Faunistic inventory and zoogeographical analysis of the ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) of Garf Raydah Nature Reserve, Southwestern of Saudi Arabia, and description of a new species of Paussinae
Author
Abdel-Dayem, Mahmoud S.
Entomology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt.
Author
Rasool, Iftekhar
King Saud University Museum of Arthropods (KSMA), Plant Protection Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P. O. Box 2460 Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
Author
Elgharbawy, Ali A.
Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Al Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt.
Author
Nagel, Peter
Biogeography Research Group, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Basel, St. Johanns-Vorstadt 10, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
Author
Aldhafer, Hathal M.
King Saud University Museum of Arthropods (KSMA), Plant Protection Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P. O. Box 2460 Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
text
Zootaxa
2018
2018-11-08
4514
3
341
371
journal article
22642
10.11646/zootaxa.4514.3.3
54115d80-05ed-4ee7-b035-1ac714f9c31d
1175-5326
3770231
8F3F3680-5950-4FAB-B8DC-455FAC27535A
Paussus
(
Hylotorus
)
abditus
Nagel
,
sp. n.
(
Figure 2
)
Holotype
(hereby designated):
Male; dry-mounted, glued on rectangular, pinned card; antennal clubs, left foreleg, left hind leg detached, labium dissected and glued on same card.
Original labels
(rectangular) (
verbatim
): 1. Yellow label, handwritten by A. Raffray: “
Sufamila
[or
Jutamila
or
Sutonnila
or similar, partly illegible] /
Raff.
” (
nomen nudum
, unavailable). 2. White label, printed: “El Hajaz / Millinger [sic!]”. 3. White label, printed: “A. Raffray”. 4. White label, printed: “E. Wasmann / vidit 1904”.
FIGURE 2.
Paussus (Hylotorus) abditus
sp. n.
holotype specimen from the Hejaz mountains. The illustration shows the specimen with the appendages of the right side at their broadest view, while the left antennae and legs are shown twisted through 90 degrees, i.e. at their narrowest view (cf.
Nagel 2006
). The inset shows the “collar” of the anterior pronotum at frontal view. Scale bar: 1 mm. Illustration: E. Weber, Basel, Switzerland. Copyright: P. Nagel.
Added labels:
1. Red, rectangular, printed: “
Holotypus
/
Paussus abditus
/ P. Nagel, 2018”. 2. White label, printed: “
♂
”.
Holotype
repository:
Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle
,
Paris
,
France
(
MNHN
).
Paratype
:
Female; dry-mounted, glued on pointed, pinned card; right antennal club absent, tip of abdomen opened and rearranged, gonostyli dissected and glued on card with specimen.
Original labels
(white, rectangular) (
verbatim
): 1. printed, “
KSA
,
Asir
, Abha, Raydah /
18°12.095' N
42°24.536' E
,
2578 m
. /
08.
VI
.2014
,
PT-
3 / Al Dhafer, H.; Fadl, H.; Abdel-Dayem, / M.S., El Torkey, A.; El Gharbawy, A.”. 2. printed, “
♀
”. 3. handwritten, “sp.1543 /
Paussus
sp.”.
Added label:
White, red frame, rectangular, printed:
“
Paratypus
/
Paussus abditus
/ P. Nagel, 2018”.
Paratype
repository:
King Saud University Museum of Arthropods
(
KSMA
),
King Saud University
,
Riyadh
,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
.
Type locality:
Arabian Peninsula, Western
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
, Hejaz Mountains.
Note:
The
type
specimens were collected by Charles Millingen, M.D., Edinburgh at around the 1870ies (labels with collector “Millingen” exist with localities El Hejaz / Hajaz, Jeddah and
Yemen
, and the name is sometimes printed “Millinger”).
Etymology:
The specific epithet is the Latin adjective for “hidden” or “undiscovered”. It refers to the fact that this species remained undiscovered for more than 100 years until a second specimen was discovered.
Diagnosis.
A small
Paussus
of the
P. cucullatus
group
sensu lato
; characterized by a tumid antennal club with small, projecting anterior basal angle and large, apically broadly rounded posterior basal angle; antennal club with excavation not extending up to apex; head with vertex produced, forming two apically rounded protuberances; two cephalic openings vestigial, hardly discernible; anterior pronotum with blunt and low transverse collar; pronotal trichome well developed; pygidium with lower (posterior) margin with dense fringe of hair; hind tibiae compressed and strongly widened.
Description of male
holotype
specimen (
Figure 2
)
. Standardized body length from tip of head to tip of elytra
4.1 mm
, width across mid-elytra
1.5 mm
. Body with dorsal and lower side, legs and antennae brown, frontal margins of head and frontal margins of posterior part of pronotum narrowly black. Head, pronotum, elytra with dorsal pubescence of scattered, short, light, lanceolate, narrowly scaliform, apically rounded setae; middle of posterior pronotum glabrous, smooth, glossy; pubescence of appendages equally scattered yet of thinner setae; setae mostly erect to slanting, more appressed at lateral head and antennomere I. Surface shiny except frontal head, neck and antennomere I (scape) with fine, matte microsculpture; punctuation inconspicuous, only scape with coarse, dense punctures; elytra weakly rugose.
Head almost as long as wide, with frontal margin notched in the middle and frontal lobes broadly rounded; eyes slightly vaulted; temples not projecting, at dorsal view forming a regular curve with eye; vertex produced in two rounded protuberances, separated by shallow longitudinal emargination; cephalic openings on top of protuberances vestigial, closed, indicated by small, shallow, oval impressions, difficult to see. Antennomere I devoid of well-marked longitudinal edges; antennal club boat shaped, 1.5 times longer than wide (basal tooth disregarded), tumid; frontal margin of the club with two fenestriform pits near base; anterior basal angle of club small, acute; posterior basal projection large, apically rounded; hind part of the club with large posterior excavation comprising the basal two thirds only; at posterior view dorsal and ventral margins of excavation undulate of four and five tumid tubercles, each with 1 to 3 apical setae; club with distinct tuft of setae (trichome) near ventral base. Labrum with anterior margin weakly emarginate. Maxillary palpomeres similar to Figs 6G,H in
Robertson and Moore (2016)
; palpomere II large, approximately as long as wide, with mesal margin almost straight, mesal apical angle broadly rounded, outer margin rounded with apical angle not produced; maxillary palpomere II three times wider than following palpomere; palpomere III and IV subequal in length, III little wider than terminal palpomere. Lacinia bifalcate (as usual), moderately setose, with 7–8 setae at anterior margin. Labial palpomeres similar to Figs 6C, 7N in
Robertson & Moore (2016)
; palpomere III long, narrow, 4.5 times as long as wide, apically rounded. Ligula at ventral view with longitudinal carinula on disc; apical margin bisinuate with apical median margin broadly rounded and lateral anterior angles produced anteriorly. Gula: width/length ratio of gula at narrowest point 0.6.
Pronotum hardly wider than long, transversely bipartite, with large trichomes at both ends of groove; anterior part little wider than head, low, with transverse dorsal edge of collar-like structure broadly rounded, slightly emarginated in the middle, lateral angles little produced; posterior part narrowed towards base. Elytra with even, scattered pubescence; hindwings present.
Fused abdominal ventrites 1–3 with scraper of stridulatory organ present (synapomorphic character of
Paussus
L.
s.l.
). Pygidium with disc flat and lower (anatomically posterior) margin narrowly explanate, dorsally (apically) set with dense fringe of long hair, ventrally with series of short, separate setae. Legs (femora and tibiae) from the front to the back increasingly more compressed and dilated, hind tibiae twice as long as wide; tibial terminal spurs absent; terminal tarsomere of posterior tarsus as long as three preceding ones together; tarsomeres ventrally without setulose pads.
Additional description of female
paratype
: The description of the male
holotype
specimen fits also to the female
paratype
, with a few additions as follows. The pubescence is partially rubbed off; the cephalic pores are virtually absent and at close inspection only recognizable as a minute, longitudinal, slightly darkened structure, possibly a remnant of part of the pores’ margin; eyes little smaller than in male and hardly vaulted; hind tibiae even shorter and wider than in the male; the gonocoxae were dissected, the diverging tips are of normal shape of
Paussus
s.l.
;
Host ant:
Unknown
Ecology:
The female
paratype
specimen was sampled in the African pencil cedar woodland at
2578 m
in the GRNR (
Figure 3
). Description of habitat see chapter “study area” above. The specimen was recovered from a pitfall trap.
Distribution.
Saudi Arabia
: Hejaz Mountains (exact locality unknown);
Asir
, Abha, Raydah,
18°12.095' N
42°24.536' E
.
Life forms.
Myrmecophilous (M) species.
Remarks.
The new species is assigned to
Paussus
subgenus
Hylotorus
Dalman, 1823
, according to the phylogenetically based classification of
Robertson and Moore (2016)
(cf.
Nagel
et al.
2017a
). The description of
P. abditus
sp. n.
given here above matches generally well the diagnosis and characters used in their key. Deviations are the very long and narrow labial palpomere III and the slightly higher number of setae at the anterior margin of the lacinia in the present new species.
Paussus (Hylotorus) abditus
sp. n.
is a member of the
P. cucullatus
group
sensu lato
, an African lineage of
Paussus
subgen.
Hylotorus
. The new species is distinguished from the Afrotropical
P. cucullatus
group s. str. (all species considered in the key of
Nagel (2006)
, including the recently described
P. huamboensis
Schüle & Bednařík, 2015
) by its tumid antennal club with much smaller excavation, the low anterior part of pronotum and the vestigial cephalic openings.
Paussus excavatus
has an elongated, flattened antennal club and well-developed cephalic openings.
Paussus conradti
Kolbe, 1896
, also has the cephalic openings present, with the anterior basal angle of the antennal club obliterated and the lower (posterior) pygidial margin set with a series of separated long tufts of hair (
Nagel 2006
;
Fig. 2
).
Paussus abditus
sp. n.
is similar to
P. cyathiger
Raffray, 1886
(
Ethiopia
)
, the
holotype
and one
paratype
of which was made available to us due to the courtesy of Ms. Taghavian-Azari (MNHN). This new species differs from
P. cyathiger
mainly by the posterior basal angle produced into a broad process rather than a thin, long peg as in
P. cyathiger
.
NB: the specimen illustrated and cited as
P. cyathiger
by
Luna de Carvalho (1974
,
1989
) is a still undescribed species. The head of the actual
P. cyathiger
is devoid of an anterolateral trichome (setose pad), the upper and hind margins of the antennal club are both devoid of tubercles or teeth, and the posterior basal angle of the club is produced into a long, thin, apically blunt peg.
Paussus abditus
sp. n.
seems to be most similar to
Paussus rougemontianus
Lorenz, 1998 (
Yemen
)
(replacement name for
Cochliopaussus rougemonti
Luna de Carvalho, 1989
). The antennal club of
P. rougemontianus
has the posterior excavation shallow and restricted to the basal half of the club.
The other Arabian member of
Paussus
subgenus
Hylotorus
is
P. cephalotes
Raffray, 1886
. This bizarre species is unmistakable by the shape of the antennal club and the two horn-like projections of the head. All Arabian
Paussinae
are members of the species-rich genus
Paussus
L. Till
date 8 species were reported from the Arabian Peninsula
sensu lato
, as follows (
Nagel 1982
;
Luna de Carvalho 2000b
;
Nagel
et al.
2017b
):
P. arabicus
Raffray, 1886
;
P. brittoni
Reichensperger, 1957
;
P. cephalotes
Raffray, 1886
;
P. cirenaicus
Fiori, 1914
;
P. piochardi
Saulcy, 1874
;
P. rougemontianus
Lorenz, 1998
;
P. thomsonii
Reiche, 1860
;
P. turcicus
(Frivaldszky 1835)
(the latter has its southernmost localities in
Israel
and
Jordan
). The specific identity of
P. piochardi
and
P. cirenaicus
within the more inclusive
P. crenaticornis
Raffray, 1886
group is debated.
P. abditus
sp. n.
increases the number to nine species.
According to the current state of knowledge four species are exclusively known from the Arabian Peninsula
sensu lato
and are possibly endemics (END_AR):
P. abditus
sp. n.
(only known from SA),
P. brittoni
,
P. cephalotes
,
P. rougemontianus
. Their range comprises
Yemen
and the Hejaz and
Asir
mountains in
KSA
which run parallel to the Red Sea coast.