Micranops indicus, sp. nov. (Figs 128–130, 174, 175) Type specimens: India: Holotype ♂, Tamil Nadu, Nilgiri: 20 km E Coonoor, 650 m, 19.XI.1972, leg. Besuchet, Löbl, Mussard (MHNG). Paratypes (20 specimens): 1 ♂, 1 ♀, same data as holotype (MFNB, MHNG); 2 ♂, 3 ♀, same data as holotype, but 900 m (MFNB, MHNG); 1 ♂, 2 ♀, Goa, Canacona: Cortigao Sanctuary, 1000 m, 6.–10.I.1997, leg. Schulz & Vock (MFNB, NHMW); 1 ♂, Kerala: 30 km NNE Trivandrum: Kallar Bridge (08°45'N, 77°05'E), 400 m, 31.XII.1998, leg. Boukal (NHMW); 5 ♂, 1 ♀, Madhya Pradesh, 4.5 km SW Pachmarhi: Vanshree Vihar (Mahadeo Hills) (22°26'34"N, 78°23'25"E), 950 m, 16.X.2000, leg. Cuccodoro (MFNB, MHNG); 1 ♂, 2 ♀, Tamil Nadu: Coonoor, 600 m, 16.I.1972, leg. Mussard (MHNG). Description: Macrophthalmous, pterodimorphous species with palisade fringe of abdominal tergite VII; type series includes approximately equal numbers of macrophthalmous specimens with elytral sutural length about as long as pronotum and functional metathoracic wings and of micropterous specimens with shorter elytra, along suture 0.8 times as long as pronotum, and reduced, non-functional metathoracic wings. Body color medium brown, often with slightly darker brown head and more or less blackened elytra except for medium brown shoulders and yellow brown posterior sixth of lateral elytral length; appendages light brown. Body surface subnitid with fine, dense, setose punctation; head and pronotum distinctly microreticulate. Head 1.1–1.2 times longer than wide, with moderately convex temples and straight posterior margin. Eyes 0.39–0.5 times as long as temples. Nuchal groove 0.29–0.3 times as wide as greatest head width. Trichobothrial cavity guttiform, with tapered anterior end connected to dorsoposterior margin of eye. Antenna short, compact; pedicellus subquadrate or very slightly elongate, antennomere 3 and 4 as long as wide, antennomeres 5–10 increasingly transverse; antennomere 10 about 0.6 times, antennomere 11 about 1.1–1.2 times as long as wide. Total body length 2.4–2.7 mm; forebody length 1.2–1.4 mm. Male: Protarsomeres 1–4 not dilated, about as wide as long. Abdominal sternite VII with slight emargination in about medial 0.3 of slightly convex posterior margin bordered by three irregular rows of strongly modified, short-oval macrosetae (Fig. 174). Abdominal sternite VIII with subbasal ridge indistinct and triangularly extended medioposteriad and posterior margin narrowly incised to about 0.3 of sternite length; lateral setae very short, up to 0.17 times as long as sternite length (Fig. 175). Aedeagus in lateral view with elongate, apically rounded apical portion and vestigial phallobase with tapered, truncate end feebly extended over circoforamen posteriorly (Fig. 128); in dorsal view, aedeagus long-oval with round apex, about three times as long as wide (Fig. 130). Distal lobes of apical portion of aedeagus membranous apically, not distinguishable without dissection, convex ventrally (Figs 128, 130). Ventromedial endophallic lobe and strongly sclerotized endophallic sclerites absent. Ventral process aligned distoventrad, projecting strongly beyond apical portion of aedeagus, in lateral view slender knife-shaped with subbasal, ventral denticle and slightly tapered toward subparallel apical third ending with broad, round tip (Fig. 128), in ventral view narrow, at base about half as wide as aedeagus at same level, and evenly tapered toward narrow, subacute end (Fig. 129). Dorsodistal opening of phallobase and dorsomidlongitudinal split indistinct. Postforamen strongly projecting distoventrad (Fig. 128). Circoforamen slightly longer than median foramen (Fig. 129). Length of aedeagus 0.24–0.27 mm. Female: Protarsomeres 1–4 not dilated, about as wide as long. Distribution: Micranops indicus is widespread in the Indian subcontinent and recorded from Madhya Pradesh south to Tamil Nadu. Bionomics: Micranops indicus was sifted from leaf litter near a stream in Madhya Pradesh. Etymology: The epithet indicus [adjective, Latin (“the Indian”), derived from the Latin country name India] was chosen in view of the wide distribution of this new species in the Indian subcontinent.

Published as part of Frisch, Johannes, 2025, Micranops Cameron, 1913 in the Old World. New species, redescriptions, and new records (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae), pp. 500-562 in Megataxa 17 (2) on pages 549-550, DOI: 10.11646/megataxa.17.2.5, http://zenodo.org/record/18485817