Peronaemis viridithorax Zayas, 1988

Barman, E. H., Michat, M. C., Alarie, Y. & Wolfe, G. W., 2007, Figs. 16 – 17. 16 in A Description of the First Instar of Hoperius planatus Fall, 1927 (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae: Colymbetinae: Colymbetini), with Phylogenetic Implications, The Coleopterists Bulletin 24 (3), pp. 334-338 : 334-335

Peronaemis viridithorax Zayas

( Fig. 1)

Peronaemis monticola Fisher 1936: 343 . Current valid name.

Peronaemis viridithorax Zayas 1988: 39 . New synonymy.

Type locality: CUBA: Oriente Province , beyond Paso de Calas, as ascending Pico Turquino. Zayas (1988: 40) cited four syntype specimens from the type locality. The syntype photographed is a male .

334

Peronaemis Waterhouse contains six described species, all from the Greater Antilles, and at least one undescribed species from Hispaniola. The very similar genus Mixochlorus Waterhouse contains three species, one from Hispaniola and two from Central America. Both genera were described in the same paper ( Waterhouse 1887) with only a single species in each. Discovery of subsequent species has blurred the distinction between the two taxa, and all of the species in the two genera might best be placed in one genus.

Only two species of Peronaemis , P. monticola Fisher and P. elegans Fisher , both from Cuba, have a broad, even, greenish stripe on the elytron on the two intervals closest to the suture ( Mixochlorus elegans Fisher , from Hispaniola, has the sutural region of the elytron green but the coloration is uneven, being expanded slightly in the basal third and more noticeably just beyond the middle). In P. monticola the green sutural area is impressed and has dense microsculpture that obscures the distinction between the two intervals. In P. elegans the green sutural area is not impressed and the distinction between the two intervals is visible. Peronaemis elegans further differs from P. monticola in having the lateral depressions of the pronotum more weakly impressed, the posterior angles of the pronotum with well delineated bright green spots (at least in the female), a relatively well defined dark spot near the middle of each elytron, and in lacking the elongate, impressed cupreous spot at the apical third of each elytron found in P. monticola .

Peronaemis viridithorax Zayas is a synonym of P. monticola Fisher , confirming Bellamy’s (2000) speculation that these two names are synonyms. Fisher (1936) based his description of P. monticola primarily on the female holotype (USNM). His description of the two male paratypes (one in USNM) is brief, and since there is some sexual dichromatism in Peronaemis , perhaps this misled Zayas into thinking his material was a new species. Furthermore, the type locality of P. monticola is Cuba, Oriente Province, Pico Turquino, essentially the same locality as for P. viridithorax .