Totoia recki Lopez-Garcia, Dominguez-Trujillo, & Cisneros-Heredia 2024, new species
Creators: name: López-García, Margarita M.
name: Domínguez-Trujillo, Mariela
name: Cisneros-Heredia, Diego F.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Hybosoridae
Totoia
Totoia recki

description: Totoia recki López-García, Domínguez-Trujillo, & Cisneros-Heredia, new species
Figures 1A, C, E, 2A, C, 3
Holotype (male) labeled: “ ECUADOR, Imbabura / Villaflora, 1200 m / Lat: 0.29411, Long: -78.88773 / Ramón G., Domínguez M., / Granda K. 18Jan2020 / Ex.Winkler // ZSFQ-i12466” with red label “ Totoia recki / López-García, Domínguez-Trujillo & Cisneros-Heredia / HOLOTYPE” (ZSFQ).
Description. Male holotype. Length 6.95 mm; width 3.8 mm. Color: Head, pronotum, scutellum, venter, legs black; antennal club and mandibles reddish brown. Head: Frons and clypeus in dorsal view with base slightly concave on sides, convex medially. Labrum rectangular, with a small denticle in the middle. Mandibles elongate, protruding beyond labrum; apex acute. Mentum with surface concentrically strigulate. Antennal club with basal antennomere cupuliform, capable of receiving the last two antennomeres. Pronotum: Surface with large, umbilicate-ocellate, setigerous punctures; setae yellow and long (1.5–2.0 times longer than a puncture diameter). Surface not homogenously convex, depressed longitudinally at middle, apical corners, and lateral and basal margins. Anterior margin without bead; lateral margins crenulate; posterior margin medially projected. Scutellum: Shape subtriangular, small, without setae. Elytra: Surface with yellow, long setae (as long as pronotal setae) and five longitudinal carinae (one on the elytral suture, three on disc, and one on epipleura). Dorsal surface between discal carinae with eight longitudinal striae, two of them thicker than the remaining striae; pleural surface between the third discal carina and the lateral carina with about five weakly defined striae. Humerus with two short carinae. Declivous area with a short carina between the second and third carinae, and a shorter carina between the first (carina on the elytral suture) and the second carinae. Epipleuron with surface rugose, with short disperse setae, denser on the apical fourth. Venter: Prosternal surface transversely strigulate, prosternal process poorly developed. Mesosternal surface punctate at base, longitudinally strigulate at apex. Metasternal surface areolate-ocellate, punctures becoming smaller posteriorly. Legs: Procoxae transversely strigulate. Metatrochanter without posteromedial tooth. Femoral surface vermiculate to strigulate. Protibia with three teeth and four slightly developed denticles; basal and middle teeth subtriangular, apical tooth recurved; dorsal surface with two setose, longitudinal carinae; protibial spur slightly shorter than apical tooth. Tarsomere 1 of all legs longer than tarsomere 2; tarsomeres 2–4 subequal in length; tarsomere 5 longer than tarsomere 4. Claws simple, curved; shorter than tarsomeres 5. Mesotibiae and metatibiae slender, outer surface with two longitudinal rows of small teeth. Mesotibial apex with one spine on outer margin; medial spur of mesotibiae and metatibiae longer than external spur. Parameres: Phallobase 2.5 times longer than parameres in lateral view (Fig. 2C). Parameres with outer margin rounded, inner margin straight (Fig. 2A).
Female. Unknown.
Etymology. This species is named in honor of Gunter Karl Albert Reck Kohler in recognition of his immense contributions to the conservation of biodiversity in Ecuador and the education and training of many generations of ecologists and conservationists. DFCH will always value the lessons, friendship, and support Gunter has offered since they met.
Diagnosis. The pronotum with surface areolate-ocellate (Fig. 1A, B), elytral surface costate with discal and lateral margins with longitudinal carinae, and the abdominal sternites IV–VIII with posterior margin sclerotized and strongly reflexed justify the placement of the new species in the genus Totoia. Totoia recki is similar to T. magnifica from Panama by the absence of carinae on the pronotum and the ocellate pronotal punctation (Fig. 1A, B), but differs by having the striae between dorsal carinae with different thickness as in Fig. 1E (same width in T. magnifica, Fig. 1F), and the inner margin of the parameres straight, which are curved in T. magnifica.
Distribution. Totoia recki is known only from its type locality, the farm of Fausto Pantoja, near the town of Villaflora (0.29411, -78.88773), province of Imbabura, Ecuador, at about 1,200 m. This locality is on the southern foothills of the Intag Mountain Range, Western Cordillera of the Andes of Ecuador and within the Western Ecuador Biogeographic Province (see Morrone 2014; Morrone et al. 2022; Cisneros-Heredia 2006, 2007, 2019) (Fig. 3).
Natural history. The holotype was collected on 18 January 2020 in a secondary vegetation patch of Low Montane Evergreen Forest (see Galeas et al. 2013). The dominant canopy trees and understorey vegetation in the patch included species of the families Lauraceae, Melastomataceae, Arecaceae, and arborescent ferns. Livestock pastures and pitahaya and banana crops surrounded this land. The specimen was found only in one of the 20 Winkler surveys, and it is the unique individual to report in this study.
Remarks. Totoia recki is the first species of the genus from Ecuador, increasing to four the number of described species in Totoia and extending the geographic range of the genus 460 km south. At 1,200 m elevation, the type locality of T. recki is the highest known elevation for the genus (T. brachycarina: 20–50 m; T. magnifica: 500 m; T. recki: 1,200 m; T. splendida: 10–850 m) (Ocampo 2003, 2006; Ocampo & Barbero 2003; Ocampo & Ballerio 2006).
It seems that species of Totoia are rare and difficult to collect, and T. recki and T. magnifica are currently known just from their holotypes (Ocampo 2006). Finding just one specimen of T. recki is not due to a lack of sampling. We collected just one specimen despite installing 20 Winkler and 20 pitfall traps along a linear transect in the type locality and conducting the same survey design in other five nearby localities.
While T. brachycarina is geographically closer to T. recki (Fig. 3), the morphological similarities of T. recki and T. magnifica (longer phallobase and absence of pronotal longitudinal carinae) could indicate a close evolutionary relationship between them. Further conclusions require phylogenetic studies.
description: Published as part of López-García, Margarita M., Domínguez-Trujillo, Mariela & Cisneros-Heredia, Diego F., 2024, New species of Totoia Ocampo (Coleoptera: Hybosoridae: Anaidinae) from Ecuador, pp. 95-100 in Zootaxa 5538 (1) on pages 96-99, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5538.1.10, http://zenodo.org/record/14611362