Trichoglossina bifida Assing 2018, nov.sp.
Creators: name: Assing, Volker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Trichoglossina
Trichoglossina bifida

description: Trichoglossina bifida nov.sp. (Figs 37-46, 51-54, Map 1)
T y p e m a t e r i a l: Holotype ♂: " CHINA [7] - Yunnan, mts W Dongchuan, 2620 m, 26°06'08''N, 102°54'46''E, pine for., 14.VIII.2014, V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Trichoglossina bifida sp. n., det. V. Assing 2018" (cAss). Paratypes: 3♂♂, 7♀♀: same data as holotype (cAss); 16 exs.: same data, but leg. Schülke (MNB, cAss); 1♀: " CHINA [9b] - Yunnan, mt. W Xundian, 2300 m, mixed for., 25°34'58''N, 103°08'42''E, sifted, 16.VIII.2014, V. Assing " (cAss).
E t y m o l o g y: The specific epithet (adjective) alludes to the apically bifid ventral process of the aedeagus.
D e s c r i p t i o n: Body length 2.9-3.8 mm; length of forebody 1.4-1.6 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 37. Coloration: body blackish; legs with brown femora, reddish tibiae, and
yellowish tarsi; antennae reddish; maxillary palpi yellowish-red with the terminal antennomere pale-yellowish.
Head (Fig. 38) approximately as broad as long; punctation dense and fine; interstices with shallow microreticulation. Eyes weakly convex, slightly shorter than postocular region. Antenna (Fig. 39) approximately 0.8 mm long; antennomere IV weakly transverse or as long as broad; antennomeres V-X transverse and gradually increasing in width, X longer than IX, barely 1.5 times as broad as long, and XI slightly longer than the combined length of antennomeres IX and X.
Pronotum (Fig. 38) 1.20-1.25 times as broad as long and 1.30-1.35 times as broad as head, broadest approximately in the middle, strongly convex in cross-section; punctation and microsculpture similar to those of head.
Elytra (Fig. 38) approximately 0.9 times as long as pronotum; punctation very dense and fine, but more distinct than that of pronotum; interstices without microsculpture. Hind wings present, but length not examined. Tarsi very long and slender; metatarsus approximately as long as metatibia; metatarsomere I approximately as long as the combined length of II-IV or nearly so.
Abdomen (Fig. 40) slightly narrower than elytra; tergites III-V with very shallow anteri- or impressions; punctation rather coarse and very dense, nearly as dense on tergite VII as on anterior tergites; pubescence pale and long; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.
♂: posterior margin of tergite VIII broadly concave in the middle (Fig. 51); sternite VIII (Fig. 52) significantly longer than tergite VIII, posterior margin strongly convex; median lobe of aedeagus (Figs 41-42) nearly 0.5 mm long; ventral process strongly arched in lateral view, apically conspicuously bifid; crista apicalis prominent; internal sac with moderately long and straight flagellum; paramere (Figs 43-44) approximately 0.9 mm long, apical lobe moderately slender, basally dilated, and moderately long, distinctly less than half as long as basal portion of paramere.
♀: posterior margin of tergite VIII shallowly concave in the middle (Fig. 53); posterior margin of sternite VIII weakly convex, with a moderately dense fringe of moderately modified setae (Fig. 54); spermatheca as in Figs 45-46.
C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s: This species is characterized particularly by the shapes of the male and female tergites and sternites VIII, the moderately modified chaetotaxy of the female sternite VIII, and the conspicuous morphology of the aedeagus. The spermatheca somewhat resembles that of T. sichuanensis PACE, 1999 (male unknown) from Gongga Shan, from which T. bifida is distinguished by darker coloration, a broader and more transverse pronotum, finer punctation of the forebody, and the presence of microsculpture on the head and the pronotum. For illustrations of the habitus and the spermatheca of T. sichuanensis see PACE (1999).
D i s t r i b u t i o n a n d n a t u r a l h i s t o r y: Trichoglossina bifida is currently known from two localities in Northeast Yunnan. The specimens were sifted from litter, moss, and roots of herbs in a secondary pine forest in Sedan Snow Mountain Scenic Resort to the west of Dongchuan (Fig. 55) and in a mixed forest with alder, pine, and shrub undergrowth in a mountain to the west of Xundian at altitudes of 2300- 2620 m.
description: Published as part of Assing, Volker, 2018, Six new species of Trichoglossina from China (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae: Oxypodini), pp. 89-109 in Linzer biologische Beiträge 50 (1) on pages 98-99, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3985300