Nomura, 1959) and Z. kuriharai Kamite, Ogata & M. Satô, 2006 in habitus, such as the similar slender body form and coloration. The new species can be easily distinguished from the latter by the longitudinal impression of the pronotum confined to the pronotal middle and not touching the posterior margin (vs longitudinal impression of pronotum reaching posterior margin) and the median lobe of aedeagus not curved at the base (vs distinctly curved).
The new species is also more or less similar to Zaitzeviaria obesa Jung, Jäch & Baea, 2014 in habitus. Both species share a slender body form. The different forms of longitudinal impression of pronotum can easily distinguish them. The longitudinal impression of Z. obesa is much longer, with a pair of round foveae located at basal sides, while the longitudinal impression of the new species is much shorter and basal sides lack foveae.
description: Published as part of Jiang, Ri-Xin & Chen, Xiang-Sheng, 2025, Two new species of the genus Zaitzeviaria Nomura, 1959 (Coleoptera: Elmidae) from China, pp. 137-145 in Zootaxa 5584 (1) on pages 138-140, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5584.1.9, http://zenodo.org/record/14812441