Faronus albimontium Assing & Brachat & Meybohm 2019, spec. nov.

Faronus albimontium BRACHAT spec. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 9E7893E5-D3A1-4387-B179-AA51AB793FED

(Fig.167)

Type material: Holotype ♂: “GR – Westkreta (19), N35°19'08 E23°55'10, Omalos, 1200 m, 17.3.2018, leg. Meybohm & Brachat / Faronus albimontium spec. nov. ♂, det. Brachat 2.2019 / Holotypus” (cBra). Paratypes: 1 ♂, 2♀♀: “N35°19'07E23°54´46, GR Kreta, 1060 m, Oma los E, 23.3.2019, leg. Meybohm & Brachat (17)” (cBra).

Etymology: The name is a Latin noun in the genitive plural and denotes “of the White Mountains”. It alludes to the fact that the distribution is probably confined to the Lefka Ori (English: White Mountains).

Description: External characters as in F. meybohmi and F. lefkamontium, except as follows:

Body length 1.5–1.6 mm. Head 0.22–0.24 mm long and 0.32–0.34 mm broad; temples rectangularly projecting, apically with a small circular impression. Eyes large, distinctly convex. Antenna 0.56–0.58 mm long. Pronotum 0.26–0.28 mm long and 0.33–0.36 mm broad, significantly longer and slightly broader than head. Elytra 0.27–0.29 mm long and 0.42–0.45 mm broad, 1.5 times as broad as long. Hind wings completely reduced.

♂: metatrochanter ventrally with a knife-shaped dilatation; metatibia with a small apical spine; femora unmodified, not dilated; aedeagus (Fig. 167) 0.30– 0.31 mm long; right paramere with one, left paramere with two apical setae.

Comparative notes: Among the Cretan representatives of the genus, this species is characterized particularly by the shape of the head, shorter elytra, and by the male primary and secondary sexual characters.

Distribution and natural history: Like F. lefkamontium, F. albimontium has been recorded only from the environs of Omalos in the Lefka Ori. The specimens were sifted from litter and grass roots at altitudes of 1060 and 1200 m.