A New Species of the Southern Appalachian Genus Prespelea Park (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae)

Abstract

Abstract We report the discovery of a new species in the recently revised genus Prespelea Park, Prespelea videns Caterino and Vásquez-Vélez, new species, from the Nantahala Mountains, North Carolina, USA. The new species has characters intermediate between two previously defined informal groups, one comprising wingless males with reduced eyes, one with apparently winged males with well-developed eyes. The new species is apparently flightless, but has moderately well-developed eyes. We assess its phylogenetic placement, using DNA and morphology, and find it to be sister to a clade comprising Prespelea myersae Caterino and Vásquez-Vélez and Prespelea enigma Caterino and Vásquez-Vélez. We provide a revised key to accommodate the new species, and offer some new distributional records for other species in the group.