Platambus Thomson, 1859

Bian, Dong-Ju & Ji, Lan-Zhu, 2008, A new species of Platambus from China (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae), Zootaxa 1683 (1), pp. 32-38 : 33

Platambus Thomson, 1859

Type species. Dytiscus maculatus Linnaeus, 1859

Diagnosis. Body length 5.6– 10 mm, width 3.4–5.5 mm. Body generally elongate oval, mostly black with ferrugineous patches. Head generally black with two ferrugineous patches on the vertex. Reticulation consisting of polygonal meshes with minute punctures on their inner surface and somewhat larger ones at their intersections. Pronotum mostly with the lateral margins more or less broadly testaceous. Lateral margins distinctly bordered in all species. Elytra mostly with a more or less broad transverse subbasal ferrugineous band and a longitudinal lateral band. Underside ferrugineous-brown to dark brown. Metafemora mostly with a few short hairs at distal posterior angles. Protarsi and mesotarsi dilated with numerous small pads on the first three tarsomeres in males ( Brancucci, 1988). Nilsson (2000) suggested that the process of the prothoracic ventrite with lateral bead inflated posteriorad of procoxae and the wide mesocoxal separation be used to diagnose an expanded genus Platambus , adding to the species included by Brancucci (1988) those included in the genus Agabinus and other Nearctic species-groups formerly considered within Agabus .

Distribution. Nearctic, Neotropical, Oriental, Palearctic.