Four new species of the diving beetle genus Laccophilus Leach, 1815 from Madagascar (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae, Laccophilini) Manuel, Michaël Ramahandrison, Andriamirado T. Zootaxa 2020 2020-08-07 4822 4 482 502 3RM8B Regimbart 1895 [207,480,871,898] Insecta Dytiscidae Laccophilus Animalia Coleoptera 12 494 Arthropoda species laeticulus   Diagnosis. Members of this group are characterised by: body dorso-ventrally flattened (not subcylindrical); elytra dark ferrugineous to dark brown with distinct pale subbasal transverse band; dorsal reticulation double (discernible at least on pronotum disk and scutellar region of elytra); metacoxal plates with weakly developed semicircular stridulation apparatus; metacoxal process posteriorly truncate, not expanded; posterior margin of apical abdominal ventrite modified, strongly sinuate on both sides of midline, with medial part distinctly produced; male apical abdominal ventrite strongly asymmetric, with distinct process on left side; median lobe of aedeagus in lateral view slightly angled, narrowing distinctly from middle to apex, with dorsal outline close to apex smooth (without minute ridges). The  laeticulus-group is exclusively Afrotropical (mainland Africa south of Sahara and Madagascar).  Species list. With the species newly described below, the  laeticulus-group comprises the following species (distribution data for previously described species from Biström et al.2015): -  Laccophilus laeticulusRégimbart, 1895(from Guineaand Sierra Leone); -  Laccophilus occidentalis Biström, Nilsson & Bergsten, 2015(from Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Central African Republicand Zaire); -  Laccophilus rakouthae  sp. nov.(known only from the Ankaratra massif in central-southern Madagascar); -  Laccophilus transversovittatus Biström, Nilsson & Bergsten, 2015(widespread Madagascarendemic).