Hydroporus cagrankaya, Fery, Hans & Erman, Ömer Köksal, 2009

Fery, Hans & Erman, Ömer Köksal, 2009, Five new species of the longulus - group of Hydroporus Clairville, 1806 from north-eastern Turkey (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae), Zootaxa 2033, pp. 1-12 : 3-6

Hydroporus cagrankaya sp. n.

( Figs 1 , 6–13 )

Type locality. Turkey, Rize province, ca. 9 km due NE İkizdere, near Çaġrankaya plateau, ca. 40.831N 40.633E, altitude ca. 1900 m (locality 4 in Fig. 13 ).

Holotype. 3, " 29.07.2001 TR –Rize, İkizdere distr., ca. 9 km NE İkizdere, nr Çaġrankaya plateau, Ö.K. Erman leg." [printed], "ca. 1900 m, small brooklets without vegetation, ca. 40.831N 40.633E " [printed], " Holotype, Hydroporus cagrankaya sp. n., H. Fery & Ö.K. Erman det. 2009" [red, printed] ( NMW). Paratypes. 27 33, 31 ƤƤ, same collecting data as the holotype ( CHF, CKE). 1 3, idem, but with an additional label " MNCN AI- 62, DNA specimen"; the DNA extraction of this specimen is stored in the tissue- DNA collection of the MNCN with Ref. No. 23408. Each paratype is provided with the respective red label. Additional specimens (not treated as paratypes). 8 exs., with the same collecting data, but without head or destroyed otherwise; altogether mounted on a common glue card, without red label ( CHF).

Description. Habitus elongate oval, maximum width situated near middle of total length. Lateral body outline in dorsal view with a very slight, but perceptible discontinuity between pronotum and elytra. Almost entire dorsal and ventral surface dark blackish brown. Upper surface microreticulated, but shiny.

Head rather broad, interocular distance equalling about half of pronotal width at hind angles. Anterior margin of clypeus in middle and above insertion of antennae shining transparently brownish; vertex with a transverse brown marking. Two grooves behind anterior margin of clypeus. Punctures on head rather small and evenly distributed, however, denser in clypeal grooves, and still smaller and slightly sparser on vertex. Antennae with third article short, fourth still shorter; articles five to ten somewhat flattened, less than 1.5 times as long as wide, resembling almost spherical in proper view.

Pronotum with anterior and posterior margins, and lateral beading—in particular posteriorly—brownish transparent. Sides of pronotum curved, stronger anteriorly, indistinctly posteriorly. Rim distinct, but not very broad, more or less of same width over entire length. Maximum width of pronotum between hind angles. Punctation on disc finer and sparser than on clypeus or head, coarser and denser near margins. Some very coarse punctures behind anterior margin, a few also before hind margin. Postero-laterally with an oblique depressed area on each side, here reticulation slightly stronger and punctures in part deformed to weakly impressed short scratches. Centre of disc with a short, but distinct scratch. Lateral parts of pronotum with indistinct setae.

Elytra indistinctly dark brown next to suture and near apex. Punctation more or less uniformly distributed. Punctures distinctly coarser than on head and also slightly coarser than on sides of pronotum; near sides and suture somewhat smaller. On disc distance between punctures roughly two times that of their diameter. Distinct puncture lines absent, nevertheless weakly perceptible since normal punctures here somewhat denser, and a very few still coarser punctures interspersed. Setae on disc short and indistinct, laterally and posteriorly longer and more distinct. In lateral view margin of elytra ascending slightly towards humeral angle. Lateral elytral beading distinct, more or less as thick as pronotal beading. Epipleura in lateral view visible to humeral angle.

Ventral surface ( Fig. 9 ) predominantly black; posterior part of metacoxal processes, hind margins of last abdominal ventrite, an indistinctly limited spot on each side of third, fourth and fifth abdominal ventrite transparently brownish. Gula very slightly more brownish than black genae. Legs, mouthparts, and prosternal process brownish; femora only insignificantly darkened, if at all. Antennae brownish, segments apically progressively but only weakly darkened beginning with fifth. Most parts of venter with weakly impressed microreticulation; gula, metacoxal processes, centres of metaventrite and first abdominal ventrites smooth. Genae smooth close to gula, else reticulated. Punctation on metacoxal plates, sides of metaventrite, and first two abdominal ventrites coarse; on epipleura less coarse, also on rest of abdominal ventrites, here medially sparser, in particular on last ventrite; punctation on centre of metaventrite rather fine and sparse, on metacoxal processes absent. Gula laterally with some punctures. Anterior angles of prosternum with a small, flat, rather densely and roughly punctured triangular area; this area well limited against impunctate area behind. Most punctures on venter with a fine, indistinct seta.

Prosternal process ( Fig. 9 ) posteriorly lanceolate, here more or less tectiform in cross-section, sides beaded, provided with long setae. Anteriorly, between procoxae, process with a small transverse ridge, subbasally before this ridge with transverse grooves; process not prolonged anteriorly on to prosternum as narrow convexity; here prosternum medially somewhat flattened and rugosely sculptured. Posterior margins of metacoxal processes sinuate and medially protruded backwards; lines of metacoxal processes diverging anteriorly, not reaching hind margin of metaventrite.

Variability. Depending on maturity, several paratypes at least with elytra more brownish, and pronotum slightly darker than elytra and head. Sides of pronotum in some specimens posteriorly almost straight.

Males. First three pro- and mesotarsomeres slightly dilated, ventrally provided with adhesive setae (also known as "small suckers"); first protarsomere additionally with three rather regularly arranged pairs of elongate sucker cups (also called "large suckers", "adhesive discs", "scales" etc.) ( Figs 10 and 12 ), first mesotarsomere with seven irregularly arranged cups ( Fig. 11 ); protarsal claws short, in particular anterior one thickened, curved near base and almost straight in distal two thirds ( Fig. 10 ); mesotarsal claws evenly curved, longer than protarsal claws ( Fig. 11 ). Median lobe of aedeagus ( Fig. 1 ) asymmetrical, with apex twisted (see frontal view for H. lundbergi sp. n. in Fig. 5 b, a species which—due to the broad apex—has this character particularly conspicuous); in ventral view apically converging, apex rounded; in lateral view rather pointed; paramere as in Fig. 6 .

Notes. Larson (1975: 280 ff) in his key of Canadian Hydroporus (here still including species which today are treated in the genera Hydrocolus Roughley & Larson, 2000 , Nebrioporus Régimbart, 1906 , Neoporus Guignot, 1931 , Oreodytes Seidlitz, 1887 , Sanfilippodytes Franciscolo, 1979 , and Stictotarsus Zimmermann, 1919 ) introduced the number of male protarsal sucker cups as a differentiating character. Most of those species for which the number of sucker cups is given in that work have two pairs of cups on the ventral side of the first protarsomere, a few other species have more. Recently, Bilton et al. (2008) published SEM photos of the pro-and mesotarsomeres of Hydroporus memnonius Nicolai, 1822 , which show an irregular arrangement of several sucker cups, the number of which varies in different populations. We wonder whether the number and the arrangement of cups is characteristic for the members of the longulus -group and propose to study these also in other species.

Females. Without conspicuous external differences to males, except slightly narrower and ventrally simple pro- and mesotarsomeres, and evenly curved protarsal claws; these longer than in males and—as in males—shorter than mesotarsal ones. Gonocoxae and gonocoxosternum as in Figs 7–8 .

Measurements. TL: 3.15–3.65 mm, MW: 1.55–1.85 mm, TL/MW: 1.94–2.10, IO/MP: 0.46–0.49 (males), 0.45–0.51 (females).

Molecular data. The DNA of one paratype was obtained in the laboratory of our colleague I. Ribera (Barcelona, Spain) using a standard phenol chlorophorm extraction (voucher number MNCN AI62/23408). The sequence of a fragment of 424 bp from the 3’ end of the gene cox1 and a fragment of 751 bp spanning the mitochondrial genes rrnL - tRNAleu - NDA1 are deposited in the EMBL database with accession numbers FM946166 to FM946169 (see Ribera et al. 2001 for primers and PCR conditions). The results will be published in a future work, however, we can give already here the information that H. cagrankaya sp. n. belongs to a complex of species which comprises Hydroporus dobrogeanus Ieniştea, 1962 , Hydroporus gueorguievi Wewalka, 1975 , Hydroporus kraatzii Schaum, 1868 , and H. sardomontanus .

Distribution. So far known only from the type locality, near the Çaġrankaya plateau in the Rize province, north-eastern Turkey (locality 4 in Fig. 13 ).

Biology. The new species has been found in small brooklets without vegetation. These are fed by melting snow from spring to early summer, are exposed to the sun, and without rain they dry from middle summer. The specimens have been found in association with Hydroglyphus geminus (Fabricius, 1792) , Hydroporus nigellus Mannerheim, 1853 , and Hydroporus pubescens (Gyllenhal, 1808) .

Derivatio nominis: The specific name cagrankaya is a noun in apposition and is derived from the Çaġrankaya plateau, which is close to the locus typicus of the new species.

Figures

FIGURE 13. Distribution of Hydroporus lundbergi sp. n. (1 – 3; see text), H. cagrankaya sp. n. (4), H. sivrikaya sp. n. (5), H. toledoi sp. n. (6), H. artvinensis sp. n. (7), and H. erzurumensis (8 – 14). The map was made by using MS ENCARTA 2000.

FIGURES 1 – 5. Median lobe of aedeagus of: (1) Hydroporus cagrankaya sp. n. (holotype), (2) H. sivrikaya sp. n. (holotype), (3) H. artvinensis sp. n. (holotype), (4) H. toledoi sp. n. (holotype), (5 a, b) H. lundbergi sp. n. (holotype) (the arrow indicates the direction of the " frontal view ", Fig. 5 b)

FIGURES 6 – 8. Hydroporus cagrankaya sp. n.: (6) paramere, (7) gonocoxae, (8) gonocoxosternum.

FIGURES 9 – 12. Hydroporus cagrankaya sp. n.: SEM photos of: (9) parts of venter, (10) left protarsus, (11) left mesotarsus, (12) details of first and second tarsomeres of left protarsus.