Macrelmis clypeata

Passos, Maria Inês Silva Dos, Miranda, Gustavo Silva De & Nessimian, Jorge Luiz, 2015, Three new species of Macrelmis Motschulsky (Coleoptera: Elmidae: Elminae) from Southeastern Brazil with new definition of species groups to the genus, Zootaxa 4058 (2), pp. 195-210 : 204

clypeata species group Hinton 1946

Diagnostic character: parameres and aedeagus of equal size, both short; parameres completely surrounds the aedeagus ( Figs. 5E, F ).

Species: Macrelmis clypeata and M. isus .

Distribution ( Fig. 6 ): Trinidad: Maracas ( Hinton 1936). Argentina: Cordoba, Jujuy, Misiones, Salta, San Luis, San Juan ( Manzo & Archangelsky 2001). Brasil: Goiás ( Barbosa et al. 2013), Rio de Janeiro ( Sampaio et al. 2012), Santa Catarina ( Hinton 1946). Bolivia: Sidras and Tarijá ( Manzo & Archangelsky 2008). Paraguay: Guairá ( Shepard & Aguilar Julio 2010).

History of the group: Macrelmis clypeata was considered as closely related to M. tarsalis by Hinton (1936). Afterwords, Hinton (1946) added M. isus to this set of species and formaly presented this group. He defined it as “having the apices of the elytra dehiscent, each elytron being separately rounded at extreme apex, and by the unusual secondary sexual characters of the male” ( Hinton 1946). Despite of this resemblances, the male genitalia of M. tarsalis differs considerably from that of M. isus and M. clypeata . So, only the last two species are considered to compose the clypeata group.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Distributional map of South American species of Macrelmis. The question mark in the big map over Brazil represents M. antiqua, a species without a more precise location known. The question mark in frame B over São Paulo state represents M. salti, another species with not many detail, beside the state where it occurs in Brazil.

FIGURE 5 A – F. Male genitalia of Macrelmis. A, B: alea sp. group. A. M. alea. B. M. aeolis (both modified from Hinton, 1946). C, D. milleri sp. group. C. M. milleri. D. M. hayakae (both modified from Spangler, 1997). E, F. clypeata sp. group. E. M. clypeata. F. M isus (modified from Hinton, 1946). Scale bars: A, B, E, F: 0.1 mm; C: 0.3 mm; D: 0.5 mm.