Gyrophaena affinifera Enushchenko 2018, sp.n.

Gyrophaena (s. str.) affinifera Enushchenko, sp.n.

(Figs. 1–5)

Type material examined: Holotype: 1 ♂ [The specimen was re-glued by me on a white rectangular card; a plastic card with a preparation of the aedeagus in Canada balsam]: USA: ‘ALA[bama]: Shalby Co[unty]; | Helena 397D | IV-24-1955 | leg. H.R. Steeves Jr.’, ‘CNHM 1962 | H.G. Steeves | Gen. Coleop. Colln. | Acc. Z–13, 050’, ‘on | mushroom’, ‘ HOLOTYPE | Gyrophaena | affinifera sp.n. | Enushchenko I.V. | 2018 des.’ <red printed label> (FMNH).

Paratypes: 3 ♂, 3 ♀ [Specimens on white rectangular cards; one specimen left was originally glued on a narrow triangular card]: USA: ‘ALA[bama]: Shalby Co [unty]; | Helena 397D | IV-24-1955 | leg. H.R. Steeves Jr. ’, ‘ CNHM 1962 | H.G. Steeves | Gen. Coleop. Colln. | Acc. Z–13, 050’, ‘on | mushroom’, ‘ PARATYPE | Gyrophaena | affinifera sp.n. | Enushchenko I.V. | 2018 des.’ <red printed label> (FMNH: 2 ♂, 2 ♀; cIE: 1 ♂, 1 ♀).

Description. Body narrowly oval; length 1.40–1.80 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 1. Head red-brown; pronotum, elytra and abdomen yellow to yellowish red; disc and postero-lateral margins of elytra, and abdominal tergites V–VII light brown to yellow-brown; antennae yellow-red; mouthparts and legs yellow. Body with weak, indistinctly reticulate microsculpture, stronger on elytra. Head almost twice as wide as long; vertex with small, sparse, distinct punctures; median area impunctate. Antennomere III transverse to slightly elongate, antennomeres V–X incrassate, V segment distinctly elongate, V–X quadrate to slightly elongate; apical antennomere elongate, 1.2 times as long as wide. Pronotum 1.4 times as wide as long and head, microsculpture as that in head, with two median rows of small, shallow, weakly defined punctures, very indistinct on basal portion. Elytra as long as pronotum, almost twice as wide as long; with well-defined rugose microsculpture and small, shallow and matt punctures like those in G. affinis Mannerheim 1830. Microsculpture of abdomen as that on head and pronotum.

Male. Abdominal tergite VII with semicircular median elevation; apical margin of abdominal tergite VIII (Fig. 3) with two long lateral teeth, slightly acute and curved inwards. Aedeagus (Fig. 2) with ventral plate strongly protruded laterally, bifurcate apically, with short inferior part, widely rounded apically and slightly elongate superior part with curved acute apex; apical portion of median lobe very narrow, fusiform, significantly exceeding ventral plate, strongly curved dorsad, with wide bulbose apex; dorsal projection of internal sac approximately straight and extremely long.

Female. Tergite VIII wide, trapezoid (Fig. 4); sternite VIII rounded apically (Fig. 5).

Comparative notes. Based on the shape of antennomeres, arrangement of pronotal and elytral punctures and microsculpture, G. affinifera sp.n. belongs to the affinis group as defined by Seevers (1951). This Holarctic group contains Holarctic G. affinis Mannerheim 1830, European G. rousi Dvořak 1966 and North American G. dybasi Seevers 1951.

By the structure of the aedeagus G. affinifera sp.n. is similar to G. dybasi, distributed in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and North Carolina (Seevers 1951) and New Brunswick in Canada (Klimaszewski et al., 2009). It can be distinguished by the paler coloration, even less distinct microsculpture of the body and by details of structure of the aedeagus (ventral plate of aedeagus of G. dybasi slender, with acute apex, not divided apically; apical portion of median lobe with spiral-shaped apical structures; dorsal projection of internal sac shorter and wider).

For illustrations of G. dybasi see Klimaszewski et al. (2009: Figs. 12, 85–88).

Etymology. The specific epithet is composed of the Latin adjectives affinis, - is, - is, - e (closely related) and fero (to carry). It confirms the morphological similarity with G. affinis.