Anaulacaspis laevigata
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Anaulacaspis
Anaulacaspis laevigata

description: Anaulacaspis laevigata (DUVIVIER, 1883)
(Figs 161–158, Map 4)
Falagria laeviuscula EPPELSHEIM, 1880: 204; preoccupied. Falagria laevigata DUVIVIER, 1883: 94.
Type material examined: Lectotype ♂, present designation: “Dalmatien, Knin, Reitter 79. / 1881-I / laeviuscula Eppelsh. Verh. zool. bot. Ges. Wien 1880. p. 204 / c. Epplsh. Steind, d. / Typus / Lectotypus ♂ Falagria laeviuscula Eppelsheim, rev. V. Assing 2016 / Anaulacaspis laevigata (Duvivier), det. V. Assing 2016” (NHMW). Paralectotypes: 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀: same data as lectotype; 1 ex.: “Dalmatia, Spalato b. Knin, 1879. Reitter / coll. Reitter / Holotypus 1880, Falagria laeviuscula Eppelsheim [curator label]” (HNHM); 1 ex.: “Dalmatien, Spalato, Reitter 79. / coll. Reitter / Paratypus 1880, Falagria laeviuscula Eppelsheim [curator label]” (HNHM).
Comment: The original description of Falagria laeviuscula is based on an unspecified number of syntypes “in wenigen Exemplaren an den Sümpfen bei Knin in Dalmatien ... aufgefunden” (EPPELSHEIM 1880). The name is a primary homonym and was subsequently replaced with the nomen novum Falagria laevigata by DUVIVIER (1883). Four syntypes, two males and two females, were located in the Eppelsheim collection at the NHMW, two additional syntypes were found in the collection at the HNHM. One of the males from the Eppelsheim collection is designated as the lectotype.
Additional material examined: Italy: 1 ♀, “Roma” (NHMW); 2 ♀♀, Roma, Valle Aniene, Tivoli, 27.IV.1958 (cTro); 1 ♂, Lazio, Turania (RI) [42°08'N, 12°59'E], 15.VI.1977, leg. Ippiliti (cZan).
Croatia: 1 ex., Metkovi, leg. Holdhaus (NHMW); 3 exs., Ludbreg, leg. Apfelbeck (NHMW); 1 ex., Opuzen, 1905, leg. Tolatzek (NHMW); 1 ex., Dubrovnik, Mlini, 23.IX.1958 (MHNG); 5 exs., Mlini, 27.IX.–4.X.1958, leg. Benick (MHNG); 1 ex., locality not specified, leg. Apfelbeck (NHMW).
Montenegro: 11 exs., Herzeg-Novi, leg. Holdhaus, Paganetti (MNB, NHMW, cAss); 2 exs., Savina [monastery; 42°27'N, 18°33'E], leg. Paganetti (MNB); 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Morača monastery, stream bank, 20.IX.1973, leg. Puthz (MHNG).
Bosnia-Herzegovina: 2 ♀♀, Mostar, bank of Neretva river, 13.VIII.1977 (MHNG); 3 exs., locality not specified (NHMW).
Greece: Corfu: 3 exs., locality not specified, leg. Reitter, Winkler (MHNG, NHMW). Pelopónnisos: 6 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀, 1 ex., Olympia, river bank, 29.III.1988, leg. Schmidt (cAss); 1 ♂, 4 exs., Patras env., Miha, 900 m, stream bank, 30.III.1986, leg. Assing (cAss). Lesbos: 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀, Lambou Mili, 39°08'N, 26°23'E, 110 m, sifted, 19.III.2005, leg. Lompe & Meybohm (cAss); 1 ♂, 14 km WNW Mytilini, S Lambou Mili, 39°08'N, 26°24'E, 50 m, stream bank, 22.III.2016, leg. Assing & Hetzel (cAss).
Turkey: Ordu: 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀, 18 km SSE Gölköy, 40°32'N, 37°41'E, 970 m, river bank, 14.VII.2008, leg. Schülke (MNB, cAss). Antalya: 4 ♀♀, SSW Antalya, Çiralı, 36°25'N, 30°28'E, floated from stream bank 4.IV.2002, leg. Assing & Wunderle (cAss, cWun). Adana: 2 ♀♀, Feke env., 21.–24.VII.2000, leg. Smatana (MNB, cAss).
Osmaniye: 1 ♀, 15 km Osmaniye, NW Yarpuz, 37°04'N, 36°26'E, 920 m, stream bank, floated from stream bank, leg. Assing & Schülke (MNB).
Redescription: Body length 1.8–2.2 mm; length of forebody 0.9–1.0 mm. Coloration: head, pronotum, and abdomen blackish-brown to black; elytra dark-brown to black; legs pale-brown to dark-brown; antennae dark-brown to blackish-brown with the basal two antennomeres usually slightly paler.
Head approximately 1.1 times as broad as long, without sexual dimorphism; punctation extremely fine, visible only at high magnification (50 x), and moderately dense; interstices glossy. Eyes approximately as long as postocular region in dorsal view, or slightly longer. Antenna 0.6–0.7 mm long; antennomere IV approximately as long as broad or weakly oblong; antennomeres V–X of gradually increasing width and increasingly transverse, X approximately twice as broad as long, or nearly so.
Pronotum approximately 1.05 times as broad as long and approximately 0.95 times as broad as head, without sexual dimorphism; punctation very fine, sometimes slightly more distinct than that of head.
Elytra usually 0.90–0.95 times as long as pronotum; punctation less dense and slightly less fine than that of pronotum. Hind wings present.
Abdomen approximately as broad as, or slightly broader than elytra; punctation distinct, denser in anterior than in posterior portions of tergites; posterior margin of tergite VIII (Fig. 151) weakly convex, postero-laterally without a cluster of dense long setae, marginal setae unmodified and moderately long.
♂: posterior margin of sternite VIII (Fig. 152) strongly convex or obtusely pointed in the middle, marginal setae moderately long, thin, and evenly spaced; median lobe of aedeagus 0.25–0.28 mm long and shaped as in Figs 153–157.
♀: posterior margin of sternite VIII weakly concave in the middle (Fig. 158).
Comparative notes: Anaulacaspis laevigata is distinguished from the species of the A. nigra group by the absence of postero-lateral clusters of long thin setae on tergite VIII, a posteriorly less produced male sternite VIII, the shape of the female sternite VIII (posteriorly less strongly convex and in the middle concave), and the less slender median lobe of the aedeagus, from nearly all the representatives of the A. nigra group also by the extremely fine punctation of the non-dimorphic head and pronotum. For characters separating it from the similar A. iberica see the comparative notes in the following section.
Distribution and natural history: Confirmed records of this rare species are known from South Italy, the Balkans, and Turkey (Map 4). Thus, the distribution is evidently of the Ponto-Mediterranean type sensu LATTIN (1967). According to SCHÜLKE & SMETANA (2015), A. laevigata has also been recorded from Uzbekistan, but this record most likely refers to A. nigerrima. HORION (1967) reports three records from southern Austria (Kärnten, Steiermark) communicated to him by Otto Scheerpeltz. However, there is no reference material whatsoever in the collections of the NHMW, so that these records are considered erroneous.
Most of the recently collected, revised specimens were collected on the banks of rivers and streams, usually from gravel, whereas HORION (1967) states that A. laevigata lives in swamps.
description: Published as part of Assing, Volker, 2016, Revision of the Anaulacaspis species of the Palaearctic region (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae), pp. 201-255 in Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 66 (2) on pages 241-243, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.66.2.201-255, http://zenodo.org/record/5212606