Stenomastigus pseudofranzi Jałoszyński, 2012, sp. n.
Creators: name: Jałoszyński, Paweł
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Stenomastigus
Stenomastigus pseudofranzi

description: Stenomastigus pseudofranzi sp. n.
(Figs. 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13–16, 21, 22)
Type material. Holotype: 3: three labels: "S.Afr; Zululand / Mtubatuba-Dukuduku / 28.22S - 32.19E " [white, printed], " 5.4.1974;E-Y:327 / beaten, indig. forest / leg. Endrödy-Younga" [white, printed], " STENOMASTIGUS / pseudofranzi m. / det. P. JAŁOSZYŃSKI, '12 / HOLOTYPUS " [red, printed] (TMSA). Paratypes: 13, 5ƤƤ, same data as for the holotype, all with additional label " STENOMASTIGUS / pseudofranzi m. / det. P. JAŁOSZYŃSKI, '12 / PARATYPUS " [yellow, printed] (TMSA, cPJ).
Diagnosis. Male (Fig. 1): pronotum and elytra burnt umber brown, head slightly darker; protrochanters (Fig. 7) with only slightly projecting apical part; profemora (Fig. 7) in lateral view with very shallow ventral subapical emargination and nearly straight dorsal margin; aedeagus (Figs. 9, 10, 13–16, 21, 22) in abparameral view with strong constriction between basal capsule and base of copulatory piece, long paramere slightly recurved; in left lateral view long paramere parallel-sided nearly from base to apex, evenly curved and with very short, rounded parameral tooth. Females (Fig. 2) pigmented as males, with moderately broad elytra and very distinct, sharply defined basal protuberance delimiting strongly elongated subbasal impression, elytral suture in posterior half indistinctly raised, elytral apex in lateral view blunt (Fig. 5).
Description. Body of male (Fig. 1) long and slender, with extremely long appendages, BL 3.35–3.45 mm (mean 3.39 mm); coloration burnt umber brown, elytra slightly (barely noticeably) lighter; vestiture silverish.
Head broadest at eyes, HL 0.55–0.60 mm (mean 0.58 mm), HW 0.60–0.64 mm (mean 0.61 mm); occipital constriction distinctly broader than 0.5 × HW; vertex more than twice as broad as long, distinctly concave in middle, with posterior margin bearing broad subtriangular median emargination extended anterad by median longitudinal groove anteriorly reaching or slightly surpassing the level of posterior margin of eyes, lateral parts of vertex convex; frons about as long as broad, impressed between convex supraantennal tubercles, its anterior part located anterad antennal insertions convex and as narrow as width of supraantennal tubercle; median part of vertex and frons uniformly covered with fine microsculpture composed of microgranules that give a matt appearance, sides of vertex with sparse and very shallow but distinct large punctures; vestiture extremely short but dense, composed of recumbent setae except for several long and suberect setae located on the anteromedian expansion of frons and directed anteriorly; clypeus nearly four times as broad as long, with nearly straight anterior margin and glossy surface with only traces of microsculpture and transverse row of several very long, thick and erect macrosetae directed anterad; labrum slightly more than 2.5 × as broad as long, with distinct median emargination and glossy surface bearing row of several very long, curved and thick macrosetae directed anteriorly. Eyes large and coarsely faceted, each oval and elongate in lateral view, slightly shorter than temple. Antennae very slender, distinctly longer than body, AnL 3.99 mm, lengths of antennomeres (from I to XI): 0.85 mm, 0.48 mm, 0.30 mm, 0.29 mm, 0.30 mm, 0.29 mm, 0.35 mm, 0.32 mm, 0.28 mm, 0.25 mm, 0.30 mm; scape and pedicel strongly thickened, all flagellomeres very thin and hardly noticeably thickening towards antennal apex; scape about 6 × as long as broad, distinctly broadened near distal third, with two longitudinal ventral setal rows each composed of 6 very long, thick and strongly erect bristles and with surface covered uniformly with moderately sparse, short suberect and very short recumbent setae; pedicel 5 × as long as broad, with two longitudinal ventral setal rows each composed of 3 long bristles, and additional single ventral apical bristle, surface of pedicel covered with very short recumbent setae; all flagellomeres strongly elongate, much narrower than pedicel and slightly lighter in colour, each covered with very short and nearly recumbent setae, without bristles.
Pronotum pear-shaped in dorsal view, strongly elongate and broadest between middle and anterior third, PL 0.95–0.98 mm (mean 0.96 mm), PW 0.68–0.70 mm (mean 0.69 mm); anterior margin weakly arcuate; lateral margins strongly rounded in anterior half, broadly constricted in posterior third and weakly rounded or nearly straight in posterior 1/6-1/7; posterior margin strongly arcuate; pronotal disc with very indistinctly marked median longitudinal carina. Surface covered with fine matt microsculpture and dense, very short and recumbent vestiture.
Elytra oval and more convex than pronotum, broadest slightly anterior to middle or in middle, EL 1.83–1.90 mm (mean 1.86 mm), EW 1.18 mm, EI 1.55–1.62; sub-basal part of each elytron slightly impressed, so that narrow basal part appears slightly raised; posterior adsutural angle of each elytron blunt; surface covered with similar microsculpture and vestiture as pronotum but microgranules are slightly larger and partly ordered in indistinct transverse rows.
Legs very long and slender; protrochanters slightly modified as in Fig. 7; protibiae as in Fig. 7.
Aedeagus (Figs. 9, 10, 13–16) very slender, AeL 1.49 mm, in abparameral view weakly recurved; short paramere obliterated; long paramere gradually narrowing towards apex and evenly curved; parameral tooth very short and broad; apex of copulatory piece as in Figs. 21, 22.
Female (Fig. 2). Similar to male in body pigmentation, microsculpture and vestiture, differs clearly in larger length, different proportions of body parts and, most strikingly, in shape of elytra. BL 3.78–3.90 mm (mean 3.85 mm), HL 0.63–0.65 mm (mean 0.64 mm), HW 0.63–0.68 mm (mean 0.65), AnL 4.06 mm, lengths of antennomeres (from I to XI): 0.90 mm, 0.48 mm, 0.33 mm, 0.32 mm, 0.33 mm, 0.30 mm, 0.32 mm, 0.27 mm, 0.29 mm, 0.28 mm, 0.27 mm; PL 1.00– 1.03 mm (mean 1.01 mm), PW 0.73–0.75 mm (mean 0.74 mm). Elytra very broad, dropshaped, broadest between middle and anterior third, EL 2.15–2.25 mm (mean 2.21 mm), EW 1.45–1.50 mm (mean 1.46 mm), EI 1.48–1.55; in dorsal view each elytron bears relatively deep and elongate sub-basal impression becoming narrower posteriorly and in its posterior part running as shallow groove parallel to elytral suture. Each impression is delimited anteriorly by distinct basal protuberance and mesally by raised elytral suture; posteriorly and laterally the impression gradually becoming shallower and confluent with surrounding areas. Apex of each elytron forming blunt and obtuse angle, best visible in lateral view (Fig. 5); in dorsal view apices of elytra separated from each other and space between them forming long subtriangular notch. In lateral view the highest point of elytra located near middle, basal protuberance and a part of sub-basal impression clearly visible.
Distribution. Eastern part of Republic of South Africa (Zululand).
Etymology. The epithet pseudofranzi refers to the resemblance of the aedeagus to that of S. franzi.
Remarks. Males of S. pseudofranzi resemble S. franzi in the body shape, but can be distinguished on the basis of a smaller length and lighter body pigmentation. The most reliable diagnostic character is the shape of aedeagus, which in S. pseudofranzi has the long paramere in abparameral view gradually narrowing towards the apex and with very short and broad parameral tooth, while the long paramere in S. franzi is rapidly narrowed in subapical region and bears a long and narrow parameral tooth. Females of the new species are similar to those of S. franzi and S. varii Leleup, 1968. They can be distinguished from females of S. franzi by much lighter body pigmentation (S. franzi is dark brown or nearly black), a smaller body and a different shape of the elytra in lateral view (Figs. 5, 6). Females of S. varii can be easily distinguished from those of S. pseudofranzi on the basis of a sharp, and not blunt elytral apex in lateral view and shallow, oval sub-basal elytral impressions, without groove-like posterior parts.
description: Published as part of Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2012, Stenomastigus pseudofranzi sp. n., from South Africa (Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae), pp. 55-62 in Zootaxa 3268 on pages 56-59, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.212300