Trichoglossina alticola Assing 2018, nov.sp.

Trichoglossina alticola nov.sp. (Figs 11-18, 23-25, 27, Map 1)

T y p e m a t e r i a l: Holotype ♂: " CHINA [22] - N-Sichuan, pass ENE Songpan, 4080 m, 32°44'54''N, 103°43'43''E, sifted, 10.VIII.2012, V. Assing / Holotypus ♂ Trichoglossina alticola sp. n., det. V. Assing 2018" (cAss). Paratype ♀: same data as holotype (cAss).

E t y m o l o g y: The specific epithet (Latin, noun in apposition: inhabitant of high altitude) alludes to the elevation of the type locality.

D e s c r i p t i o n: Body length 3.0- 3.2 mm; length of forebody 1.4-1.5 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 11. Coloration: body blackish with the elytra slightly paler (blackish-brown); legs with brown femora, pale-brown tibiae, and yellowish tarsi; antennae blackish-brown with the basal 2-3 antennomeres reddish; maxillary palpi dark-brown with the apical palpomere dark-yellowish.

Head (Fig. 12) approximately as broad as long or weakly oblong; punctation dense and fine; interstices with microsculpture, but glossy. Eyes weakly convex, slightly shorter than postocular region. Antenna (Fig. 13) approximately 0.80-0.85 mm long; antennomere IV weakly transverse; antennomeres V-X transverse and gradually increasing in width, IX longer than VIII, X longer than IX, barely 1.5 times as broad as long, and XI approximately as long as the combined length of antennomeres IX and X.

Pronotum (Fig. 12) approximately 1.15 times as broad as long and nearly 1.3 times as broad as head, broadest in, or slightly anterior to, middle; punctation and microsculpture similar to those of head.

Elytra (Fig. 12) approximately as long as pronotum; punctation dense and fine, somewhat more distinct than that of pronotum; interstices with microsculpture. Hind wings fully developed. Tarsi very long and slender; metatarsus nearly as long as metatibia; metatarsomere I nearly as long as the combined length of II-IV.

Abdomen (Fig. 14) approximately as broad as elytra; tergites III-V with very shallow anterior impressions; punctation fine and very dense, nearly as dense on tergite VII as on anterior tergites; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.

♂: posterior margin of tergite VIII weakly convex; sternite VIII (Fig. 23) significantly longer than tergite VIII, posterior margin truncate; median lobe of aedeagus (Figs 15-16) approximately 0.5 mm long; ventral process apically dilated in lateral view and moderately acute in ventral view; crista apicalis prominent; internal sac with long flagellum; paramere (Fig. 17) approximately 0.65 mm long, apical lobe long and slender, nearly half as long as basal portion of paramere.

♀: posterior margin of tergite VIII broadly convexly produced in the middle (Fig. 24); posterior margin of sternite VIII distinctly and broadly concave in the middle, with a conspicuous fringe of stout modified setae (Fig. 25); spermatheca as in Fig. 18.

C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s: Trichoglossina alticola is characterized by the shapes of the male and female tergites and sternites VIII, as well as by the shape of the median lobe of the aedeagus. The general shape of the aedeagus is somewhat similar to that of T. taibaiensis PACE, 2012 from the Qinling Shan (Shaanxi), from which T. alticola is distinguished by distinctly darker coloration (particularly of the forebody) and by an apically more strongly dilated ventral process of the aedeagus in lateral view. For illustrations of the habitus and the primary sexual characters of T. taibaiensis see PACE (2012).

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: The type locality is situated near Songpan in North Sichuan, China (Map 1). The specimens were sifted from litter and moss in an alpine west slope with scree, grass, and shrubs at an altitude of nearly 4100 m (Fig. 27). A specimen of T. aptera was found in the same locality.