Mycetochara ( Oculochara ) adygea Nabozhenko, 2025

Mycetochara ( Oculochara) adygea Nabozhenko , sp. nov.

( Fig. 16 View FIGURE 16 )

Material. Holotype, ♂ ( ZMSFU): Russia, Adygea Republic, Nikel , 26.vii.1996 ( D.G. Kasatkin) ; Paratypes, 2♂♂ ( ZMSFU): Russia, Adygea Republic, Guzeripl’ environs, window trap on Pinus , 22.vi.2001 ( A.R. Bibin). All type specimens with incomplete antennae, maximum with eight antennomeres .

Description. Holotype. Body slender, narrow, shiny, head and pronotum light-brown, elytra reddish-brown, with reddish spot in basal 3/4 (spots large, but not reaching elytral suture), legs, mouthparts and prosternum reddish, antennae reddish, with antennomeres 4–8 slightly darker. Body covered with suberected light-reddish setae.

Head. Anterior margin of epistoma slightly rounded, lateral margin of genae straight, strongly converging from eyes to anterior margin of epistome. Dorsal side with sparse smooth (edges not distinct) puncturation (interpuncture distance near twice as long as puncture diameter), each puncture bears long suberected setae. Head ventrally and laterally with long smooth wrinkles along posterior edge of eyes, without visible puncturation. Eyes large, transverse section of one eye 1.12 times as long as interocular space. OI = 31.

Prothorax. Pronotum transverse (1.4 times as wide as long), widest at base, 1.27 times as wide as head; PI = 72. Lateral margins rounded at anterior two thirds and slightly emarginated at basal third, converging from base to anterior margin. Anterior margin slightly rounded, base bisinuate, middle portion protruded. Disc slightly convex only laterally in anterior half, slightly depressed at middle basally and with stronger transverse impressions at basal portions on sides from middle. Puncturation of disc moderately coarse and sparse, punctures round, interpuncture distance 2–3 times as long as puncture diameter, punctures larger along base and in posterior angles; each puncture bears long subrecumbent light-reddish seta. Anterior angles not expressed, pronotum widely rounded antero-laterally; posterior angles acute. Edges of pronotum not margined. Prothoracic hypomera and prosternum shiny, with fine and sparse puncturation and short setation.

Pterothorax. Elytra elongate, subparallel when completely closed, 1.29–1.3 times wider at base (immediately behind humeral angles) than base of pronotum. Humeral angles widely rounded. Striae consist of round slightly raduliform dense punctures, interstriae 1 and 2 slightly convex, rest ones flattened, each interstria contains one irregular row of punctures; strial punctures 2 times larger than interstrial ones; each puncture bears subrecumbent light-reddish setae. Mesoventrite and metepimera with dense and coarse puncturation; mesepisterna and mesepimera with sparse irregular puncturation; metaventrite convex, moderately coarsely punctured at anterior portion and sparser punctured at basal half.

Legs slender, long, reddish; profemora shortest, metafemora longest; pro- and metatibiae straight, mesotibiae slightly curved in holotype and straight in paratypes; each protarsal claw with 10 teeth on inner side.

Abdomen. Abdominal ventrites punctured by sparse and fine raduliform punctures and covered with recumbent setae. Aedeagus with basal piece 3.2 times longer than parameres. Parameres flattened dorso-ventrally, dorsally with slightly emarginated in middle lateral margins, widely rounded at apex, slightly S-shaped laterally, with two rows of spines dorsally. Penis smooth, without sculpture.

Variability. In males ( paratypes) from Guzeripl PI = 75 and 75.7. One male has reddish elytral spots reaching sutural angles and forms band in the basal quarter of the elytra. OI in both specimens = 31.8.

Etymology. The name derives from Adygea, the republic in Russia, from which this species is described. Indeclinable non-Latinized name (Article 31.2.3 of IZCN).

Comparative diagnosis. The new species is most similar to three species from Talysh Mts: M. ocularis Reitter, 1884 , M. orszuliki Novák, 2020 and M. masalliica Novák, 2020 by the presence of reddish spots in humeral area of elytra, but differs from them by the ocular index (OI = 31–31.8 in M. adygea sp. nov. vs 18.35–25.93 in compared species) and the shape of the aedeagus with distinct spines (compare Fig. 16E, F View FIGURE 16 in the present paper with Figs 60–61, 67–68 and 71–72 in Novák (2020a)).

Distribution. Mountain part of Adygea Republic (North Caucasus, Russia). This is the first record of the subgenus Oculochara in the Greater Caucasus. Other species are known from the south of Anatolia ( Mardin and Muğla provinces) and the South Caspian region (Talysh in Iran and Azerbaijan and Zagros Mts in Iran) ( Novák 2020a, 2022).