doiSerbia

Rozajella jovanvladimiri gen. N., sp. n. (Leptodirini, Leiodidae, Coleoptera), from east Montenegro, with notes on its phylogeny

Ćurčić S.B. (Institut za zoologiju, Biološki fakultet, Beograd)
Brajković M.M. (Institut za zoologiju, Biološki fakultet, Beograd)
Ćurčić B.P.M. (Institut za zoologiju, Biološki fakultet, Beograd)
Waitzbauer W. (Katedra za konzervacionu biologiju, vegetacijsku i pejzažnu ekologiju, Fakultet prirodnih nauka, Beč, Austrija)

A new genus and species of cave-dwelling leiodid beetles (Rozajella jovanvladimiri gen. n., sp. n.) has been diagnozed and described from the Pećina u Dubokom Potoku Cave, village of Donje Biševo, near Rožaje, Eastern Montenegro. This new genus clearly differs from all other close genera in the following correlative traits: body size; shape of head; presence of occipital carina, length of antennae; morphometric ratios and form of certain antennomeres; head/pronotum width ratio; pronotum length/width ratio; form of lateral pronotal margins; pronotal/elytral base length ratio; form of femora and protarsi; presence of apical rows of spines on tibiae; form of elytra; existence of elytral shoulders; length of elytral setae; form of median lobe and its apex; form of inner sac; length of basal bulbus; form of parameres and their apices; distribution of parameral setae; and distribution in the Balkan Peninsula. Rozajella gen. n. belongs to a separate phyletic lineage (série phylétique de "Leptodirus" - sensu Perre au 2000) which includes five other genera, Leptostagus Z. Karaman (from Macedonia), Petkovskiella Guéorguiev (from Macedonia), Astagobius Reitter (from Slovenia and Croatia), Albanodirus Giachino & Vailati (from Albania), and Leptodirus Schmidt (from Slovenia, Croatia, and Italy). The new genus is present in Eastern Montenegro only. The Rozajella-Leptostagus-Petkovskiella-Astagobius-Albanodirus-Leptodirus complex is probably of early Tertiary age, its species having originated during the Alpine Orogeny, which affected vast areas of the Balkan Peninsula, including the Dinarids, otherwise their terra typica. .

Keywords: Rozajella, Leptodirini, Leiodidae, phylogeny, biodiversity, evolution, Montenegro