Limnebius masculinus, Perkins, Philip D., 2015

Perkins, Philip D., 2015, Taxonomy of the water beetle genus Limnebius Leach in southern Africa (Coleoptera: Hydraenidae), Zootaxa 3948 (1), pp. 41-59 : 54-58

Limnebius masculinus , new species

Figs. 11 (habitus), 22 (aedeagus), 30 (map)

Type material. Holotype (male): South Africa: KwaZulu-Natal Province, Hluhluwe Game Res., shore washing, shade, 28° 5' S, 32° 4' E, 27 xi 1992, Endrödy-Younga (#2861) ( TMSA). Paratypes (52): South Africa: Eastern Cape Province, 10 mi. N. Alice, 32° 37' S, 26° 56' E, 17 iii 1968, P. J. Spangler (1 USNM); Transkei: S. coast, Dwesa forest reserve, shore washing, forest, 32° 17' S, 28° 50' E, 3 iii 1985, Endrödy-Younga (#2181) (3 TMSA); KwaZulu-Natal Province, Hluhluwe Game Res., shore washing, shade, 28° 5' S, 32° 4' E, 27 xi 1992, Endrödy- Younga (#2861) (37 TMSA); Hluhluwe Game Res., shore washing, slow water, 28° 5' S, 32° 4' E, 27 xi 1992, Endrödy-Younga (#2862) (10 TMSA); Port St. Johns, 28° 6' S, 30° 36' E, 21 iii 1968, P. J. Spangler (1 USNM).

Differential diagnosis. Large species, very convex and with oval body form ( Fig. 11 ), pronotal disc nonmicroreticulate, elytra very weakly microreticulate. Aedeagus ( Fig. 22) large and robust, base slightly widened and housing internal capsule; distal part with setae as illustrated; apex with oval lobe, wrinkled on surface, and emerging from this a rigid, arcuate, tube-like internal duct, apparently permanently everted.

Description. Size: holotype (length/width, mm): body (length to elytral apices) 1.24/0.70; pronotum 0.28/ 0.70; elytra 0.86/0.72; approximate height, lateral view 0.49.

Dorsum dark brown to piceous, except usually lighter brown laterally on clypeus. Body form elongate oval, very convex, not drop-shaped, side margin indented slightly where pronotum joins elytra. Pronotum with disc shining, non-microreticulate, very sparsely finely punctulate, each puncture with very short adpressed seta; area posterior to eye (side view) with few distinctly larger punctures, each puncture with adpressed seta, longer than setae on disc. Elytra very weakly microreticulate, almost obsolete, with punctures and setae similar to those on pronotum.

Males with first three pro- and mesotarsal segments slightly enlarged, with adhesive setae. Labroclypeal suture arcuate in frontal view in both sexes. Labrum simple. Elytral apices markedly truncate in males, less so in females.

Etymology. Named in reference to the robust and strong male genitalia. Distribution. Currently known from two localities each in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal Provinces ( Fig. 30 ).

Note. On the basis of the robust male genitalia this species may prove to be related to L. jeanneli Orchymont , a species described from Kenya ( Orchymont, 1948).

Figures

FIGURES 9 – 11. Dorsal and lateral habitus views of holotypes.

FIGURES 28 – 31. Geographical distributions.