Cylloepus lahottensis ( Darlington, 1936 )

Polizei, Thiago T. S. & Barclay, Maxwell V. L., 2019, The genus Cylloepus Erichson, 1847 (Coleoptera: Elmidae: Elminae) new species and combinations, Zootaxa 4652 (1), pp. 93-100 : 94-95

Cylloepus lahottensis ( Darlington, 1936) comb. n.

Helmis lahottensis Darlington, 1936:81

Diagnosis: Body subparallel. Reddish brown colour. Body surface with punctures covered by short golden setae. Frontoclypeal suture distinct, straight. Pronotum with sublateral carinae extending from base to anterior margin. Disc with a large, deep longitudinal impression, extending only to the posterior margin. Elytra, with 3 carinae; a short carina extending 1/5 on third intervals and two sublateral carinae on sixth and eighth intervals, extending 4/5. Hypomera very large, without tomentum. Prosternum, mesoventrite, metaventrite, epipleura and all 5 abdominal ventrites covered by tomentum, and punctures well impressed. Legs short, femora and tibiae around 1/3 the length of the elytra. Maximum length: 2.21mm. Maximum width: 0.73mm.

Type locality: Haiti

Material examined: 2 specimens

Holotype: NE foothills / La Hotte / 2–4000ft. / Oct.10–24 | Haiti / 1934 / Darlington | 21794 / M. C. Z. / Type / Helmis / lahottensis / D. | Drawing / by Y. T. Sohn / 19. [printed]/ [male symbol] GENIT. NMNH—PJS [handwritten, referring to dissection by P. J. Spangler at NMNH] ( MCZ), (study based on photographs available on the internet in the MCZ type database) . Paratype: NE foothills / La Hotte / 2–4000ft. / Oct.10–24 | Haiti / 1934 / Darlington | 21794 / M. C. Z . / Paratype | H. / lahottensis / Darl. | Cylloepus / lahottensis / Darl. | H.E. Hinton / collection / B.M. 1977-566. | NHMUK010583875 . ( BMNH) .

Comments: Cylloepus lahottensis ( Darlington 1936) was described from Haiti in the genus Elmis . Hinton (1945) transferred it to Cylloepus Erichson, 1847 , but Shepard ( Jäch et al. 2016), based on the photograph of the holotype (housed at MCZ), transferred this species to Hexacylloepus Hinton, 1940 . C. lahottensis does not have tomentum on the hypomerom, one of the major diagnostic characters to differentiate Hexacylloepus from Cylloepus ( Hinton 1940a) . After study of the types housed at MCZ and BMNH, we agree with Hinton, this species has all the characters of Cylloepus ; a robust, elongate body; genae, epipleura, sides of prosternum, mesoventrite, metaventrite, and abdominal sternites covered by tomentum; pronotum with a sublateral longitudinal carinae on each side and a longitudinal impression, and striate and punctate elytra, without accessory striae. For these reasons this species is here transferred to the genus Cylloepus .