Austrelatus fojaensis, Shaverdo & Hájek & Hendrich & Surbakti & Panjaitan & Balke, 2023

Shaverdo, Helena, Hajek, Jiri, Hendrich, Lars, Surbakti, Suriani, Panjaitan, Rawati & Balke, Michael, 2023, Austrelatus gen. nov., a new genus of Australasian diving beetles (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae, Copelatinae), with the discovery of 31 new species from New Guinea, ZooKeys 1170, pp. 1-164 : 1

8. Austrelatus fojaensis sp. nov.

Figs 44 , 48 , 83 , 89

Type locality.

Indonesia: Papua Province: Sarmi Regency, Foja Mts, Tor Atas, Waaf Village, 2°34'18.6"S, 138°43'02.1"E, 1,700 m a.s.l.

Type material.

Holotype: male "Indonesia: Papua, Foja Mountains, bog camp, 1700 m, 23.v.-3.vi.2016,", "-2 571839 138.717250, Sumoked (Pap058)" (MZB).

Paratypes: 1 male, 1 female with the same label as the holotype, the female with an additional green text label “7359” (KSP). 1 male, 4 females male "Indonesia: Papua, Sarmi area 70 m, 25.ix.2014, -1.9713 138.8491, UNCEN team (Pap032)" (MZB, ZSM).

Description.

Body size and form: Beetle small to medium-sized, with oblong-oval to elongate habitus (Fig. 44 ).

Measurements: TL 5.1-5.5 mm, TL-H 4.6-4.9 mm, MW 2.5-2.6 mm, TL/MW 2.04-2.16; PL 0.8-0.85 mm, PW 2.1-2.3 mm, PL/PW 0.37-0.39; DBE 0.9-1 mm, DBE/PW 0.43-0.46.

Holotype: TL 5.4 mm, TL-H 4.9 mm, MW 2.5 mm, TL/MW 2.16; PL 0.85 mm, PW 2.2 mm, PL/PW 0.39; DBE 1 mm, DBE/PW 0.46.

Colouration: Dorsally piceous, with reddish brown head, yellowish red pronotal sides and three basal spots and one apical spot connected to a short, narrow lateral band on elytron (Fig. 44 ).

Head reddish brown to brown, darker narrowly behind eyes. Pronotum reddish brown to dark brown on disc and paler towards sides, yellowish red on them. Sometimes only anterior and posterior margins medially dark. Elytron dark brown to piceous, with three rather vague yellowish red spots on elytral base: one near stria 1; second between striae 2 and 4 and third between striae 4 and 6 more distinct; these spots almost confluent; elytron with distinct elongate apical spot connected to a short (almost whole apical 1/2 of elytron), narrow lateral band. Scutellum reddish brown. Antennae, other head appendages, and legs proximally yellowish; legs darker distally, yellowish brown, especially metalegs. Venter yellowish brown, with paler prosternum. Teneral beetles paler.

Surface sculpture: Elytron with six dorsal striae; submarginal stria present: 6+1 (Fig. 44 ).

Head without strioles, with rather dense punctation (spaces between punctures 1-3 × size of punctures); punctures relatively coarse (diameter of punctures equal to diameter of microreticulation cells or larger than it); head with a row of coarse setigerous punctures along inner margin of each eye and a short row at frontal angle of each eye; a slightly longer puncture row forms fronto-clypeal depression at each head side; microreticulation strong. Pronotum usually with several strioles in posterolateral angles; with fine longitudinal wrinkles at posterior margin; pronotal punctation finer than on head; setigerous punctures form a row along pronotal margins, absent in posterior middle; disc of pronotum with indistinct longitudinal median scratch. Pronotum with fine microreticulation. Elytron with 6 dorsal striae; striae 2-4 and 6 complete, stria 1 shortly reduced basally; stria 5 reduced (ca. 1/5 of elytron length) and interrupted basally; tiny strioles can be present basally between striae 1 and 2; submarginal striae present, sometimes interrupted. Elytron with fine punctation and microreticulation. Ventral part with fine, inconspicuous punctation, invisible on metaventrite and metacoxae and weak on abdominal ventrites; prosternum smooth medially; metaventrite and metacoxae with weak microreticulation; on abdominal ventrites microreticulation almost invisible; metacoxal plates with numerous, weakly impressed longitudinal strioles, abdominal ventrites 1 and 2 with numerous, long, longitudinal strioles from margin to margin, on abdominal ventrites 3 and 4 strioles situated laterally and turn to middle, almost horizontal, abdominal ventrites 5 and 6 without strioles but with fine punctation that sparser medially and forms a dense, rugose lateral area at each side.

Structures: Head broad. Pronotum relative long; lateral margins distinctly convergent anteriorly. Base of prosternum narrowly rounded anteriorly, slightly convex medially; blade of prosternal process rather small, narrow, convex in middle.

Male: Protibia almost straight, not modified. Proclaws simple, rather long, subequal in length. Median lobe of aedeagus with two lobes of dorsal sclerite rather narrow; left dorsal lobe distinctly shorter that right one, with a lateral crest interrupted into apical and basal parts; apex of left dorsal lobe distinctly curved downwards, dorsally with denticulation (spinulae) invisible in lateral left view due to strong curvature downwards; right dorsal lobe with small, indistinct, elongate median impression and an angular convexity above it; apex of right dorsal lobe large, swollen, rounded; left lobe of ventral sclerite with its sclerotised area rather large, broad, slightly concave, rounded apically, shorter than right ventral and dorsal lobes and 1/2 length of left dorsal lobe. Paramere with setae not clearly divided into distal and proximal; more distally situated setae denser than more proximal ones (Fig. 48 ).

Female: As male. There are no striolated, matt forms.

Variability.

There is an insignificant variation in the body size, colouration and dorsal striolation.

Affinities.

In general shape of median lobe, especially in shape of the sclerotised area of left ventral lobe and in shape of the lateral crest of the left dorsal lobe, the species is similar to A. innominatus sp. nov. and A. rouaffer sp. nov. The species can be distinguished from them by its elytron colouration, 6+1 elytral striae, simple, rather long male proclaws and median lobe sclerites.

Etymology.

The species is named after Foja Mts. The name is an adjective in the nominative singular.

Distribution.

New Guinean endemic. Indonesia: Papua Province: Sarmi Regency (Fig. 83 ).

Habitat.

At the type locality, the species was collected in a large swampy area - a bog in mountain rainforest (Fig. 89 ).

Figures

Figure 48. Austrelatus fojaensis sp. nov., median lobe A left lateral view B right lateral view C ventral view D left paramere in external view E right paramere in internal view. Scale bar: one unit - 0.1 mm (A-C).

Figure 83. Map of New Guinea showing distribution of seven Austrelatus species.

Figures 44 - 47. Habitus and colouration of 44 Austrelatus fojaensis sp. nov. 45 A. fakfak sp. nov. 46 A. manokwariensis sp. nov. 47 A. toricelli sp. nov.

Figures 89, 90. Habitats of Austrelatus species, Indonesia: Papua 89 Foja Mts, bog in rainforest, (PAP 058): type locality of A. fojaensis sp. nov. 90 Rouaffer, Iratoi, forest stream, (PAP 028): type locality of A. setiphallus sp. nov., A. rugosus sp. nov. and A. rouaffer sp. nov. and habitat of A. kaszabi (Guignot, 1956). Photographs by MB.