Exocelina messeri (Balke, 1999)

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 : 27-29

14. Exocelina messeri (Balke, 1999) Figs 5, 29

Copelatus (Papuadytes) messeri Balke, 1999: 274; Nilsson 2001: 77 (catalogue).

Papuadytes messeri (Balke, 1999): Nilsson and Fery 2006: 56 (comb. n.).

Exocelina messeri ( Balke 1999): Nilsson 2007: 34 (comb. n.); Nilsson and Hájek 2018: 67 (catalogue).

Type locality.

Papua New Guinea: East Sepik Province, Amboin Patrol Post, Karawari Lodge.

Type material studied.

Paratypes: 2 males "Papua New Guinea: East Sepik Province, Amboin Patrol Post, Karawari Lodge, 7 Feb.1983, A.C. Messer", "Paratypus Copelatus messeri Balke des. 1999" [red] (NHMW). Note: The holotype has not been found. According to Balke (1999), it was deposited in the Natural Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.

Diagnosis.

For complete description, see Balke (1999: 274-275). Beetle small: TL-H 3.2-3.7 mm; oblong-oval, more strongly attenuated posteriorly; reddish to reddish brown, with head and pronotum slightly paler; shiny, with very fine, sparse punc tation, almost invisible on elytra and weakly impressed microreticulation; pronotum without lateral bead, sometimes with its traces in posterior part; male antennae simple (Fig. 5); male protarsomere 4 with anterolateral seta thin, long, smaller than more laterally situated large setae, slightly curved downwards; male protarsomere 5 long and narrow, with more than 80 relatively long, thin setae, which divided in anterior and posterior ones proximally and mixed up together in distal half of tarsomere (Fig. 29D); median lobe in lateral view almost straight, its apex rounded and not curved downwards, in ventral view, distally narrowed before apex, apex broad, slightly rounded; paramere slightly concave on dorsal side and with dorsal setae distinctly divided into long, dense subdistal setae and sparser, rather inconspicuous proximal ones, setae in middle part short and fine (Fig. 29 A–C).

Affinities.

See under E. keki sp. n.

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