Alloraphes Franz
Creators: name: Jałoszyński, Paweł
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Alloraphes

description: Alloraphes Franz
Alloraphes Franz, 1980a: 212. Type species: Alloraphes jamaicae Franz, 1980 a (orig. des.).
Revised diagnosis. Male: head approximately subtriangular, with vertex not expanded dorso-caudad; occipital constriction only slightly narrower than vertex; thick and long bristles absent on head but present on sides of prothorax; frontoclypeal groove absent; posterior margins of eyes adjacent or nearly adjacent to occipital constriction; submentum demarcated laterally from hypostomae by sutures; maxillary palpomere III strongly elongate; palpomere IV nearly 4x as long as broad at base; antennae with indistinctly delimited club composed of antennomeres IX–XI; pronotum with variously distinct lateral edges visible in its posterior part; base of pronotum with transverse groove connected at each end to shallow lateral impression or pit, without sub-lateral carinae; basisternal part of prosternum much shorter than procoxal cavities; prosternum with narrow and weakly protruding intercoxal process with rounded apex; prothoracic hypomeral ridges complete; pronotosternal sutures entire; mesoventral intercoxal process long, narrow and weakly expanding ventrally (not keel-shaped); mesoventrite with asetose lateral impressions behind anterior ridge, without setose impressions; mesothorax without lateral foveae; mesocoxal projection with protruding posterior lobe; metacoxae narrowly separated by subtriangular metaventral intercoxal process with narrow and long median notch; each elytron with two asetose rudiments of basal foveae; aedeagus asymmetrical at least in its apical region, with basal pumping apparatus composed of flexible membranous area bearing median lentiform sclerotization extending internally as axial apophysis to which oblique longitudinal muscles are attached. Female with globular sclerotized spermatheca.
Redescription. Body of males (Figs. 1–4, 6, 8–11) moderately to strongly convex, elongate and slender, with moderately long appendages, BL 0.64–1.08 mm (A. magnus 1.25 mm, but the generic status of this species is unclear); cuticle glossy, brown, covered with sparse to moderately dense setae.
Head (Figs. 13, 22) with anterior part (in front of occipital constriction) subtriangular, with large eyes; occipital constriction (Figs. 13, 22; occ) only slightly narrower than vertex; tempora (Figs. 13, 22; tm) short or in some species absent, without bristles; vertex broader than long, convex, not projecting dorso-caudad; frons transverse and subtriangular, often with variously distinct posterior impression or groove; frontoclypeal groove absent; antennal insertions broadly separated.
Labrum (Fig. 15) transverse with rounded anterior margin, with median transverse row of four setae and two antero-lateral groups of four setae, without antero-median peg-like sensilla.
Mandibles (Figs. 14, 16; md) slightly asymmetrical, subtriangular, each with broad base, robust and curved mesally apical tooth, small median tooth (Fig. 16; mt) with one apex on left mandible and two apices on right mandible, short prostheca (Fig. 16; pst) provided with a row of short and dense trichia and two long setae on external margin in sub-basal region.
Each maxilla (Fig. 14) with subtriangular basistipes (Fig. 14; bst), elongate galea (Fig. 14; gal) and lacinia (Fig. 14; lac) and strongly elongate and large maxillary palp (Fig. 14; mxp) composed of elongate palpomere I, strongly elongate, pedunculate and slender palpomere II, large and strongly elongate palpomere III broadest near middle, and long, slender, subconical and pointed palpomere IV with indistinctly delimited apical part.
Labium (Figs. 14, 22) with long hexagonal submentum (Figs. 14, 22; smn) demarcated posteriorly from gular plate by deep groove and laterally demarcated from long postcardinal parts of hypostomae by lateral sutures (Figs. 14, 22; lss); subtrapezoidal mentum (Figs. 14, 22; mn); and short prementum (Fig. 22; pmn) bearing narrowly separated at bases long 3-segmented labial palps (Figs. 14, 22; lp) and a pair of long median bristles. Hypostomal ridges (Figs. 14, 22; hr) long and extending to anterior margin of gular plate.
Gular plate (Figs. 14, 22; gp) large and distinctly narrowing anterad; gular sutures (Figs. 14, 22; gs) distinct and entire; posterior tentorial pits indiscernible in ventral view, hidden in deep transverse groove demarcating base of submentum from gular plate.
Antennae (Figs. 1–12) slender, with indistinctly delimited club composed of antennomeres IX–XI.
Pronotum (Figs. 1–12) in dorsal view approximately bell-shaped, broadest in anterior part, with rounded anterior margin and anterior parts of lateral margins, without anterior angles, with variously distinct constriction near base, distinct hind angles and arcuate posterior margin; lateral marginal carinae variously developed, either as distinct edges visible in posterior half of pronotum, or as indistinct rounded margins discernible only in posterior fourth of pronotal sides; base of pronotum with distinct and long transverse groove connected at each side to shallow lateral impression or pit and in some species with variously distinct, usually small median pit; sub-lateral carinae absent; sides of pronotum with dense, thick and long bristles (Figs. 17, 23; in dry-mounted specimens often broken off).
Prosternum (Figs. 17, 23) with short basisternal part (Figs. 17, 23; bst) indistinctly demarcated from procoxal cavities (Figs. 17, 23; pcc); median part of sternum with narrow and weakly protruding ventrally prosternal intercoxal process (Figs. 17, 23; psp) with rounded apex; procoxal sockets (Figs. 17, 23; pcs) closed by narrow postero-lateral lobes of prosternum; hypomera (Figs. 17, 23; hy) elongate, each divided into broad lateral part confluent with pronotum and narrow internal (adcoxal) part; hypomeral ridges (Figs. 17, 23; hyr) complete; pronotosternal sutures (Figs. 17, 23; nss) entire.
Mesonotum (Fig. 20) small, subtriagular, with transverse mesoscutum (Fig. 20; sc2), distinct mesoscutoscutellar suture (Fig. 20; sss), and subtriangular mesocutellum (Fig. 20; scl2) with rounded apex, in intact specimens well visible between bases of elytra.
Mesoventrite (Figs. 18, 19, 24) with narrow anterior ridge (Figs. 18, 19, 24; ar); mesoventral intercoxal process (Figs. 18, 19, 24; msvp) narrow and moderately expanding ventrally, anteriorly connected with anterior ridge; lateral asetose impressions (Figs. 18, 19, 24; ai) present, subtriangular; mesanepisternum with relatively short prepectus (Figs. 18, 19, 24; pre) and posterior part (Figs. 18, 19, 24; aest2) largely visible in ventral view; mesepimeron not visible in ventral view; sides of mesothorax without foveae; mesocoxal projections (Figs. 18, 19, 24; mcp) prominent, with mesocoxal sockets (Figs. 18, 19, 24; mscs) located on their mesoventral surface and with exposed large posterior lobes (Figs. 18, 19, 24; pl) bearing several bristles.
Metaventrite (Figs. 18, 21, 24; v3) subrectangular to slightly transverse, anteriorly fused with mesoventrite, with short but distinct metaventral anterior process (Figs. 19, 24; mtap) anteriorly connected with apex of mesoventral intercoxal process; posteriorly metaventrite shallowly bisinuate and with subtriangular median metaventral intercoxal process (Figs. 18, 21, 24; mtvp) deeply and narrowly notched in middle. Metanepisterna and metepimera (Fig. 24; aest3, epm3) narrow.
Metafurca (Fig. 24) with very short and broad stalk and divergent lateral furcal arms (Fig. 8; mtfa).
Elytra (Figs. 1–12, 20) oval, each with two asetose rudiments of basal foveae (Fig. 20; bf), without basal impression; humeral calli distinct and developed as longitudinal protuberances; sub-humeral lines (Fig. 20; shl) distinct in most species, variously long. In males of some species elytra variously modified, with apices slightly protruding posteriorly and flattened or impressed, or with posterolateral elongate impressions.
Hind wings well-developed, about twice as long as elytra.
Legs (Figs. 1–12, 23, 24) moderately long and slender; procoxae subglobose, mesocoxae oval, metacoxae strongly transverse; all trochanters short; all femora weakly clavate; tibiae long and straight; tarsi slender.
Abdominal sternites (Fig. 25) unmodified, suture between VII and VIII indistinct.
Aedeagus (Figs. 27–34, 36–51, 53–60) asymmetrical, narrowing toward base and apex, with variously developed assemblage of apical projections (Figs. 29, 46; ap) usually protruding distally; base of median lobe with pumping apparatus (Figs. 27, 48; bpa) composed of membranous area with median lentiform sclerotization protruding inside aedeagus as axial apophysis to which oblique longitudinal muscles are attached and extend to aedeagal walls; parameres long and free (i.e., not fused with median lobe), often variously broadened in distal part, with various number of apical and sub-apical setae.
Spermatheca (Figs. 35, 52; sp) sclerotized and globular, located near base of abdomen.
Distribution and composition. Alloraphes comprises nine species that can be unambiguously attributed to this genus and one that requires further study to verify its generic placement. They are distributed in Central and South America: in southern Mexico, Jamaica, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia and southern Brazil, but not known from the central and northern part of Brazil (Fig. 68).
Remarks. Alloraphes was originally diagnosed as a genus similar to Neuraphes and Scydmoraphes, but with the aedeagus, maxillary palpomere III and the humeral region of elytra different than in those two genera (Franz 1980a). Species of Alloraphes indeed highly resemble small Scydmoraphes (more than Neuraphes, which has the ante-basal pronotal groove interrupted in middle and a single large and setose basal fovea on each elytron). While the palpal and elytral characters mentioned by Franz (1980a) are not unique for Alloraphes, this genus clearly differs from all similar cyrtoscydmines in the structure of the median lobe of aedeagus, which has the basal pumping apparatus and free parameres. Besides the aedeagus, Alloraphes can be distinguished from Scydmoraphes on the basis of two barely discernible rudiments of basal elytral foveae (a single distinct asetose fovea in Scydmoraphes) and absence of setose impressions of mesoventrite (distinct setose impressions in Scydmoraphes).
Alloraphes, Stenichnaphes and Parastenichnaphes show a very uniform external morphology and at the current stage of study on Cyrtoscydmini, when Stenichnaphes has not been yet adequately revised, the most reliable character to identify each of these genera is the aedeagus. As noted by Franz (1989), Stenichnaphes has the aedeagus somewhat similar to that of many species of Euconnus, with a large, complicated and asymmetrical set of elongate internal sclerites and the parameres slender and not fused to the median lobe (e.g., Franz 1980b; Fig. 1), and without the basal pumping apparatus. Alloraphes and Parastenichnaphes share the basal lentiform sclerotization of the aedeagus, but clearly differ in the parameres: Alloraphes has variously shaped but always long and free parameres, while Parastenichnaphes has the aedeagus devoid of parameres. The latter genus, after restituting P. myrmecophilus as Alloraphes, where it was originally placed (Franz 1980a), includes only two Oriental species revised by Jałoszyński (2005).
Unidentifiable females of Cyrtoscydmini highly similar to the Alloraphes - Parastenichnaphes - Stenichnaphes complex were mentioned by Franz (1989) to occur also in Kenya, and during the present study a female from Bali, Indonesia, attributable to this group of genera, was seen.
description: Published as part of Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2013, Revision of the Neotropical genus Alloraphes Franz (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), pp. 549-568 in Zootaxa 3750 (5) on pages 551-555, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3750.5.7, http://zenodo.org/record/217852