Bibrax grandis, Tapuy-Avilés & Díaz-Guevara & Caterino, 2025

Tapuy-Avilés, Yarina, Díaz-Guevara, David R. & Caterino, Michael S., 2025, First record of Bibrax Fletcher, 1927 (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Pselaphinae) from Ecuador, with descriptions of twelve new species, ZooKeys 1250, pp. 105-133 : 105-133

publication ID

https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1250.156763

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:C677FE28-AB0C-467F-86BA-459EF275E79E

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16950032

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/C4ACA30D-22C0-5DC4-B1D6-FC5EE544C4D4

treatment provided by

ZooKeys by Pensoft

scientific name

Bibrax grandis
status

sp. nov.

Bibrax grandis sp. nov.

Fig. 8 F – H View Figure 8

Type material.

Holotype • ♀ ( MECN -EN 40146 ): “ Ecuador: Cotopaxi, -0.4168, -79.0044, Bosque Integral Otonga , 14.VIII.2024, 2093 m, M. Caterino | A. Pazmiño, Sifted leaf litter ” / “ Caterino DNA voucher, Ext. MSC-12889, Morphosp. Ot.A.054 ” / “ MECN -EN 40146 ”. GoogleMaps

Diagnosis.

BL = 1.73 mm (n = 1). Body large, very densely setose; eyes (of female) with multiple facets, head rounded at sides, short anterior to eyes, with pair of lyriform carinae; gular teeth well-developed; antennal tubercle short, wider apically; antennal scape cylindrical, coarsely punctate, antennomeres II – V more slightly enlarged and more densely setose than VI – X; pronotum with anterior lobes weakly angulate laterally, median and lateral longitudinal sulci deeply impressed; elytra moderately long, not together emarginate along posterior margin; dorsal elytral sulci (from mid-basal foveae) distinct, reaching just beyond elytral midpoint; abdominal tergites densely setose; posterior corners of abdominal laterotergites rounded.

Male. Unknown.

Distribution.

This species is known only from the higher elevations of the Bosque Integral Otonga, in northern Cotapaxi province, Ecuador.

Remarks.

This species is highly distinctive among known Bibrax species. Although known only from a single female, it is unusual enough to warrant recognition. It is most distinctive in its much shorter antennal base, lyriform frontal carinae, and produced subangulate pronotal sides. While the eyes are reduced, they exhibit a few more ommatidia than most of the reduced-eye species described here. The male might be expected to differ in eye size, and its discovery would also permit assessment of some other phylogenetically useful characters, such as presence of secondary sexual characters of the abdominal ventrites, mesotibiae, and metatrochanters.

Etymology.

While appearing related to many of the smaller, flattened species described in this study, this species is considerably larger than most of them, leading to our naming it B. grandis .

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Coleoptera

Family

Staphylinidae

SubFamily

Pselaphinae

Genus

Bibrax