Laccodytes androginus, Toledo, Mario, Spangler, Paul J. & Balke, Michael, 2010

Toledo, Mario, Spangler, Paul J. & Balke, Michael, 2010, Taxonomic revision of the Neotropical diving beetles genus Laccodytes Régimbart, 1895 (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae), Zootaxa 2347, pp. 37-58 : 54-55

Laccodytes androginus sp.n.

Figs (37, 53, 62)

Type locality. Venezuela: Amazonas, 40 km S Puerto Ayacucho, Tobogán de la Selva.

Type material. Holotype 3 ( USNM): Venezuela: Amazonas, Puerto Ayacucho, 40 km S at Tobogán, 14.XI.1987, coll. n. #1, P.J. Spangler & R. Faitoute.

Diagnosis. Habitus ( Fig. 37 ). Body length 1.6 mm. Short and broadly oval, somewhat convex; tip of elytron narrowly rounded. Hind angle of pronotum rounded. Angle between pronotum and elytra missing.

Color. head and elytra dark brown, pronotum slightly paler, with a darker line along hind margin of pronotum. Each elytron with three diffuse, paler spots: two basal, almost circular, and one subapical, larger and less regular ( Fig. 37 ). Appendages of body reddish-brown. Venter reddish-brown, sternites slightly paler.

Sculpture. MR impressed on both elytra and metacoxae; small and fine dots are visible between the meshes, slightly denser on metaventrite. A series of transverse shallow grooves is visible at about the anterior fourth of metacoxal plates.

Structures. Pronotum with narrow lateral bead; posterior angle rounded. Prosternum and prosternal process with sharp ridge; prosternal process with a somewhat short, acute tip, not going beyond mesocoxae. Epipleuron broad up to level of sternite 7. Fore and middle legs very long and slender. Metatibial spurs conical and acuminate at tip. Metatarsomeres 1–4 with apico-lateral angle distinctly lobed. Hind lobes of metacoxal process rather straight, with a small V-shaped medial notch.

Male. Pro- and mesotarsi not dilated, with hardly visible adhesive setae. Sternite 7 slightly concave on both sides, with a deep V-shaped emargination on hind margin, similar to that of the female of L. neblinae ( Fig. 59 ) but the apical emargination is a little more widely spread. Aedeagus ( Fig. 53 ): median lobe slender and elongate in lateral view, with apex gradually curved downward; on dorsal view flat, slightly narrowed on apical third. Parameres as in Fig. 53 c, d.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 62). Southern Venezuela.

Biology. Collected from leaf packs in running water.

Derivatio nominis. From the male resemblance with a female Laccodytes .

Figures

FIGURES 28 – 39. Subschematic body shape and colour patterns: 28) Laccodytes apalodes; 29) L. rondonia; 30) L. americanus; 31) L. phalacroides; 32) L. takutuanus; 33 a – 33 b) L. neblinae (variation of elytral patterns); 34) L. bassignanii; 35) L. obscuratus; 36) L. olibroides; 37) L. androginus; 38) Laccodytes sp. 1.; 39) Laccodytes sp. 2.

FIGURES 54 – 61. Last abdominal segment (left male; right female) in Laccodytes species: 54) L. apalodes; 55) L. rondonia; 56) L. americanus; 57) L. phalacroides; 58) L. takutuanus; 59) L. neblinae; 60) L. bassignanii; 61) Laccodytes sp. 1 female.

FIGURES 48 – 53. Male genitals in Laccodytes species: 48) L. takutuanus: a) median lobe of aedeagus in dorsal view, b) in lateral view, c-d) right and left parameres; 49) L. neblinae: a) median lobe of aedeagus in dorsal view, b) in lateral view, c-d) right and left parameres; 50) L. bassignanii: a) median lobe of aedeagus in dorsal view, b-c) in dorsal-lateral and lateral view, d-e) right and left parameres; 51) L. obscuratus: a) median lobe of aedeagus in dorsal view, b) in lateral view, c-d) right and left parameres; 52) L. olibroides: a) median lobe of aedeagus in lateral view, b-c) right an left parameres; 53) L. androginus: a) median lobe of aedeagus in dorsal view, b) in lateral view, c-d) right and left parameres.