Zyras (Zyras) kinabaluensis Pace 2008
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Zyras
Zyras kinabaluensis

description: Zyras (Zyras) kinabaluensis PACE, 2008
(Figs 4, 21, 44)
Zyras (Zyras) kinabaluensis PACE, 2008: 148.
Type material examined: Holotype ♂: “♂ / SABAH, Mt. Kinabalu, 1500 m, 21.V.1987, Burckhardt - Löbl / Holotypus Zyras kinabaluensis mihi, det. R. Pace 2000 / Zyras kinabaluensis n. sp., det. R. Pace 2000 / MHNG ENTO 00010003 / Zyras kinabaluensis Pace, det. V. Assing 2017” (MHNG).
Comment: The original description is based on a unique male from “ Sabah, Mt. Kinabalu ” (PACE 2008).
Redescription: Moderately small species; body length 5.7 mm; length of forebody 2.4 mm. Coloration (Figs 4, 21, 44): body brown with the anterior portions of the paratergites slightly paler; legs yellow with the apical halves of the metafemora slightly darker; antennae and maxillary palpi yellowish.
Head (Fig. 21) moderately transverse, median portion extensively impunctate; punctures in lateral portions coarse and sparse. Eyes moderately large, slightly longer than postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna (Fig. 4) moderately long and rather slender, 2.2 mm long; antennomeres IV more than 1.5 times as long as broad, V–VIII of gradually decreasing length and decreasingly oblong, VIII weakly oblong, IX approximately as long as broad, X weakly transverse, and XI short, distinctly shorter than the combined length of IX and X.
Pronotum (Fig. 21) slender, 1.07 times as broad as long and 1.11 times as broad as head, broadest near anterior angles, rather strongly convex in cross-section; lateral margins weakly sinuate in posterior third in dorsal view; posterior angles obtusely marked; punctation dense, coarse, and somewhat irregularly distributed; impunctate median band moderately broad.
Elytra (Fig. 21) very short, 0.65 times as long as pronotum; punctation moderately dense, very coarse, slightly less dense posteriorly than anteriorly. Hind wings completely reduced. Legs long and slender; metatarsomere I slender, nearly as long as the combined length of II–IV.
Abdomen (Fig. 44) slightly broader than elytra, with deep anterior impressions on tergites III–V; anterior impressions of tergites III–V each with a transverse row of distinct non-setiferous punctures, with a lateral puncture on either side, and with six (tergites III and IV) or eight (tergite V) setiferous punctures bearing black setae at or near posterior margin; tergite VI with a narrow transverse band of non-setiferous punctures anteriorly and with two transverse series of setiferous punctures bearing dark setae posteriorly; tergite VII with nonsetiferous punctures anteriorly and with two transverse series of setiferous punctures posteriorly, posterior margin with narrow palisade fringe; tergite VIII with setiferous punctation only in posterior third, posterior margin convex.
♂: median lobe of aedeagus 0.75 mm long; ventral process of distinctive shape, rather broad in ventral view (PACE 2008: figures 98–99); paramere 0.85 mm long, apical lobe rather short, flattened and apically broadly convex to obliquely truncate.
♀: unknown.
Comparative notes: Based on the slender habitus, the slender antennae, and the morphology of the aedeagus, Z. kinabaluensis is closely allied to Z. nitens, Z. nigerrimus, and related species. It is readily distinguished from all other Zyras sensu strictu species recorded from the Sunda Islands by much shorter elytra, completely reduced hind wings, and by the shape of the median lobe of the aedeagus. In addition, it is characterized by the coloration of the legs and the antennae and by the punctation pattern of the abdomen.
Distribution: The type locality is situated in Mount Kinabalu (Malaysia: Sabah) at an altitude of 1500 m.
description: Published as part of Assing, Volker, 2017, On Zyras sensu strictu in the East Palaearctic and Oriental regions III, with a focus on the Southeast of Continental Asia and the Sunda Islands (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae: Lomechusini), pp. 213-246 in Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 67 (2) on page 231, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.67.2.213-246, http://zenodo.org/record/5742339