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

description: Zyras (Zyras) hirtus (KRAATZ, 1859)
(Figs 21, 59, 95, 170–173, Map 7)
Myrmedonia hirta KRAATZ, 1859: 25.
Comment: The female holotype from “Ceylon” was revised by ASSING (2016a), who reported additional records from Sri Lanka and South India.
Material examined: India: 1 ♂, Madras, 15 km E Coonoor, 800 m, 19.XI.1972, leg. Besuchet, Löbl & Mussard (MHNG).
Redescription: Rather large species: body length 6.4–7.8 mm; length of forebody 2.7–3.5 mm. Coloration (Figs 21, 59, 95): body pale-reddish to reddish-brown, rarely with abdominal segment VI somewhat darker; legs yellowish; antennae brown to blackish, with the basal 1–2 and the apical 1–4 antennomeres yellowish to pale reddish; maxillary palpi dark-yellowish with palpomere IV paler yellowish.
Head (Fig. 59) distinctly transverse, median portion extensively impunctate; punctures in lateral portions moderately sparse and moderately coarse; pubescence long and sub-erect to erect. Eyes much longer than postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna (Fig. 21) 1.8–2.2 mm long and distinctly incrassate; antennomeres IV weakly oblong to weakly transverse, V as long as broad or weakly transverse, VI–X of increasing width and increasingly transverse, 2.0–2.5 times as broad as long, and XI short, shorter than the combined length of IX and X.
Pronotum (Fig. 59) of variable shape, 1.09–1.21 times as broad as long and approximately 1.3 times as broad as head, broadest in anterior half; punctation rather dense, very shallow, and regularly distributed; midline narrowly to broadly impunctate; pubescence suberect and rather long, pale on disc, brown and longer along lateral margins and in antero-lateral portion.
Elytra (Fig. 59) 0.85–0.90 times as long as pronotum; punctation rather fine, very dense, and shallow, regularly distributed; whole disc with dense and long sub-erect brown pubescence. Hind wings fully developed. Metatarsomere I approximately as long as, or shorter than the combined length of II–IV.
Abdomen (Fig. 95) approximately as broad as elytra, with rather deep anterior impressions on tergites III–V; anterior impressions of tergites III–V each with a transverse row of moderately coarse non-setiferous punctures; tergites III–V with moderately dense and fine setiferous punctation on disc and at posterior margins; tergite VI with a transverse row or band of non-setiferous punctures anteriorly and with moderately dense setiferous punctation on disc and at posterior margin; tergite VII with more or less extensive non-setiferous punctation anteriorly and with moderately sparse to moderately dense setiferous punctation not arranged in distinct rows in posterior portion, posterior margin with palisade fringe; tergite VIII with rather dense and long yellowish setae in posterior half, posterior margin shallowly concave in the middle; all sternites with long brown pubescence.
♂: posterior margin of sternite VIII convex, in the middle more or less distinctly truncate; median lobe of aedeagus (Figs 170–173) 0.88–1.0 mm long; ventral process subapically angled and apically very acute in lateral view; paramere 0.75–0.80 mm long and with very short and broad apical lobe.
♀: posterior margin of sternite VIII weakly concave in the middle.
Intraspecific variation: The examined specimens from South India differ from those from Sri Lanka by distinctly darker antennae with less transverse antennomeres V–X, a less transverse pronotum, and slightly larger body size. The median lobe of the aedeagus, however, is of nearly identical shape. Therefore, and in view of the rather few specimens examined so far, these differences are interpreted as intra- rather than interspecific variation.
Comparative notes: Zyras hirtus is readily distinguished from other species of the Z. hirtus group recorded from India and Sri Lanka by the more or less uniformly reddish coloration of the body, by distinctly transverse preapical antennomeres, by the punctation pattern of the abdomen (particularly the rather dense setiferous punctation on all tergites), and by the shape of the median lobe of the aedeagus.
Distribution and natural history: The confirmed distribution is confined to Sri Lanka and South India (Map 7). For additional records see ASSING (2016a). The altitudes of the known localities range from 300 to 900 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 pages 142-143, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.67.1.117-192, http://zenodo.org/record/5742363