Berosus capanaparo Oliva & Short

Oliva, Adriana & Short, Andrew E. Z., 2012, Review of the Berosus Leach of Venezuela (Coleoptera, Hydrophilidae, Berosini) with description of fourteen new species, ZooKeys 206, pp. 1-69 : 15-17

Berosus capanaparo Oliva & Short sp. n. Figs 8, 28D

Type material.

Holotype (male): "VENEZUELA: Apure State/ 7°20.175"N, 67°43.868"W, 49m/ Medanos de la Soledad/ 17.i.2009; Short, Miller, Camacho/ VZ09-0117-02X; marshy area", "[barcode]/ SEMC0877922/ KUNHM-ENT", "HOLOTYPE/ BEROSUS/ capanaparo sp. n./ des. Oliva & Short 2010" (MIZA). Paratypes (8):VENEZUELA: Apure State: Same data as holotype (3 exs., SEMC, MIZA); Same locality but 11.ix.2007, leg. Short, AS-07-004 (5 exs., SEMC, MIZA).

Diagnosis.

Large species without metallic luster on dorsum. Abdomen black. Elytral apices bispinous, sutural angle not produced. Mesoventral process with curved anterior tooth, posterior angle strongly raised. First ventrite with lateral depressions: fifth with smooth margins, with apical notch produced at bottom into a pair of contiguous rounded teeth. Basal tarsomere of males about twice as long as second. Male genitalia compressed, parameres long, narrow, with short subapical row of hairs (Fig. 8).

Description.

Body length 5.0-6.7 mm (holotype: total length: 5.6 mm; humeral width: 2.2 mm). Shape elongate, humeral humps weakly prominent. Labrum and clypeus testaceous, frons melanic at base, in some specimens entirely black except on the angles between each eye and the frontoclypeal suture. Pronotum testaceous with a narrow central melanic spot divided by a testaceous median line. Scutellum diffusely melanic. Elytra testaceous with melanic spots. Venter of thorax reddish in typical series. Abdomen black. Maxillary palpi with fourth palpomere darkened on apical one-fourth. Femora with pubescent portion darkened, glabrous portion testaceous. Punctures on clypeus moderately dense, about the same size as ommatidia; on frons coarser and denser; micropunctation between punctures; frontal carina well-marked. Pronotal punctures about twice the size of an ommatidion, on disc spaced by 2-4 times their diameters, on sides contiguous. Elytra micropunctate between punctures, shining. Scutellum reticulate, with a few punctures. Elytral striae fine and well-incised, bearing punctures about the same size as the pronotal ones. Interstriae wide, flat, even the external ones, bearing punctures as coarse as the serial ones, 2-3 seriated. Elytral apices emarginate almost in a semicircle, with sutural angle not produced, parasutural tooth triangular, sharp. Spine-like hairs on all the interstriae on posterior third of elytra.

Mesoventral process laminar, with large, curved anterior tooth directed downwards and backwards, behind this the ventral margin straight, posterior angle strongly raised but much less so than anterior tooth. Metaventral process narrow, posterolateral angles produced into small triangular laminae; posterior angle not raised. First ventrite carinate only between metacoxae, with lateral depressions. Fifth ventrite with small apical notch raised at the sides, the bottom bearing a blunt bifid tooth (Fig. 8A). Maxillary palpi long, with fourth palpomere ensiform, longer than third; second palpomere as long as third and fourth together. Basal pubescence on three-fifths of meso- and metafemora, limit transverse. Protarsus of male with small adhesive soles on the two basal tarsomeres, which are weakly thickened, the basal one about twice as long as the following one. Claws slender, toothed at base.

Male genitalia (Fig. 8B) compressed: basal piece one-third of total length. Parameres long, narrow, weakly sinuate, with apices turned towards the sternal side, rounded; rows of hairs rather short, subapical. Median lobe shorter than parameres, subcylindrical, moderately thick, regular in thickness, weakly curved.

Etymology.

The name refers to the river Capanaparo, near which the new species was found.

Distribution.

Venezuela (Apure).

Remarks.

Both collecting events for this species were at the same unusual locality: a marsh and pools formed around a dune complex (the Médanos de la Soledad) in the middle of the Llanos region (Fig. 28D). One event each occurred during the dry and wet seasons