Laccophilus komareki Hájek & Brancucci 2015, new species
Creators: name: Hájek, Jiří
name: Brancucci, Michel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Dytiscidae
Laccophilus
Laccophilus komareki

description: Laccophilus komareki, new species
(Figs. 9, 27)
Laccophilus wittmeri: Hájek, 2003: 120 (in part).
Type locality. China, Guangdong Province, Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve, ca. 23°10′N, 112°32′E, ca. 250 m.
Material examined. Holotype male, labelled: CHINA: Guangdong Prov. / Dinghu Nat. Res. / 28.10.2001, ca. 250 m / Jäch & Komarek (CWBS 449) (CASS). Paratypes: 8 males, 5 females: same label data as holotype (NHMB, NMPC, NHMW); 8 males, 7 females: CHINA, Guangxi A.R., 5-9.iv.2013 / Shiwandashan National Forest Park / (small pools in drying-up stream) / 21°54.4′N, 107°54.2′E, 300 m / M.Fikáček, J.Hájek & J.Růžička leg. (NMPC, PMCB, ZSMG). 2 males, 1 female: CHINA, Guangxi A.R., 7-8.iv.2013 / stream valley ca. 2 NE north gate of / Shiwandashan National Forest Park / 21°55.1′N, 107°54.9′E, 280 m / M.Fikáček, J.Hájek & J.Růžička leg. (NMPC).
Diagnosis. Large, broadly oval species (body length 4.5–4.9 mm). A species closely related to L. wittmeri, from which it can be distinguished by constantly testaceous colouration of medial part of elytra, yellowish subbasal and preapical elytral band bordered with thin blackish stripes, and by different shape of the apical part of the median lobe, which is straighter than in L. wittmeri.
Description. Colouration: Head and pronotum testaceous. Elytra largely testaceous, sinuous transverse subbasal and preapical bands only slightly paler than ground colour of elytra, but well recognisable because of their distinct blackish bordering (Fig. 9). Appendages and ventral part testaceous.
Surface structures and sculpture: Head reticulation simple, composed of large irregular polygonal meshes, which are moderately deeply impressed. Frons between eyes, and clypeus with several large punctures. Reticulation of pronotum like that of head. Pronotum along margins with numerous large setigerous punctures. Reticulation of elytra simple, composed of large irregular polygonal meshes similar to those of head or pronotum. Meshes mostly complete, inner space often with several small punctures. Each elytron with indistinct, sutural, discal and lateral row of large serial setigerous punctures. Ventral part reticulated with fine elongate meshes. Prosternal apophysis lanceolate. Abdominal ventrites with numerous oblique grooves and several large setigerous punctures, lateral margin bordered. Apical ventrite rounded posteriorly, with large setigerous punctures and transverse grooves on disc. Male pro- and mesotarsomeres 1–3 weakly dilated with bundle of setae on ventral side. Claws of pro- and mesotarsi simple and equal.
Male genitalia: Median lobe of aedeagus in lateral view as in Fig. 27.
Female genitalia: Similar to male; pro- and mesotarsomeres not dilated.
Variability. Specimens of type series varying considerably in body colouration, in some specimens, longitudinal blackish stripe divides the subbasal band into two separate yellowish spots.
Measurements (N= 18): Body length 4.5–4.9 mm (mean value 4.7 mm, holotype 4.8 mm); width 2.5–2.8 mm (mean value 2.7 mm, holotype 2.8 mm).
Etymology. The new species is dedicated to one of its collectors, Albrecht Komarek (Mödling, Austria), a specialist on Hydrophilidae.
Habitat. At the type locality, Laccophilus komareki was collected in a stream, ca. 1.5–2 m wide, flowing through dense primary forest, geology: sandstone (Jäch & Ji, 2003). In Guangxi, the new species was collected in a shaded deep remnant pool (diameter ca. 1 m) of a drying up forest stream, the bottom with a thick layer of decaying leaves; and in small rocky pools (diameter ca. 30 cm) in a forest streamlet (Fig. 37).
Distribution. So far known only from two localities in southern China (Guangdong and Guangxi provinces) (Fig. 40).
description: Published as part of Hájek, Jiří & Brancucci, Michel, 2015, A taxonomic review of the Oriental Laccophilus javanicus species group (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae), pp. 309-326 in Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 63 on pages 320-321, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5385198