Hughleechia giulianii Perkins
Creators: name: Perkins, Philip D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2007
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Hydraenidae
Hughleechia
Hughleechia giulianii

description: Hughleechia giulianii Perkins
(Figs. 1, 3, 5, 7–9, 14)
Hughleechia giulianii Perkins, 1981: 300.
Type Material. Holotype (male): AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: Fisherman’s Island, 30° 7' S, 114° 56' E, 28 April 1969, D. D. Giuliani. Deposited in the WAM.
Differential Diagnosis. Immediately differentiated from H. gracilis by the broader body form (Figs. 1, 2), larger size, sexual characters of males, and other features (see diagnosis of H. gracilis).
Description. Size (length/width, mm), holotype: body 1.80/0.84; head 0.36/0.46; pronotum 0.46/0.60; elytra 1.08/0.84. Dorsum black, infrequently with faint metallic blue reflections; venter and legs dark brown.
Frons strongly granulose, sparsely pubescent at sides; interocular foveae oblique impressed lines, area between foveae flat; interocular tuberculi well developed, adjacent to posteromedian margin of eyes, sparsely setose. Frontoclypeal suture very shallowly bisinuate. Clypeus length 1/2 width, less strongly granulose and hence more reflective than frons, sparsely punctate; apicomedian margin upturned to form a blunt tooth. Labroclypeal suture weakly arcuate. Labrum length 1/2 width; apicomedian emargination well developed, hemispherical, at each side of which is a distinctive tooth; surface of labrum smooth and shiny. Maxillary palpus with penultimate segment moderately wide; ultimate segment tapering to apex, 3/4 length of penultimate. Mentum produced at side, shiny, very sparsely punctate. Submentum shiny. Genae swollen in midregion, shiny, finely sparsely punctulate. Postgena pubescent, punctulate.
Pronotum sparsely pubescent on reliefs; depressions granulose, reliefs punctate and less strongly granulose, hence more reflective than depressions; anterior margin weakly arcuate, with narrow hyaline border; sides rather strongly convergent from midlength; posterior margin with narrow hyaline border which is overlaid with a row of setae; median depression without setae, slightly constricted in midlength, anterior 1/2 more strongly granulose than posterior 1/2; a shallow depression on each side at base which connects to base of median depression, these oblique depressions with pubescence like that on reliefs; lateral fossulae well developed.
Elytra interlocked, distinctly declivous in apical 1/4; each elytron with five distinct discal rows of punctures, and three semi-serial rows laterally, some punctures confluent in basal 1/5, each puncture with a short, stiff, rather wide, recumbent seta; suture very slightly raised. Explanate margin moderately wide.
Prosternum evenly rounded in midregion, antennal fossulae well developed; coxae contiguous. Mesoventrite pubescent, with broad intercoxal process whose width at apex is about equal to length of last segment of maxillary palpus; carinae totally lacking, not even with remnants anteriorly. Metaventrite hydrofuge pubescent except for shiny triangular area in midregion which has only a few setae; intercoxal process broad, about equal in length and width to mesoventral intercoxal process, but with apex on a plane slightly higher than that of latter; posteromedian area between metacoxae broadly emarginate to receive intercoxal sternite.
Abdominal sternites 1–4 with hydrofuge pubescence laterally, pubescence much sparser on large medial area; sternite 5 entirely hydrofuge pubescent.
Legs moderately long and slender. Tarsi broadened apically, claws large. Segment 5 (last) of all tarsi longer than respective basal segments combined. Segment 4 slightly shorter than combined lengths of segments 1–3.
Aedeagus (Fig. 3) with parameres originating near midlength of main piece. Females slightly larger than males.
Distribution. Currently known from intertidal rocks and rock pools on the southwestern and southern coasts of Australia (Fig. 14).
Material examined (82 specimens). AUSTRALIA: New South Wales: Green Cape, rock crevices, 37° 15' S, 150° 3' E, 8 August 1968, D. D. Giuliani (5 WAM); South Australia: Point Sinclair, 32° 6' S, 132° 59' E, 18 November 1969, D. D. Giuliani (site 60) (2 SAM); Western Australia: 50 mi. S Dongara, rock crevices, 29° 20' S, 114° 55' E, 4 April 1969, D. D. Giuliani (5 WAM); Bald Head, Albany, rock crevices, 35° 6' S, 118° 1' E, 10 May 1969, D. D. Giuliani (10 WAM); Cape Naturalist, rock crevices, 33° 32' S, 115° 1' E, 30 October 1969, D. D. Giuliani (10 ANIC); Fisherman’s Island, rock crevices covered by high tides, dry rock crevices in the high tide splash zone, and usually most numerously in rock pools a few feet above the water line (created by splash and spray but seldom or never reached by waves), 30° 7' S, 114° 56' E, 28 April 1969, D. D. Giuliani (12 WAM); Little Anchorage, rock crevices, 30° 0' S, 114° 58' E, 24 April 1969, D. D. Giuliani (12 WAM); Peron Point nr. Rockingham, rock crevices, 32° 16' S, 115° 41' E, 28 September 1969, D. D. Giuliani (10 ANIC); Rottnest Island, rock crevices, beaches and points, 32° 0' S, 115° 36' E, 3 May 1969, D. D. Giuliani (10 WAM); small island just offshore of Little Anchorage, rock crevices, 30° 0' S, 114° 58' E, 25 April 1969, D. D. Giuliani (5 WAM).
description: Published as part of Perkins, Philip D., 2007, A revision of the Australian intertidal water beetle genus Hughleechia Perkins (Coleoptera: Hydraenidae), pp. 17-29 in Zootaxa 1527 on pages 20-24, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.177584