Stenoodes jeanneli Basilewsky 1953

Stenoodes jeanneli Basilewsky, 1953 (Fig. 18 A-C) Stenoodes jeanneli Basilewsky, 1953: 55. TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype. Madagascar • 1 ♂; Ambohitsitondrona; X.1948; Michel leg.; “ Stenoodes jeanneli, nov. gen., n. sp. ”; P. Basilewsky det., 1952; MNHN. TAXONOMIC SUPPLEMENT (BASED ON HOLOTYPE) The following additions and specifications are added to the original description. Stipes with long and fine dorsal seta, longer than length of stipes; antennomere 2 with long ventral seta. Clypeus concave in front, with two clypeal setae; clypeus fused with frons (no frontoclypeal suture). Mentum with two long paramedial setae. Submentum with two long lateral setae. Pronotum anterior and posterior transverse impressions barely distinct only medially; basal margin without bead, basal edge without setal fringe (Fig. 18B). Prosternum with median longitudinal sulcus shallowly impressed. Parascutellar seta present, small, located at level of elytral stria 2; parascutellar striole long, not joining elytral stria 1, almost reaching medial end of basal margin. Elytral interval 3 with two discal setiferous punctures near stria 2, first more evident, situated in medial fifth of elytral length, second, less perceptible than first, located in posterior fourth (Fig. 18A). Stria 8 distinct in anterior four-seventh where deeper than striae 1-7. Intervals 8 and 9 normal in anterior four-seventh, modified towards apex as interval 8 elevated, forming a ridge, 9 deepened and widened backwards, forming a marginal furrow (Fig. 18C). Mesotrochanter with seta. Mesotibia without submedial assemblage of setae. Metafemur with long basal posterior seta opposite metatrochanter. REMARKS Stenoodes was introduced for the distinctively autapomorphic species S. jeanneli (Basilewsky 1953). The genus was originally placed in the tribe Oodini though the author (ibid.) did not report on the unique modifications in elytral intervals 8 and 9 (see Introduction) that are the most recognizable morphologic features of the tribe. Recently, the genus was categorized as a representative of the tribe Chlaeniini and listed immediately after Hololeius (Lorenz 1998, 2005). This move was made because “ Stenoodes was strikingly looking like an Indian Hololeius, that may have been unknown to Basilewsky” (Wolfgang Lorenz, pers. comm.). Careful study of the holotype of S. jeanneli revealed that it possesses the modifications in elytral intervals 8 and 9 typical of Oodini and that its integument is glabrous outside of the typical sensory setae, consistent with the original placement of Basilewsky (1953). The presence of a basal posterior seta on hind femur and lack of mesotibial submedial assemblage of setae (for the second character see Guéorguiev & Schmidt 2016) both are likely plesiomorphic conditions in this group of carabids. That led to supposition that Stenoodes is most likely an early branch in the tribe. The other oodine groups that possess basal posterior seta on metafemur are Oodinus Motschulsky, 1865 and Stenocrepis Chaudoir, 1857 (Bousquet 1996), three Australian species of Nanodiodes Bousquet, 1996 as well as two of the four recognized species groups of Brachyodes Jeannel, 1949 (unpublished data). While the representatives of the first genus are mainly restricted to the world tropical regions, with two species occurring subtropical areas of the southernmost United States, members of Stenocrepis inhabit the New World from southern Ontario south to Uruguay and Argentina, including the West Indies (Spence 1983; Bousquet 1996, 2012). Taxa of Brachyodes live mainly in the tropics of the Old World, with only a few species reaching southern skirts of the Palaearctic Region (Bousquet 2017; unpublished information).