Descriptions of three new species of the Termitophilous tribe Termitopaediini in China (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae)

Abstract Three new species belonging to two genera of the aleocharine tribe Termitopaediini Seevers, viz., Dioxeuta rara Song & Li, sp. n., D. yunnanensis Song & Li, sp. n., and Termitopulex sinensis Song & Li, sp. n. from Baihualing Natural Reserve (Southwest China: Yunnan) are described and illustrated. This is the first record of Termitopulex Fauvel, 1899 from China.


Introduction
The termitophilous tribe Termitopaediini Seevers was established by Seevers (1957) and subsequently revised by Kistner (1968Kistner ( , 2001. Up to date, 19 valid genera of the tribe have been known from the Oriental and Afrotropical regions (Kistner 2001). Pace (1999) described the first and only Chinese termitopaediine species, Dioxeuta rougemonti Pace, 1999 from Hong Kong. Recently, the senior author and his colleagues surveyed the termitophilous and myrmecophilous staphylinid fauna in the Baihualing Natural Reserve (Southwest China: Yunnan), and collected a series of unidentified aleocharine beetles from the fungus garden in a nest of termite Macrotermes Holmgren (Fig. 5A). A closer examination of this material revealed two new species of the genus Dioxeuta Sharp and one of the genus Termitopulex Fauvel, which are described herein.

Material and methods
Holotypes and most of the paratypes are deposited in the Insect Collection of the Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China (SNUC), and some of paratypes are deposited in the Kyushu University Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (KUM).
Specimens were killed with ethyl acetate and preserved in 75% ethanol before dissection; photos of habitus were taken by a Canon EOS 7D with an MP-E 65mm macro photo lens; photos of characteristic pattern were taken by a Canon G9 Camera mounted on an Olympus CX31 microscope.
The following abbreviations are applied in the text: BL -body length, from the anterior margin of the head to the posterior margin of the abdominal tergite VIII; FBL -forebody length, from the clypeal anterior margin to the posterior margin of elytra; HL -head length, from the clypeal anterior margin to the occipital constriction; PL -length of the pronotum along the midline; HW -width of the head across the eyes; PW -maximum width of the pronotum.  (Kistner 1968(Kistner , 2001. Comparative notes. Dioxeuta rara is most similar to D. rougemonti and D. yunnanensis described below through its yellowish-brown color and the presence of macrochaetae on abdominal tergite VII. The new species can be readily separated from D. rougemonti by the deferent abdominal macrochaetotaxy as well as the shape of aedeagal median lobe. It differs from D. yunnanensis by the presence of short macrosetae on abdominal tergites VII; tergite VIII with 5 pairs of macrosetae; sternite VIII almost truncate at apex and the deferent shapes of aedeagal median lobe and spermatheca.
Female. Sternite VIII slightly emarginate at apex, shaped as in Fig.1G; with 5 pairs of macrosetae. Spermatheca shaped as in Fig. 2C.  Comparative notes. Dioxeuta yunnanensis is most similar to D. rara described above, but can be readily separated from it by the different abdominal macrochaetotaxy as well as the shape of aedeagal median lobe and spermatheca.
Female. Posterior margin of sternite VIII (Fig. 3 F  Remarks. The genus is similar to Polyteinia Bernhauer and Paratermitopulex Kistner through the overall shape. It can be easily separated from Polyteinia by the absence of easily visible exit pores from abdominal segment VII and the different shape of paramere. It can be distinguished from Paratermitopulex by the rounded lateral edges of the pronotum. Termitopulex is also related to Dioxeuta from which it can be distinguished the less physogastric abdomen and the paratergites approximately equal in width (Kistner 2001). Description. Body (Figs 4A, 5C) shining, smooth. Coloration: fore body and legs yellowish-brown; abdomen yellowish-brown, with tergites VI-VIII darker.
Male. Sternite VIII rounded at apex; shaped as in Fig. 4D; with 6 pairs of macrosetae. Median lobe of aedeagus and paramere shaped as in Fig. 4E-F.