Halovelia convexa Andersen, 1989

Anderson, R. Charles, Adam, M. Shiham & Cheng, Lanna, 2023, Marine insects of the Maldives (Heteroptera: Gerridae, Hermatobatidae and Veliidae; Diptera: Chironomidae) with notes on taxonomy, Indo-Pacific distribution, and ecology, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 71, pp. 478-490 : 487

Halovelia convexa Andersen, 1989

Halovelia convexa is a tiny marine bug, with adults measuring about 2 mm in body length. It appears to be endemic to the Maldives ( Andersen, 1989). Specimens were first reported by Phillips (1959) from Seenu (=Addu) Atoll, as Halovelia sp. It was subsequently described as Halovelia convexa by Andersen (1989) based on Phillips’ Seenu material and additional specimens, also collected by Phillips, from Dhoonidhoo Island, Kaafu (North Malé) Atoll, in 1958. We collected Halovelia convexa only once ( Table 1, sample 8), in June 2002, from rocky pools on the reef flat at low tide, 20 m or more from the beach at the southern end of Kulhudhfushi Island, Haa Dhaalu Atoll in the north of Maldives. There were many mating pairs. The habitat was very similar to that in Seenu Atoll described by Phillips (1959): “clear weedless pools left by the receding tide on the outer aspects of the reef, often 200 feet [60 m] or more from the shore”. Although known from rather few samples, H. convexa is widely distributed throughout the Maldives ( Fig. 2E). Within the genus Halovelia , H. convexa is part of the H. malaya -group, which occurs from the western Indian Ocean to the Solomon Islands, and probably originated in Southeast Asian waters ( Andersen, 1989).