Nebria (Falcinebria) hikosana Habu 1956

Nebria (Falcinebria) hikosana Habu, 1956 Figs 4, 5, 14, 15 Nebria hikosana: Habu (1956): 170 (original description; subgenus not specified; type locality: “ Mt. Hiko, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan ”); Farkač and Janata (2003): 94 (subgenus Orientonebria). Nebria reflexa hikosana: Nakane (1963): 19 (subgenus Paranebria); Uéno (1985): 57 (subgenus not specified); Ledoux and Roux (2005): 830 (subgenus Falcinebria); Nishida (2005): 2 (subgenus not specified); Yoshitake et al. (2011): 32 (subgenus Falcinebria); Huber (2017): 50 (subgenus Falcinebria). Materials examined. • Holotype ♂ (NARO), “ Col. A. HABU / Mt. Hiko / Fukuoka P. / V.23,1950 // Holotype / Nebria / hikosana / HABU // ♂ ” Additional material. 3 ♂ (KMNH), Japan • Fukuoka Prefecture, Soeda-machi, Hikosan, Mount Hiko-san, Yasuo Takakura leg. (1 ♂ [no further locality information], 8-VI-1982; 2 ♂, Ryûmon-kyô Gorge, 8-V-1989); 4 ♂ 5 ♀ (KS), Japan • Saga Prefecture, Kanzaki-shi, Mount Seburi-san, alt. 950 m, 15-V-2001, Masato Mori leg.; 1 ♀ (KMNH), Japan • Fukuoka Prefecture, Fukuoka-shi ~ Saga Prefecture, Kanzaki-shi, Mount Seburi-san, 7-V-1977, Munemichi Fukamachi leg. Diagnosis. Similar to the locally adjacent species N. chugokuensis, but distinguished by one pair of setae on the ventral side of the sterna 7 in the male (two pairs in N. chugokuensis) and the absence of a concavity on the ventral surface of the aedeagal apex (present in N. chugokuensis). Redescription. Body length: ♂, 9.14–9.92 mm, 9.64 ± 0.27 mm (n = 8); ♀, 10.27–10.89 mm, 10.56 ± 0.24 mm (n = 6). Sternum 7 with one seta on each ventrolateral side in the male, and two in the female. Other external structures, coloration, and chaetotaxy as in other related species that had been previously regarded as N. reflexa (Sasakawa 2020). Dorsobasal lobe small and slightly swollen. Dorsomedian lobe semi-prolate-spheroid, weakly bent toward the endophallus base or not bent and simply directed dorsally. Dorsoapical lobe elongated, apically narrowed gradually, weakly and uniformly bent ventrally; apex widely rounded; dorsobasal surface slightly swollen in some specimens. Laterobasal lobes small, nearly spherical; in ventral view, the left and right laterobasal lobes nearly attached to each other, concealing the aedeagus apex. Ventrobasal swelling small, semi-spheroid, attached to the fused basal portion of the left and right laterobasal lobes in ventral view. Right lateroapical lobe moderate in size, bifurcated in a V-shape in dorsal view; subapical lobes both conical and about the same size. Left lateroapical lobe conical, except for the surface on the endophallus-base side in dorsal / ventral view, which is slightly swollen. Gonopore protrusion large, directed ventrally, with an additional protrusion on the left side at the middle; additional protrusion straight, directed left laterally, gradually narrowed apically, with a length more than half that of the main body of the gonopore protrusion. Relative sizes of some lobes and protrusions are as follows: subapical lobes of the right lateroapical lobe <laterobasal lobes ≈ ventrobasal swelling <additional protrusion of the gonopore protrusion ≤ dorsomedian lobe <main body of the gonopore protrusion <dorsoapical lobe. Notes. There is disagreement as to whether the taxon hikosana should be treated as a subspecies of N. reflexa or as a distinct species, but neither treatment has been based on concrete evidence. Here, hikosana is regarded as a distinct species rather than a subspecies of another species, based on marked differences in endophallus morphology compared with other related species, particularly N. chugokuensis, the closest distributed species to N. hikosana (Sasakawa 2020). In Kyushu, there is also a record of this species from Mount Shaka-dake, located 30 km south of Mount Hiko-san and belonging to a different mountain range (Imasaka et al. 2019), but its identity requires confirmation in future studies.