Laccodytes obscuratus, 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 : 53-54

Laccodytes obscuratus sp.n.

Figs (35, 51, 62)

Type locality. Venezuela: Amazonas, Cerro de la Neblina.

Type material. Holotype 3 ( USNM): Venezuela, TF Amazonas Cerro de la Neblina, basecamp 140 m, 0°50'N 66°10'W, 27.I.1985, P.J. Spangler, P.M. Spangler, R. Faitoute & W.E. Steiner ( USNM). Paratype: Same data as holotype except for 27.II.1985 (1 3 USNM).

Diagnosis. Habitus ( Fig. 35 ). Body length 1.6 mm. Body slightly drop-shaped, tip of elytron slightly truncate. Hind angle of pronotum rounded. No angle between pronotum and elytron.

Color. Head dark brown. Pronotum dark yellow; posterior 1/3 of prontoum darker, brownish. Elytron brown with obscure paler pattern of dark yellowish patches in the following positions (refer to Fig. 35 for explanation): a subbasal band and a larger apical patch. These patches are not contrasting and sometimes extremely obscure. The subbasal band reaches the margin of elytron, but hardly the anterior angle. Appendages yellowish. Venter, including epipleuron, dark brownish.

Scultpure. The entire dorsal and ventral surface of the beetle with a faint MR. Fine and sparse dots are visible on metaventrite. No longitudinal lines or longish meshes visible. Few, transverse, shallow grooves are hardly visible at about the anterior third of metacoxal plates.

Structures. Pronotum with narrow lateral bead; posterior angle rounded. Prosternum and prosternal process with small ridge; prosternal process broadly carinate and with a rather long, needle shaped, acute tip. Epipleuron broad up to level of sternite 6 or 7. Fore and middle legs very long and slender. Metatarsomeres 1– 4 with apico-lateral angle slightly lobed. Hind lobes of metacoxal process almost straight, with a very narrow V-shaped notch in the middle between them.

Male. Pro- and mesotarsi not dilated. Hind margin of sternite 7 rounded, or very slightly tectiform. Aedeagus ( Fig. 51 ): median lobe, in lateral view, very long, thin and straight in the distal 2/3, ending with a rounded tip, gently bent down; the basal last third is broad. In dorsal view elongate and flat, slightly broadened on distal half, with tip rounded and gently bent right. Parameres different in shape but almost of the same size, both elongated, with a long apical seta.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 62). Southern Venezuela.

Biology. The two specimens were seined from rocks in the rapids of Rio Baria. Derivatio nominis. From the dark coloration of the beetle.

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 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.