Rabdotodrusilla vara Assing 2017, spec. nov.
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Rabdotodrusilla
Rabdotodrusilla vara

description: Rabdotodrusilla vara spec. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: EF92FF0F-0E13-4BCB-9D20-270262CA9D76
(Figs 8, 41–42, 166–169)
Type material: Holotype ♂: “ INDIA: Meghalaya #10, Ri Boi dist., Umran, 700 m, 22.X.2004, 25°46'28"N, 91°52'26"E / Leg. G. Cuccodoro, C. Carlton, R. Leschen & D. Erne / Holotypus ♂ Rabdotodrusilla vara sp. n., det. V. Assing 2016” (MHNG).
Etymology: The specific epithet (Latin, adjective: banded, striped) alludes to the coloration of the abdomen.
Description: Body length 4.1 mm; length of forebody 1.8 mm. Coloration (Figs 8, 41–42): head and pronotum reddish; elytra brown with the humeral portions paler; abdomen: tergites II–IV yellowish, posterior portions of paratergites III and IV infuscate, tergite V yellowish with the posterior margins and the posterior portions of the paratergites blackish, tergite VI blackish with the antero-lateral portions and the anterior portions of the paratergites yellowish; tergite VII yellowish with the posterior third slightly darker, tergite VIII yellowish, sternite VIII with the anterior two-fifths yellowish and the posterior three-fifths dark-brown; legs yellowish with the tibiae and the apical portions of the meso- and metafemora somewhat darker; antennae reddish with the basal two antennomeres dark-yellowish; maxillary palpi dark-yellowish with the terminal palpomere pale-yellowish.
Head (Fig. 41) 1.15 times as broad as long, broadest across eyes; posterior angles moderately marked; punctation moderately dense and extremely fine; pubescence pale, very thin, and depressed; interstices without microreticulation. Eyes strongly convex, more than twice as long as postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna (Fig. 8) 1.1 mm long; antennomere III elongate and compressed; antennomeres IV weakly transverse, V–X of gradually increasing width and increasingly transverse, X less than 1.5 times as broad as long, and XI approximately as long as the combined length of IX and X.
Pronotum (Fig. 41) 1.05 times as long as broad and 1.1 times as broad as head; lateral margins sinuate in dorsal view; disc matt and with dense, long, and straight longitudinal striae except near anterior margin, anteromedially with granulose punctuation, antero-laterally with non-granulose punctation.
Elytra (Fig. 41) 0.67 times as long as pronotum; punctation fine and dense; interstices without microreticulation. Hind wings fully developed. Metatarsomere I as long as the combined length of II and III.
Abdomen (Fig. 42) narrower than elytra; tergites III–IV with moderately deep, tergite V with shallow anterior impressions; tergites III–VI with a lateral setiferous puncture on either side and few punctures at posterior margins, otherwise impunctate; tergite VIII with sparse punctation in posterior third; microsculpture absent; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe; posterior margin of tergite VIII (Fig. 166) conspicuously pectinate.
♂: posterior margin of sternite VIII (Fig. 167) broadly convex; median lobe of aedeagus approximately 0.6 mm long and shaped as in Figs 168–169.
♀: unknown.
Comparative notes: Rabdotodrusilla vara is distinguished from R. pectinata ASSING, 2006, its geographically closest congener, by smaller body size, distinctly shorter and less massive antennae with a much shorter antennomere XI, much smaller eyes, distinctly finer striae on the distinctly more slender pronotum, a more slender abdomen of completely different coloration, a posteriorly truncate tergite VIII, and by the shape of the median lobe of the aedeagus, particularly the sinuate ventral process in lateral view. For illustrations of R. pectinata see ASSING (2016b).
Distribution and natural history: The type locality is situated in Meghalaya, Northeast India, at an altitude of 700 m.
3.9 Genus Witteia MARUYAMA & VON BEEREN, 2010
This recently described genus belongs to the Wroughtonilla genus group and previously included two species, the type species W. dentilabrum MARUYAMA & VON BEEREN, 2010 (associated with the ant Leptogenys distinguenda (EMERY, 1887)) from Peninsular Malaysia and W. borneensis (PACE, 1987) (host ant unknown) from Borneo and Myanmar (MARUYAMA et al. 2010).
description: Published as part of Assing, Volker, 2017, On the Lomechusini fauna of the East Palaearctic and Oriental regions, with a focus on the genera Orphnebius and Amaurodera (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae), pp. 63-106 in Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 67 (1) on pages 102-103, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.67.1.063-106, http://zenodo.org/record/5742262