Clidicus minilankanus sp. n., with notes on remaining Sri Lankan Clidicus species (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae).

Abstract

Until now, four species of Clidicus Laporte were found in Sri Lanka, three known from female specimens only. Clidicus minilankanus sp. n., is described, and compared to all remaining sympatric congeners. The Sri Lankan species may form a monophyletic group characterized by several morphological oddities: the head only slightly impressed posteromedially, with a large portion of vertex and frons not divided longitudinally; the pronotum quadrangular and flattened, with vestigial or absent posterior 'collar', and the transverse groove that demarcates it from the disc lacking pits or even entirely or partly obliterated; and the metaventrite strongly shortened, so that meso- and metacoxae are nearly adjacent. These characters may justify resurrecting Erineus Walker, a junior synonym of Clidicus (proposed for the first described Sri Lankan species, C. monstrosus (Walker)), as a valid name for a subgenus. This problem must be addressed by a phylogenetic analysis of all Clidicus species, to establish evolutionary relationships within this interesting genus.