Nothoderis, Boyd, Olivia F. & Erwin, Terry L., 2016

Boyd, Olivia F. & Erwin, Terry L., 2016, Taxonomic review of New World Tachyina (Coleoptera, Carabidae): descriptions of new genera, subgenera, and species, with an updated key to the subtribe in the Americas, ZooKeys 626, pp. 87-123 : 109

Taxon classification Animalia Coleoptera Carabidae

Genus Nothoderis gen. n. Figs 2C, 3C, 4C, 5C, 6B, C, F

Type species.

Tachys rufotestacea Hayward, 1900.

Diagnosis.

Mentum with paired circular foveae; posterior angles of pronotum square to slightly acute (Fig. 3C); elytral interneurs striatiopunctate to micropunctulate, number visible varied; elytral margin partially to entirely serrate; i8 effaced anteriad of Eo5, separated from elytral margin by Eo5-8 (Fig. 4C); apical recurrent groove slightly arcuate, moderately impressed (Fig. 5C); elytral apex with raised plicate interval between i8 and ARG.

Description.

Size. ABL = 1.5-2.4 mm; SBL = 1.6-2.5 mm; TW = 0.6-1.0 mm.

Form. Small to minute, compact to elongate and subdepressed.

Color. Flavotestaceous to rufotestaceous.

Microsculpture. Varied; head and pronotum usually with isodiametric microsculpture; elytra with linear/transverse microsculpture or (rarely) glabrous.

Head. Mentum bifoveate; head with two pairs of supraorbital setae.

Prothorax. (Fig. 3C) Pronotum with prominent, square to slightly acute posterior angles; basal section of pronotum triangular, with straight or curved transverse impressions meeting at base of median furrow; basal protarsomere of male dilated, medially dentiform.

Pterothorax. (Fig. 5C) Elytron with one or more striatiopunctate to micropunctulate interneurs; Eo1 at sharpest point of humeral angle; i8 (Fig. 4C) effaced anteriad of Eo5, medially curved and moderately impressed near apex, separated from margin by Eo5-8; elytral margin partially to entirely serrate, serrations inconspicuous to prominent and individually setigerous; apical recurrent groove slightly arcuate, moderately impressed, continuous with or directed toward i3; elytral apex with raised interval between i8 and ARG.

Genitalia. (Based on male genitalia dissected and examined from single individuals of four different species) Male (Fig. 6B, C, F): overall form varied, median lobe with comb-like internal sclerites; both right and left parameres wedge-shaped, stout at base; left paramere large and broad with dark, sclerotized basal hook and 5 apical setae; right paramere smaller, with 4 or 5 apical setae. Female genitalia not examined.

Distribution.

Known from North, Central, and Amazonian South America.

Derivation of name:

Feminine. Greek adjective nothos (= “false/spurious”), in reference to this diverse and New World-restricted group’s misleading taxonomic history, and deris (= “fight” ( Bousquet 2012)), from the name Polyderis . Members of this genus were previously classified within Polyderis based on a lack of useful and distinctive characters owing to their diminutive size; species of Nothoderis are restricted to the New World and are morphologically distinct from Polyderis (an old world genus with one species, Polyderis laeva , widely distributed in North America).

Remarks.

Species of Nothoderis are united by the shape of the pronotum, course of the eighth elytral interneur, features of male genitalia, form of the elytral apical recurrent groove, and preliminary molecular evidence. Male genitalia of Polyderis laeva were also examined and illustrated, and differ notably from all examples of Nothoderis in the form of the internal sclerite(s) and parameres (Fig. 6D). Polyderis laeva remains the sole new world representative of Polyderis s.str. based on external morphology; in addition, preliminary molecular evidence suggests that Polyderis laeva belongs to a lineage phylogenetically distinct from that of Nothoderis rufotestacea and other representatives of Nothoderis . Rather, members of this gen. n. are affiliated with the Meotachys / Pericompsus complex (Maddison et al. in prep.).