Exocelina kumulensis Shaverdo & Balke

Shaverdo, Helena, Sagata, Katayo & Balke, Michael, 2018, Introduction of the Exocelinacasuarina-group, with a key to its representatives and descriptions of 19 new species from New Guinea (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae, Copelatinae), ZooKeys 803, pp. 7-70 : 24-25

11. Exocelina kumulensis Shaverdo & Balke sp. n. Figs 25, 49

Exocelina undescribed sp. MB1360: Toussaint et al. 2014: supplementary figs 1-4, table 2; Toussaint et al. 2015: supplementary figs S1-S2, table S3.

Exocelina hagenensis _New_Guinea_MB1360: Toussaint et al. 2015: supplementary information S5-S6.

Type locality.

Papua New Guinea: Enga Province, Kumul Lodge at foot of Mt Hagen, 05°47.55'S, 143°58.76'E, 2700 m a.s.l.

Type material.

Holotype: male "M. Balke 1360" [green], "Papua New Guinea: Enga, Kumul Lodge @ foot of Mt. Hagen, 2700m, 5.xii.2006, 05.47.548S 143.58.761E, Balke & Kinibel (PNG 124)" (ZSM).

Description.

Body size and form: Beetle large: TL-H 5.4 mm, TL 6.0 mm, MW 2.9 mm, with broader, oblong-oval habitus.

Coloration: Piceous, with paler pronotum. Head piceous, narrowly brownish anteriorly and with two vague brownish spots between eyes. Pronotum dark brown, piceous on disc. Elytra piceous, with vague narrow brownish sutural lines. Head appendages and legs proximally reddish brown, legs distally darker, brownish, especially metathoracic legs (Fig. 25).

Surface sculpture: Submatt dorsally. Head with dense, coarse punctation (no spaces between punctures or spaces of equal size of punctures), finer and sparser anteriorly; diameter of punctures equal to diameter of cells of microreticulation. Pronotum with relatively dense but fine punctation, sparser and finer than on head. Elytra with finer punctation than on pronotum. Pronotum and elytra with strongly impressed microreticulation. Head with microreticulation stronger. Metaventrite and metacoxae distinctly microreticulate, metacoxal plates with longitudinal strioles and transverse wrinkles, abdominal ventrites with distinct microreticulation and strioles. Metaventrite medially, metacoxal plates, and abdominal ventrites with fine, sparse punctation.

Structures: Pronotum with distinct lateral bead. Its lateral sides with distinct longitudinal impressions. Base of prosternum and neck of prosternal process with distinct ridge, slightly rounded anteriorly. Blade of prosternal process lanceolate, relatively short, broad, slightly convex and smooth in the middle, with distinct lateral bead and few lateral setae, lateral sides flattened. Abdominal ventrite 6 rounded.

Male: Antennae simple (Fig. 25). Protarsomere 4 with anterior angle slightly expanded, with large, thick, strongly curved anterolateral hook-like seta. Protarsomere 5 slightly concave ventrally, with anterior band of ca 100 and posterior band of ca 40 relatively long setae (Fig. 49D). Median lobe in lateral view long, slightly curved, with small, very slightly bent downwards, thickened apex; in ventral view, evenly tapering to broadly pointed apex. Paramere slightly concave on dorsal side and with weak dorsal setation, setae on subdistal part stronger, denser, more evident than proximal setae (Fig. 49 A–C). Abdominal ventrite 6 with 17-18 lateral striae on each side.

Female: Unknown.

Affinities.

Exocelina kumulensis sp. n. is similar to E. mendiensis sp. n. but differs from it by being larger, having coarser and denser dorsal punctation and by the shape of the median lobe.

Distribution.

Papua New Guinea: Enga Province. The species is known only from the type locality (Fig. 50).

Etymology.

The species is named after Kumul Lodge. The name is an adjective in the nominative singular.