Styphrus Motschulsky, 1845

Styphrus Motschulsky, 1845: 54. Type species: Styphrus corpulentus Motschulsky, 1845, by monotypy.

Styphrus: JAKOBSON (1911): 641, 651 (partim); REICHARDT (1925): 138; REICHARDT (1926): 15; REICHARDT (1941): 154, 174; PEYERIMHOFF (1936): 214, 223; KRYZHANOVSKIJ & REICHARDT (1976): 111, 186; MAZUR (1984): 78; MAZUR (1997): 245; MAZUR (2004): 101.

Diagnosis. Cuticle slightly metallic; frontal disc smooth; frontal stria straight, often interrupted medially; eyes convex; pronotal foveae vaguely impressed, often absent; disc of pronotum with sparse punctures along lateral margins, otherwise smooth; pronotal hypomeron setose; inner subhumeral stria linked basally with humeral elytral stria, long, reaching approximately four-fifths of elytral length apically; elytral epipleura glabrous. Prosternal process flattened, setose, pre-apical foveae absent; lateral prosternal striae shortened, ‘open’ apically, carinal prosternal striae subparallel, approximate; lateral sides of mesoventrite, metaventrite, metepisternum + fused meso- and metepimeron and all visible abdominal sternites setose. Claws of meso- and metatarsi only slightly curved, almost straight, thin, as long as or longer than apical-most tarsomere.

Biology. Styphrus corpulentus is found mostly on carcasses of gerbils, turtles etc., occasionally caught also at light (KRYZHANOVSKIJ & REICHARDT 1976).

Distribution. Styphrus corpulentus is distributed across the deserts of Central Asia and southern Russia.

Species examined. Styphrus corpulentus Motschulsky, 1845 .

Discussion. Styphrus corpulentus is most similar to the species of the genus Saprinus, but can be easily distinguished from them by the impunctate frontal disc as well as only slightly bent (almost straight), thin claws of apical-most meso- and metatarsomeres, that are as long (or slightly longer) than apical-most meso- and metatarsomeres. The sensory structures of the antennal club and absent pre-apical foveae indicate that this taxon is probably sister to Saprinus, as already indicated by KRYZHANOVSKIJ & REICHARDT (1976: 186). Otherwise Styphrus is mostly characterised by homoplasies e.g. setose prosternal process, underside of body with vestiture or almost straight thin claws of meso- and metatarsi.

Remarks. The diagnosis of this genus is based only on species Styphrus corpulentus Motschulsky, 1845 . The genus Styphrus contains another Palaearctic species, S. peyerimhoffi Chobaut, 1923 that belongs in fact to another genus and whose taxonomic status will be treated in a subsequent paper.