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

description: Stenomastigus berlinafricanus sp. n.
(Figs. 12, 25, 26, 17, 22, 35–38, 62, 67)
Type material. Holotype: 3: "S.Afr., E.Transvaal / Berlin Forest St. / 25.33 S – 30.44 E " [white, printed], " 22.9.1986;E-Y:2284 / litt. rock crevice / leg. Endrödy-Younga" [white, printed], " STENOMASTIGUS / berlinafricanus m. / HOLOTYPUS " [red, printed] (TMSA).
Paratype: 3: " RSA: Mpumalanga / Sabie env., 1200 m / S 25°13,1'; E 30°37' / 10–11.II.04, Hlaváč lgt." [white, printed], "under litter / on wet wood" [white, handwritten], " STENOMASTIGUS / berlinafricanus m. / PARATY- PUS" [yellow, printed] (coll. PH).
Diagnosis. Male: pronotum and elytra uniformly dark brown, head slightly darker; protrochanters with projecting distal margin forming subtriangular tooth, projection clearly shorter than remaining part of trochanter; profemora in lateral view with very shallow ventral subapical emargination and straight dorsal margin; aedeagus in abparameral view with very strong constriction between basal capsule of median lobe and base of copulatory piece, in left lateral view long paramere with very slender proximal part gradually and only slightly narrowing towards apex, evenly curved and with rounded, fin-like parameral tooth, strongly standing out from the silhouette of paramere. Females and their diagnostic characters unknown.
Description. Body of male (Fig. 22) long and slender, with extremely long appendages, BL 3.43–3.53 mm; coloration moderately dark brown, head, pedicel, scapus and femora slightly darkened; vestiture silverish.
Head broadest at eyes, HL 0.58–0.60 mm, HW 0.63–0.64 mm; occipital constriction distinctly broader than 0.5x 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 as long as half of vertex, lateral parts of vertex convex; frons much longer than broad, impressed between convex supraantennal tubercles, its anterior part located between antennal insertions convex and as narrow as width of supraantennal tubercle; vertex and frons uniformly covered with fine microsculpture composed of a maze-like net of grooves that gives a matt but slightly iridescent appearance; vestiture extremely short but dense, composed of recumbent setae; clypeus nearly four times as broad as long, with slightly concave anterior margin and glossy surface with only traces of microsculpture and transverse row of several very long, thick and erect macrosetae directed anterad; labrum 2.5x as broad as long, with distinct median emargination and glossy surface bearing row of several very long and thick macrosetae directed anteriorly and curved ventrally. Eyes large and coarsely faceted, each in lateral view oval and elongate, slightly shorter than temple. Antennae very slender, distinctly longer than body, AeL 4.05 mm, lengths of antennomeres (from I to XI): 0.83 mm, 0.40 mm, 0.33 mm, 0.30 mm, 0.39 mm, 0.30 mm, 0.35 mm, 0.31 mm, 0.30 mm, 0.27 mm, 0.27 mm; scapus and pedicel strongly thickened, all flagellomeres very thin and hardly noticeably thickening towards antennal apex; scapus about 6x as long as broad, distinctly broadened between middle and 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 setae; pedicel 5x 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 moderately sparse, short suberect setae; all flagellomeres strongly elongate, much narrower than pedicel and lighter in colour, each covered with short and nearly recumbent setae denser than those on scapus and pedicel, without bristles.
Pronotum pear-shaped in dorsal view, strongly elongate and broadest between middle and anterior third, PL 0.98 mm, PW 0.75 mm; anterior margin weakly arcuate; lateral margins strongly rounded in anterior half, broadly constricted just posterior to middle and weakly rounded in posterior fourth; posterior margin strongly arcuate; pronotal disc with very indistinctly marked median longitudinal carina and pair of shallow oval impressions between middle and anterior third, separated by distance slightly longer than width of impression. Surface covered with similar matt microsculpture and dense vestiture as those on vertex and frons.
Elytra oval and more convex than pronotum, broadest distinctly anterior to middle, EL 1.88–1.95 mm, EW 1.23–1.25 mm, EI 1.53–1.56; sub-basal part of each elytron slightly impressed, so that narrow basal part appears slightly raised; posterior adsutural angle of each elytron blunt, elytra with barely noticeable shallow and diffused striae; surface covered with similar microsculpture and vestiture as pronotum.
Legs very long and slender; protrochanters modified as in Fig. 12; protibiae as in Fig. 17.
Aedeagus (Figs. 25, 26, 35–38) very slender, AeL 1.63 mm, in abparameral view with very narrow "stalk" between basal capsule and base of copulatory piece, short paramere obliterated, long paramere in lateral views evenly curved; parameral tooth fin-like, in both lateral aspects strongly standing out from the silhouette of paramere; apex of copulatory piece as in Figs. 62, 67.
Female. Unknown.
Distribution. Republic of South Africa, East Transvaal.
Etymology. Locotypical, after the Berlin Forest, where the holotype specimen was collected.
Remarks. Among all species of Stenomastigus with protrochanters projecting distally, S. berlinafricanus has the longest aedeagus, with the most evenly curved long paramere in left lateral view. The relatively dark body pigmentation found in this species is also characteristic of S. kosianus sp. n. (all remaining species belonging to this group are yellowish-testaceous). The latter species can easily be distinguished by its very long, rod-like protrochanters.
description: Published as part of Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2012, Stenomastigus Leleup (Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae): status of subgenus Acanthostigus Leleup and revision of species with elongated male protrochanters, pp. 39-56 in Zootaxa 3153 on pages 43-44, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.279590