Bidessodes franki (Spangler, 1981)

Miller, Kelly B., 2017, A review of the Neotropical genus Bidessodes Regimbart, 1895 including description of four new species (Coleoptera, Adephaga, Dytiscidae, Hydroporinae, Bidessini), ZooKeys 658, pp. 9-38 : 25-26

Bidessodes franki (Spangler, 1981) Figs 46-50, 98

Youngulus franki Spangler, 1981:71.

Bidessodes (Youngulus) franki , Young, 1986: 209; Biström, 1988: 7; Nilsson, 2016: 98.

Diagnosis.

Males and females do not have a medially modified prosternum. The prosternal process is flat, the lateral margins are convergent to the broadly pointed apex. The male mesotibia is unmodified. Bidessodes franki are unique in having males with an extremely broad metatrochanter and metafemur with a distinctive fringe of setae along their posterior margins (Fig. 50). The male abdominal ventrite VI is apically distinctly impressed, and broadly impressed laterally. The male genitalia are distinctive with the median lobe in ventral aspect deeply bifid with each branch unforked and tapered to a point (Fig. 47). In lateral aspect the median lobe is medially very broad and apically strongly tapered and straight to a sharp apex (Fig. 48). The lateral lobe has a reduced basal segment and the apical segment large and irregularly margined with a distinctive lobe on the apicodorsal margin that is directed basally (Fig. 49). Specimens are robust, relatively large and have maculate elytra (Fig. 46).

Distribution.

Found across northern South America from central Colombia to southern Suriname (Fig. 98).