Ocypus (Pseudocypus) picipennis Fabricius 1793
Creators: name: Smetana, Aleš
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Ocypus
Ocypus picipennis

description: Ocypus (Pseudocypus) picipennis (Fabricius, 1793)
(Figs. 1–7)
picipennis Fabricius, 1793, 521 (Staphylinus).
Smetana & Davies, 2000, 44 (Ocypus; subg. Pseudocypus); Herman, 2001, 3405 (Ocypus, complete synonymy and secondary references included); Smetana, 2004, 678 (Ocypus; subg. Pseudocypus, complete synonymy included).
Type material. Fabricius (1793: 521) described the species from specimen(s) from Germany: “Habitat in Germania Mus. Dom. de Sehestedt.” I have not seen the type material; the concept of the species is the one commonly used by all authors; there is hardly any doubt that this concept is correct.
Material studied. CHINA: Xinjiang: “ China occ., 26– 31.7.1991, Boro Horo Shan, Jining, Ining-H- Sien, 44°06’N 81°56’E, lgt. Snížek” (1) (MSC); “Borohoroshan, Houxia, VI.[19]99" (2) (ASC); “ CHINA, Xinjiang, Borohoro Shan, Houxia, VI.[19]99” (1) (ASC); “ 2000–2500 m, NE slope of Tian Shan, 15– 17.5.1993, road Urumqi–Houxia, 60 km SW Urumqi, J. Kaláb leg.” (2) (ASC, NMW); “ 1500–2000 m, NW slope of Bogda Shan, 115 km E Urumqi, 10 km N Tianchi, 18–19.V.1993, Jaroslav Turna leg.” (2) (ASC, NMW); 70 km S Urumqi, 6 km S Bayangou, 2900–3000 m, 27–28.VI.2006, S. Murzin & I. Shokhin” (1) (MSC); “VIII.[19]86, Xinjiang: Nanshan, Rougemont” (1) (GRC); “Xinjiang, 70 km SW Urumqi, VIII.1982, G. de Rougemont” (1) (ASC); “Xinjiang, Tianchi” (1) (NMW); “Xinjian Tienshi, VIII.[19]86, Rougemont” (1) (ASC); “Xinjiang” (3) (ASC, NMW).
Description. Black, head and pronotum with slight to moderate bronze to greenish-bronze metallic lustre, moderately shiny; elytra black, piceous to rufobrunneous, more or less dull, with slight dark metallic lustre apparent mainly on dark colored elytra; abdomen piceous to black; pubescence on head and pronotum piceous, piceous to brownish or reddish-brown on elytra, pubescence of abdomen piceous, with five continuous longitudinal stripes of paler, brownish, reddish-brown to yellowish-brown pubescence; maxillary and labial palpi piceous to brunneous, antennae piceous to brunneous, becoming more or less paler toward apex; legs piceous to dark brunneous with paler tarsi. Head of rounded quadrangular shape, with obtuse to rounded posterior angles, variably wider than long (ratios 1.20 to 1.25), eyes moderately large, rather flat, tempora somewhat longer than eyes from above (ratios around 1.20); dorsal surface of head finely and densely punctate, interspaces between punctures on disc about as large as diameters of punctures, punctation gradually becoming slightly denser toward posterior and lateral margins; trace of impunctate midline present on posterior half of head; interspaces between punctures without microsculpture. Dorsal side of neck with punctation similar to that on head. Antenna moderately long, segment 3 longer than segment 2 (ratio 1. 18), segments 4 to 8 distinctly longer than wide, becoming gradually shorter, segments 9 and 10 about as long as wide, last segment short, considerably shorter that two preceding segments combined. Female antenna shorter, with middle segments markedly shorter. Pronotum about as wide as long, subparallelsided, moderately convex, narrow marginal groove disappearing downwards at about anterior third of pronotal length; impunctate narrow midline complete, punctation on disc very fine and dense, appreciably finer and denser than that on disc of head, irregular longitudinal row of coarse punctures along each side of impunctate midline. Pronotal hypomeron without microsetae. Scutellum densely punctate and setose, with black tomentose pubescence on apical half. Elytra moderately long, vaguely dilated posteriad, at suture about as long as, at sides vaguely longer than pronotum at midline (ratio 1.08); punctation very fine and very dense, granulose, elytra therefore appearing rather dull. Wings moderately developed, each folded under elytron, probably not functional. Abdomen with fifth visible tergite with pale apical seam of palisade setae; tergite 2 (in front of first visible tergite) finely and densely punctate and pubescent on about apical third; all tergites evenly, densely and very finely punctate; interspaces with very fine, dense submeshed microsculpture.
Male. Sternite 8 with shallow, obtusely triangular medioapical emargination. Genital segment with tergite 10 as in Fig. 1; sternite 9 with narrow, long basal portion, apical portion densely, finely setose except asetose on basal third, apex finely notched in middle (Fig.2). Aedoeagus (Figs.3–6) large and voluminous; median lobe in ventral view markedly dilated anteriorly, with apex shaped as in Fig. 3. Paramere large, in ventral view asymmetricaly dilated in apical half, with apex variably obtuse, subtruncate to truncate; underside of paramere lacking sensory peg setae, three or four apical setae minute, situated at apical margin of paramere (Fig. 6).
Female. Tergite 10 of genital segment large, apical portion long, with subacute apex (Fig. 7).
Body length 11.0–18.0 mm (see Recognition and comments).
Geographical distribution. Ocypus picipennis has a transpalaearctic distribution, ranging from western Europe (not in Great Britain) through the southern portions of northern Europe, middle and southern Europe, eastern Europe, Asia Minor and Central Asia all the way to Xinjiang in mainland China.
Bionomics. Ocypus picipennis occurs within its large distributional range in a wide variety of habitats, from lowland to subalpine/alpine meadows, e.g., up to 2700 m in Erciyas dağ in Turkey (Smetana 1967a: 557). It prefers open country habitats, such as meadows, pastures, farmland, dry stony slopes, ruderal areas, etc. Less frequently in open forest habitats. No habitat data are available for the Chinese specimens studied.
Recognition and comments. Ocypus picipennis displays distinct variability affecting mainly the body size, the smallest specimen known to me (from Egribel Pass, 2000–2400 m, in Anatolia, Asia Minor) is only 11.0 mm long, the shape of the aedoeagus (within certain general plan), the coloration of the appendages, and the coloration of the elytra (see above). On the other hand, the punctation and pubescence of the head and pronotum seem to be reasonably constant. Within the mainland China fauna, O. picipennis may be confused only with O. helleni, but the two species may be easily distinguished by the shapes of the aedoeagi (see Figs. 3, 10), and those of tergites 10 of the female genital segments (Figs. 7, 14).
description: Published as part of Smetana, Aleš, 2009, Contributions to the knowledge of the " Staphylinus-complex " (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylinini) of China. Part 21. The genus Ocypus Leach, 1819, subgenus Pseudocypus Mulsant & Rey, 1876. Section 4, pp. 1-30 in Zootaxa 2286 on pages 3-5, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.191273