Lithocharis timorensis Cameron 1928
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Lithocharis
Lithocharis timorensis

description: Lithocharis timorensis CAMERON, 1928 (Figs 67-70)
Lithocharis timorensis CAMERON, 1928: 246.
Type material examined: Lectotype ♂, present designation: "Dilli, Timor, Dr. Cameron / L. timorensis Cam, Type / M. Cameron. Bequest. B.M. 1955-147. / Type / Lectotypus ♂ Lithocharis timorensis Cameron, desig. V. Assing 2015 / Lithocharis timorensis Cameron, det. V. Assing 2015 " (BMNH). Paralectotypes: 4♂♂, 1♀: same data as lectotype (BMNH); 1♂: " Singapore / M. Cameron. Bequest. B.M. 1955-147. / Syntype" (BMNH).
Comment: The original description is based on an unspecified number of syntypes from "Timor: Dilli. Singapore." (CAMERON 1928). Seven syntypes, six from Timor and one from Singapore, were located in the Cameron collection at the BMNH. A male from Timor is designated as the lectotype.
Additional material examined: Indonesia: 1♂, Sulawesi Tengah, near Morowali, Ranu River area, lowland rain forest, at light, I-IV.1980, leg. Brendell (BMNH).
Redescription: Body length 3.8-4.8 mm; length of forebody 2.0- 2.3 mm. Coloration: head dark-brown to blackish-brown; pronotum and elytra reddish-brown to brown, with the posterior margin of the elytra yellowish to dark-yellowish; abdomen reddish-brown to brown, with the margins of the segments and the apex paler; legs yellow; antennae brown, with the basal and apical antennomeres more or less distinctly and more or less extensively paler.
Head weakly transverse; posterior angles abruptly convex, moderately marked; punctation dense, but surface with some shine. Eyes large, much longer than postocular region in dorsal view. Antennae 1.4-1.5 mm long; preapical antennomeres approximately as long as broad or weakly transverse.
Pronotum weakly transverse, approximately 1.05 time as broad as long and 1.05-1.10 times as broad as head; posterior angles weakly marked; punctation similar to that of head, but slightly more distinct; surface with some shine; midline with (sometimes indistinct) narrow glossy band of reduced length.
Elytra approximately as long as pronotum; punctation very dense and fine; surface matt. Protarsomeres I-IV dilated, distinctly more so in males than in females. Metatarsomere I longer than II, but shorter than the combined length of II and III.
Abdomen narrower than elytra; punctation extremely fine and dense; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.
♂: sternite VII (Fig. 67) moderately strongly transverse, posterior margin truncate, in the middle with long comb of approximately 35 relatively short palisade setae; sternite VIII (Fig. 68) strongly transverse, posterior excision broadly concave, nearly semi-circular, anterior margin, too, distinctly concave; aedeagus (Figs 69-70) approximately 0.9 mm long, of distinctive shape and with distinctive internal structures.
Comparative notes: Based on the similarly derived morphology of the aedeagus and the similar shape of the male sternite VIII, L. timorensis is closely allied to L. vilis, from which it differs by smaller body size, a less robust habitus, a relatively smaller head, relatively larger eyes, the shape and chaetotaxy of the male sternite VII, the anteriorly excised male sternite VIII, and by the morphology of the aedeagus (smaller, differently shaped, slightly different internal structures).
Distribution and natural history: The type material was found in East Timor and Singapore. The above non-type male was collected at a light source in a lowland rain forest in Sulawesi Tengah, Indonesia.
description: Published as part of Assing, Volker, 2015, A revison of the Lithocharis species of the Palaearctic, Oriental and Australian regions (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae: Medonina), pp. 1133-1178 in Linzer biologische Beiträge 47 (2) on pages 1157-1159, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5184182