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

description: Zyras (Zyras) titan spec. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 04E2A49E-E856-490E-AAB3-333A8F481D98
(Figs 41, 76, 113, 245–249)
Type material: Holotype ♂: “ INDONESIA: SULAWESI UTARA, Dumoga-Bone N.P., 26 February 1985. / Plot A, ca 200 m, lowland forest / Flight interception trap 2 / R.Ent.Soc. Lond., Project Wallace, B.M. 1985-10 / 29.16 / Holotypus ♂ Zyras titan sp. n., det. V. Assing 2016” (BMNH). Paratypes: 1 ♂: same data as holotype, but “ 24 February 1985.” (cAss); 2 ♀♀: same data as holotype, but “ April 1985.” (BMNH).
Etymology: The specific epithet (noun in apposition) alludes to the conspicuously large size of this species. Titans in Greek mythology are giants.
Description: Very large species; body length 9.5–11.0 mm; length of forebody 4.0– 4.3 mm. Coloration (Figs 41, 76, 113): head and pronotum reddish to reddish-brown, pronotum sometimes with paler lateral margins; elytra pale-reddish, occasionally with the lateral margins slightly darker; abdomen with tergites II–VI dark-reddish to brown with the posterior margin broadly pale-reddish, tergites VII–VIII reddish; antennae brown to dark-brown with the basal three antennomeres palereddish and the apical 2–3 antennomeres dark-yellowish; maxillary palpi reddish.
Head (Fig. 76) strongly transverse, extensively impunctate along middle; lateral dorsal portions with sparse and coarse punctation. Eyes large and bulging, more than twice as long as postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna (Fig. 41) 3.1–3.3 mm long; antennomeres IV weakly oblong, V weakly oblong or approximately as long as broad, VI approximately as broad as long or weakly transverse, VII–X of gradually increasing width and increasingly transverse, X approximately 1.5 times as broad as long, and XI as long as the combined length of VIII–X, or nearly so.
Pronotum (Fig. 76) rather weakly transverse, 1.07– 1.09 times as broad as long and approximately 1.27 times as broad as head, broadest in anterior half; lateral margins straight in posterior two-thirds (dorsal view); punctation coarse, dense, and somewhat irregularly distributed; laterally with impunctate patches; midline moderately broadly impunctate; lateral margins each with approximately eight stout, long, and erect black setae; anterior and posterior margins, too, with stout, long, and erect black setae; pubescence of disc pale, fine, moderately long, and sub-erect.
Elytra (Fig. 76) approximately 0.8 times as long as pronotum; punctation dense, near scutellum and anterior portion of suture very dense, asperate, and somewhat granulose. Hind wings fully developed. Metatarsomere I as long as, or longer than the combined length of II–IV.
Abdomen (Fig. 113) narrower than elytra, with deep anterior impressions on tergites III–V; tergites III–V each with a transverse row of coarse non-setiferous punctures in anterior impressions, with a transverse row of usually four setiferous punctures across the middle, and with four to six setiferous punctures at posterior margins; tergite VI with a transverse band of coarse non-setiferous punctures anteriorly, with a transverse row of four setiferous punctures at posterior third, and with six setiferous punctures at posterior margin; tergite VII with a transverse band of coarse non-setiferous punctures anteriorly and with two transverse rows of setiferous punctures posteriorly, posterior margin with palisade fringe; tergite VIII (Fig. 248) with approximately 20 long black setae posteriorly, posterior margin truncate or weakly concave in the middle.
♂: sternite VIII (Fig. 249) with numerous long black setae in posterior half, posterior margin convex; median lobe of aedeagus (Figs 245–246) approximately 1.2 mm long and of robust shape; ventral process basally with a pair of pronounced carinae; paramere (Fig. 247) as long as median lobe and with very small apical lobe with long setae.
Comparative notes: This species is characterized by its conspicuously large size, coarse punctation, its coloration, the punctation pattern of the pronotum, and by the male sexual characters. It is distinguished from the similarly large Z. preangeranus by the coloration (Z. preangeranus: antennomeres I–VII blackish; head much darker than the pronotum; abdominal segments II–V reddish), much coarser punctation of the forebody, less slender antennomeres IV–X, a completely different punctation pattern of the abdomen, and by a more robust aedeagus with a ventral process of completely different shape. For illustrations of Z. preangeranus see ASSING (2016a) and Figs 276–277.
Distribution and natural history: The type locality is identical to that of Z. densissimus. The type specimens were collected with flight interception traps in lowland forest at an altitude of 200 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 161-164, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.67.1.117-192, http://zenodo.org/record/5742363