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

description: Zyras (Zyras) truncatus spec. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: D18CCF00-B59C-4826-9750-E0991FFD871E
(Figs 11, 52, 91, 150–155, Map 3)
Type material: Holotype ♂: “ NEPAL Himalaya, Dhawalagiri, 2004, Region Parbat / Chitre, 2500 m, 25.05.2004, leg. A. Kleeberg / Holotypus ♂ Zyras truncatus sp. n., det. V. Assing 2016” (cAss). Paratypes: 1 ♂: “ NEPAL Himalaya, Dhawalagiri, 2004, Region Parbat / near Chitre, Ghar Khola valley, ~ 2400 m, 24.05.2004, leg. A. Kleeberg ” (cKle); 1 ♀: “ NEPAL Himalaya, Dhawalagiri, 2004, Region Parbat / near Chitre, 2.4–2.600 m [sic], 27.05.200 [sic], leave [sic] litter, leg. A. Kleeberg ” (cKle).
Etymology: The specific epithet (Latin, adjective) alludes to the apically truncate male sternite VIII.
Description: Body length 5.6–6.3 mm; length of forebody 2.5–2.8 mm. Coloration (Figs 11, 52, 91): head black; pronotum blackish-brown to black; elytra blackish with the humeral portion reddish-yellow and the suture narrowly dark-reddish; abdomen with segments II–V brown, segments VI–VII blackish (except for the partly brown margins), and segments VIII–X dark-brown to blackish-brown; legs dark-yellowish to yellowish-brown; antennae dark-brown with antennomeres I–II and the base of III yellowish-brown and the apical 1–2 antennomeres more or less distinctly pale-brown; maxillary palpi dark-yellowish with palpomere IV paler yellowish.
Head (Fig. 52) rather weakly transverse, median portion extensively impunctate; punctures in lateral portions very sparse and moderately coarse. Eyes slightly longer than postocular region in dorsal view. Antenna (Fig. 11) approximately 2.4–2.5 mm long and very slender; antennomeres IV–IX oblong, X approximately as broad as long, and XI approximately as long as the combined length of IX and X, or nearly so.
Pronotum (Fig. 52) slender, approximately 1.1 times as broad as long and approximately 1.2 times as broad as head, broadest in anterior half, moderately tapering posteriad; lateral margins sinuate in posterior half in dorsal view; punctation rather coarse and very irregularly distributed, arranged in a cluster behind the middle of lateral surface; antero-lateral and postero-lateral portion of lateral surface impunctate or nearly so; midline broadly impunctate; lateral margins each with four long and erect black setae; pubescence of disc pale, thin, rather short, and more or less depressed.
Elytra (Fig. 52) approximately 0.85 times as long as pronotum; punctation moderately coarse and moderately irregularly distributed, rather dense anteriorly, gradually becoming sparser posteriorly, and sparse to very sparse near posterior margin; disc with moderately long, fine, and depressed pale pubescence. Hind wings fully developed. Metatarsomere I approximately as long as, or slightly shorter than the combined length of II–IV.
Abdomen (Fig. 91) slightly narrower than elytra, with rather deep anterior impressions on tergites III–V; tergite II impunctate; anterior impressions of tergites III–V and anterior portion of tergite VI each with a transverse row of coarse, but weakly delimited pits of non-setiferous punctures; tergite III with a lateral setiferous puncture on either side and with a transverse row of six setiferous punctures near posterior margin; tergites IV–VI with a lateral setiferous puncture on either side and with 8–10 setiferous punctures at or near posterior margins; tergite VII with scattered fine nonsetiferous punctures anteriorly and with two irregular transverse series of few setiferous punctures posteriorly, posterior margin with palisade fringe; tergite VIII (Figs 152, 154) with moderately dense dark setae in posterior third, without sexual dimorphism, posterior margin with distinct concavity.
♂: sternite VIII (Fig. 153) nearly as long as broad, much longer than tergite VIII, strongly tapering posteriorly and with distinctly truncate posterior margin; median lobe of aedeagus (Figs 150–151) 0.70–0.75 mm long; ventral process slender, subapically very slender, and apically very acute in lateral view; paramere approximately 0.85 mm long, apical lobe very long and slender.
♀: sternite VIII (Fig. 155) much shorter and more transverse than in male, posterior margin indistinctly concave in the middle.
Comparative notes: Based on several derived character conditions, particularly the slender body, long and slender antennae, a conspicuously irregular distribution of the pronotal punctation, irregularly punctate elytra, the punctation pattern of the pronotum, a posteriorly strongly tapering male sternite VIII with a distinctly truncate posterior margin, an apically very slender ventral process of the aedeagus, and a conspicuously long apical lobe of the paramere, Z. truncatus is undoubtedly very closely related to Z. glabricollis SCHEERPELTZ, 1965 from Northeast Myanmar and related species (Z. extensus ASSING, 2016 and Z. rectus ASSING, 2016, both from Northwest Yunnan, China). It is distinguished from all these species by a more slender pronotum with (more) distinctly sinuate lateral margins in posterior half and additionally as follows: from Z. glabricollis by more extensively blackish elytra and by a longer median lobe of the aedeagus with a less strongly curved ventral process in lateral view; from Z. extensus by denser punctation of the more extensively blackish elytra and by a shorter median lobe of the aedeagus with an apically shorter and less slender ventral process of the aedeagus; from Z. rectus by more slender antennae (Z. rectus: antennomere IX not oblong), more densely and less irregularly distributed punctation of the elytra, a posteriorly distinctly truncate male sternite VIII, and an aedeagus with an apically more slender ventral process (lateral view) and with a less prominent crista apicalis.
For illustrations of Z. glabricollis, Z. extensus, and Z. rectus see ASSING (2016a).
Distribution and natural history: The specimens were collected in three close localities near Chitre in the Dhaulagiri range, Central Nepal (Map 3), at altitudes between 2400 and approximately 2500 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 136-137, DOI: 10.21248/contrib.entomol.67.1.117-192, http://zenodo.org/record/5742363