O. Merkl szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 69. (Budapest, 2008)

For the illustrations permanent preparations were made in Euparal mounting medium on plastic cards pinned with the specimens. Drawing was done with a Jenalab compound microscope (Carl Zeiss, Jena) and a drawing tube. RESULTS Because the original description missed a few details important for judging the phylogenetic relatedness of the species, a couple of illustrations were felt necessary to add. This helps comparing the taxon to other European species already illustrated (e.g. the Thinobius linearis group in MAKRANCZY & SCHULKE 2001). Elytra (Fig. 1) with characteristically reduced shoulders (usual for endogean, flightless staphylinids). The original aedeagus illustration was very detailed but misinterpreted a few details that made it difficult to realise that the species (not counting the specialised habitat and resulted modifications) is actually very similar and closely related to a group of species that includes for example Thinobius klimai BERNHAUER, 1902 and T. newberyi SCHEERPELTZ, 1925. The aedeagus (Fig. 2) also shows this affinity, and perhaps a more distant relationship to other European species like T. major KRAATZ, 1857, or T. ligeris PYOT, 1874 that have similar aedeagal characters and terminalia. Male sternite VIII is unmodified (Fig. 3), sternite IX present (Fig. 4), tergite IX unmodified (Fig. 5). Female genital appendages (Fig. 6) are also in the plesiomorphic condition, valvifers and coxites still separate (see MAKRANCZY 2006) as opposed to the more derived species, those that are referred to as Thinobius s.str. in recent works (e.g. SCHULKE 1998). Spermatheca bipartite, very weakly sclerotized, sac-like (Fig. 7). As a conclusion, Thinobius korbeli appears to be a highly modified species from one of the very basal lineages of the genus Thinobius. Acknowledgements - I would like to thank Dr GYŐZÖ SZÉL (HNHM), who accompanied during the collecting trips and showed me the habitat of Leucojum aestivum. Thanks are due to Dr. FERENC MÉSZÁROS (HNHM) and the project "A Szigetköz térség kárainak mérséklése, környezeti monitoring működtetése" that provided funding for the trips, Dr GlULIO CUCCODORO (MHNG) for lending and donating material of Thinobius korbeli and Dr. VLADIMIR I. GUSAROV (University of Oslo, Natural History Museum, Department of Zoology) for showing me the soil washing method.