Limbodessus alexanderi Balke & Hendrich

Balke, Michael, Ruthensteiner, Bernhard, Warikar, Evie Lilly, Neven, Katja & Hendrich, Lars, 2015, Two new species of Limbodessus diving beetles from New Guinea - short verbal descriptions flanked by online content (digital photography, μCT scans, drawings and DNA sequence data), Biodiversity Data Journal 3, pp. 7096-7096 : 7096

Limbodessus alexanderi Balke & Hendrich sp. n.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: recordedBy: Riedel; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: taxonID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:9C940C82-646F-4075-86B9-3E88D397ABEA; scientificName: Limbodessusalexanderi; order: Coleoptera; family: Dytiscidae; Location: island: New Guinea; country: Indonesia; stateProvince: Papua; locality: N Sugapa ; verbatimElevation: 3000 m; verbatimCoordinates: 3°40'11.90"S, 137° 4'51.31"E; decimalLatitude: -3.669972; decimalLongitude: 137.080919; Event: samplingProtocol: collected with strainer; eventDate: 27.xii.1995; Record Level: institutionCode: NHMW; collectionCode: Insects

Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: recordedBy: Riedel; individualID: four of them with green extraction voucher labels: M. Balke 4424, 4425, 6423, 6424; individualCount: 130; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: taxonID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:9C940C82-646F-4075-86B9-3E88D397ABEA; scientificName: Limbodessusalexanderi; order: Coleoptera; family: Dytiscidae; Location: island: New Guinea; country: Indonesia; stateProvince: Papua; locality: N Sugapa ; verbatimElevation: 3000 m; verbatimCoordinates: 3°40'11.90"S, 137° 4'51.31"E; decimalLatitude: -3.669972; decimalLongitude: 137.080919; Event: samplingProtocol: collected with strainer; eventDate: 27.xii.1995; Record Level: institutionCode: MZB, NHMW, ZSM; collectionCode: Insects

Description

A large, dark brown to black Limbodessus : length of body 3.0-3.5 mm (N=20); with pronounced habitus disruption between pronotum and elytron Figs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 37, 39; dorsoventrally rather thick Figs 7, 8; cervical line present but faint in male or partly dissolved into punctures in females, distinct pronotal plica present, elytral plica absent; flight wings vestigal; metacoxa and metaventrite with few punctures only Fig. 22; ventral side with notable modifications: elytral epipleuron apically modified: slightly concave, with inner margin dilated, its form reminding of a spear tip or shallow spoon Figs 7, 16, 17, 37, 39.

Sexes dimorphic, see below.

Male

Antenna filiform Figs 1, 3, 5. Dorsal surface with coarse punctures but otherwise with shiny surface. Median lobe of aedeagus as in Figs 25, 26 with tiny setae on tip, paramere as in Fig. 31.

Female

Antenna with strongly enlarged antennomeres forming a conspicuous club Figs 2, 4, 6, 17. Dorsal surface with very fine microreticulation between surface punctures and surfaces therefore appearing matt Figs 2, 10.

Etymology

Named after Alexander Riedel who discovered this species. The species name is a noun in the genitive case.

Distribution

Indonesian New Guinea, known only from the type locality which is the mountain range north of Sugapa, Papua (Fig. 23).

Ecology

Puddles in high altitude grassland in the tropical montane / subalpine habitat. Here, a second, much smaller and black Limbodessus was also collected which is the female of an undescribed species.

Conservation

The species is most likely not threatened due to its occurrence on remote high altitude plateau.

Online resources

Higher resolution digital images, μCT data as well as sequence data have been deposited in public databases. The Species-ID species page is a versioned wiki site and can be enhanced through community contributions Hendrich and Balke (2011).

Species-ID species page

http://species-id.net/wiki/Limbodessus_alexanderi

DNA sequences

Partial 3' cox1 sequence deposited at: LN884309-LN884312.

μCT data

In two Morphosource projects here and here.