Colotes (Pseudodipnis) dubatolovi Tshernyshev, sp. nov.

(Figs. 1, 2, 4, 6–8)

Type material. Holotype, male: Russia, Volgogradskaya Oblast, Elton station, E bank of Elton lake, 49°09'N – 46°48'E, on dead insects on a beach near the water edge, 4.VI.1996, leg. V. Dubatolov, I. Lyubechansky (SZMN); paratype, female, together with holotype (SZMN).

Description. Holotype, male (Fig. 1). Body elongate, oblong.

Head black with orange distal part near the antennae. Antennae yellow with slightly darker apical segments. Pronotum orange; scutellum black. Elytra yellow with black transverse stripe at base, each with a black spot behind the middle; apices yellow. Underside black; legs yellow with femora black on basal half. Surface evenly covered with sparse, fine and adpressed light pubescence. Vesicles yellow; trochanters and thoracic mesepimera yellow-brown.

Head not wider than the pronotum, front flat; genae short and straight; clypeus narrow, transverse, straight; labrum short, transverse; maxillary palpi (Fig. 4) swollen and elongate, joint 2 transverse, almost completely quadrate, slightly impressed, apical joint the largest, cylindrical, distinctly impressed, with wide truncate apex; surface of head matte, punctures distinct and dense, microsculpture distinct, pubescence short, white and adpressed.

Antennae filiform, 1.0 mm long, reaching the middle of the elytra; segment 1 large, oblongo-clavate; remaining segments 2–2.5 times shorter, subtriangular; apical segment slightly longer than intermediates and evenly sinuate at apex; surface evenly covered with short light erect pubescence.

Pronotum transverse; anterior margin slightly convex; posterior straight; all angles rounded and posterior ones obliquely truncate; surface very sparsely punctured, smooth and shiny, with sparse fine pubescence.

Scutellum oval, marginate, densely punctured and covered with sparse pubescense.

Elytra oblong, widening at the middle and narrowed posteriorly, at the base not wider than the pronotum; humeri distinct, but not protrudent; apices truncate, simple; surface mat, densely covered with short adpressed white setae.

Hind wings completely reduced.

Legs moderate in length, thin; posterior femora not reaching the elytral apices; tibiae thin, straight; femora compressed; all tarsi narrow, without combs or other special structures; fore tarsi 4-segmented, and remaining 5-segmented; claw-segment the longest, somewhat equal or shorter than 1 and 2 taken together in anterior and intermediate legs, and of the same length as 1 in posterior legs; claws narrow.

Ventral surface of body densely punctured, with sparse white adpressed pubescence; apical tergite transverse, 1.4 times wider than long, sides weakly emarginate at the apex (Fig. 6); apical sternite transverse, 2 times wider than long, narrow and truncate at apex (Fig. 7); phallus - damaged due to the fact that the specimens were caught in copula forcefully separated in the process of collecting - but with tegmen apparently subquadrate, with thin apodemes, and aedeagus short and simple, with two strong costae on sides at the base.

Length 2.0 mm, width (at elytral base) 1.4 mm.

Female. Differs from the male by somewhat shorter antennae and small, not swollen palpi (1st and 2nd segments small, transverse, 1.5 times shorter taken together than the apical, which is small, cylindrical and very similar in shape to the same segment of male) (Fig. 2); length 2.0 mm, width (at elytral base) 1.4 mm.

Etymology. The species is named after my colleague, Dr. Vladimir Dubatolov, an outstanding lepidopterologist, who collected this new species.

Habitat. Beetles inhabit banks of salt lakes, and feeding on necrophags of dead insects. Detail bionomy should be studied.

Distribution. Known from the type locality only (Fig. 8).

This new species can be separated from the other Colotes species of the southeastern part of Russia in the following key:

1. Hind wings reduced ................................................................................................................................. 2

- Hind wings normally developed............................................................................................................... 3

2(1). Pronotum monochromously yellow-orange; apical segment of palpi in male flat, rectangular ................ ...................................................................................................................................... C. dubatolovi sp.n.

- Pronotum contrasting, yellow with big black spot; apical segment in male subtriangular ...... C. galbula

3(1). Elyra black with three small yellow spots behind the scutellum, one in a middle and two on sides behind humeri; apices slightly yellow; second segment of male maxillary palpi large, round, the apex funnel-shape .............................................................................................................................. C. hampei

- Elyra yellow with three black spots, one at the base and two behind the middle on each elytron; second segment of male maxillary palpi transverse, subparallel, the apex large and subquadrate ....................... ....................................................................................................................................... C. kasachstanicus