Dyscolus verecundior Moret 2020, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Moret, Pierre
name: Murienne, Jérôme
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Carabidae
Dyscolus
Dyscolus verecundior

description: Dyscolus verecundior Moret sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: DAB1A22E-25D1-438C-AE2E-25542AF7E50F
Figs 54, 58
Dyscolus verecundus Moret, 1998: 20, pro parte.
Dyscolus (Dyscolus) verecundus – Moret 2005: 142, pro parte.
Etymology
Comparative form of the Latin adjective ‘ verecundus ’, which is the name of a closely related species.
Type material
Holotype
ECUADOR • ♂; Pichincha Province, Volcán Illiniza, ENE slope, Waypoint 136; 0.644404º S, 78.703469º W; 4335 m a.s.l.; 15 Jul. 2016; P. Moret and A. Barragán leg.; COI voucher in ethanol PM136-04, BOLD sequence SUM062-18; MNHN.
Paratypes (2 ♂♂)
ECUADOR – Pichincha Province • 1 ♂ (red printed label: “ Dyscolus verecundus Moret, 1998, Paratype ”); Volcán Illiniza, NE slope; 4080 m a.s.l.; 7 Aug. 1985; P. Moret leg.; Polylepis forest; CPM • 1 ♂ (red printed label: “ Dyscolus verecundus Moret, 1998, Paratype ”); E slope of Volcán Corazón; 4450 m a.s.l.; 24 Jan. 1986; P. Moret leg.; CPM.
Diagnostic description
Habitus: Fig. 54. Wingless. Body length: 10.8–11.0 mm. Body colour variable, from reddish brown to piceous black, the vertex and the sutural zone of the elytra reddish; legs, antennae and mouthparts reddish. Elytral microsculpture isodiametric, distinctly impressed. Head robust, convex, neck strongly constricted, eyes moderately bulging, genae almost flat in dorsal view; antennae short. Pronotum transverse, subquadrate; sides moderately arcuate distally, weakly sinuate in basal third; hind angles variable, obtuse or almost quadrate, but always blunt; two pairs of lateral setae. Elytra subparallel, disc almost depressed; humeri rounded but not effaced, subapical sinuation obsolete; striae thin, shallowly impressed; intervals flat; third elytral interval with 3–5 discal setae. Fourth metatarsomere triangular, with one pair of lateroapical setae and without subapical dorsolateral setae; apical lobes very short, the inner one not extending beyond the insertion point of the lateroapical seta; fifth metatarsomere asetose ventrally. Last visible abdominal ventrite of the male with one pair of setae along its apical margin (♂). Male genitalia: Fig. 58. Median lobe weakly arcuate; apical blade bluntly triangular in dorsal view; endophallus with two sclerotized squamose areas, ovoid in shape, median and subapical. Female genitalia: unknown.
Comparisons
This species closely resembles D. verecundus, now restricted to Mt Pichincha, its type locality. Dyscolus verecundior Moret sp. nov. differs from D. verecundus in a few external and genital characters: genae almost flat (convex in D. verecundus); antennae slightly thicker, the second antennomere of the male 1.41 to 1.49 times as long as wide (1.50 to 1.65 times in D. verecundus); fourth metatarsomere thinner, 1.16 to 1.20 times as long as wide (1.07 to 1.13 times in D. verecundus); apical blade of the median lobe thinner in lateral view (compare Figs 56–57 and 58); sclerotized areas of the endophallus bigger.
Habitat
Lower superpáramo from 4080 to 4450 m a.s.l.
Geographic distribution
Microendemic species, restricted to the Illiniza and Corazón volcanoes in the Western Cordillera.
description: Published as part of Moret, Pierre & Murienne, Jérôme, 2020, Integrative taxonomy of the genus Dyscolus (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Platynini) in Ecuadorian Andes, pp. 1-55 in European Journal of Taxonomy 646 on pages 47-48, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2020.646, http://zenodo.org/record/3829682