Revision of the Quedius fauna of Middle Asia (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Staphylininae)

Abstract

Twenty eight species of the genus Quedius from Middle Asia comprising Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, are revised. Quediusaltaicus Korge, 1962, Q.capitalis Eppelsheim, 1892, Q.fusicornis Luze, 1904, Q.solskyi Luze, 1904 and Q.cohaesus Eppelsheim, 1888 are redescribed. The following new synonymies are established: Q.solskyi Luze, 1904 = Q.asiaticus Bernhauer, 1918, syn. n.; Q.cohaesus Eppelsheim, 1888 = Q.turkmenicus Coiffait, 1969, syn. n., = Q.afghanicus Coiffait, 1977, syn. n.; Q.hauseri Bernhauer, 1918 = Q.peneckei Bernhauer, 1918, syn. n., = Q.ouzbekiscus Coiffait, 1969, syn. n.; Q.imitator Luze, 1904 = Q.tschinganensis Coiffait, 1969, syn. n.; Q.novus Eppelsheim, 1892 = Q.dzambulensis Coiffait, 1967, syn. n., Q.pseudonigriceps Reitter, 1909 = Q.kirklarensis Korge, 1971, syn. n. Lectotypes are designated for Q.asiaticus Bernhauer, 1918, Q.fusicornis Luze, 1904, Q.hauseri Bernhauer, 1918, Q.imitator Luze, 1904, Q.novus Eppelsheim, 1892 and Q.solskyi Luze, 1904. For all revised species, taxonomy, distribution and bionomics are summarized. Quediusfuliginosus (Gravenhorst, 1802), Q.sundukovi Smetana, 2003 and Q.pseudonigriceps Reitter, 1909 are recorded for Middle Asia for the first time. One species from the Q.coloratus-group, found to be new to science is not described due to shortage of material. Another possibly new species is tentatively identified as Q.fulvicollis Stephens, 1833 until the taxonomy of that widespread species is revised. An identification key to all species is provided.

Rove beetles of the genus Quedius (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) of Russia: a key to species and annotated catalogue

“…Throughout the rest of the 20 th and the beginning of the 21 st centuries, the amount of taxonomic publications that touched upon Quedius of Russia significantly grew and included many species described from the Russian parts of the Caucasus (Coiffait 1967; Solodovnikov 2002, 2004), Altai Mountains (Coiffait 1969; Salnitska and Solodovnikov 2018a, b), Siberia (Kirschenblatt 1933; Coiffait 1975; Smetana 1978b, 1995), or Far East (Solodovnikov and Hansen 2016; Smetana 2003; Smetana and Shavrin 2018). In addition to these taxonomic publications, there are faunistic publications accumulated over decades.…”

“…The distribution of this species stretches across the central and south-western Altai through the border between Russia and Kazakhstan (Korge 1962; Salnitska and Solodovnikov 2018b). All hitherto known specimens were collected at elevations of 1200–2000 m. It was also recorded from Saur Mountains in Kazakhstan (Toleutaev 2014) but such a remote record needs confirmation.…”

“…In Spain it was recorded from a cave (Outerelo et al 1998). However, as stated in Salnitska and Solodovnikov (2018b), its actual distribution, especially outside Europe, requires revision because this species can be easily confused with Q.fuliginosus (see below). The data summarized here suggest that Q.curtipennis is widespread in the European part of Russia.…”

“…This is one of the most common species of Quedius distributed throughout the entire West Palearctic east to Middle Asia (Salnitska and Solodovnikov 2018b). Its record from Northern China (Horion 1965) is obviously erroneous, because in the latest revision of the Chinese Quediina (Smetana 2017) the subgenus Quedius s. str.…”

“…Historically, the main focus of explorations of the Palearctic fauna, including studies of Quedius , has been its European part, while the rich and unique faunas of Asia were studied only patchily or remained unexplored. In the last decades we have witnessed a growing interest in the Chinese Quedius (Smetana 2017) and, recently, the Middle Asian fauna has been revised (Salnitska and Solodovnikov 2018a, b). With all this progress, the Quedius of Russia became a very obvious knowledge gap.…”