Liodessus thespesios Balke & Megna & Zenteno & Figueroa & Hendrich 2020, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Balke, Michael
name: Megna, Yoandri S.
name: Zenteno, Nilver
name: Figueroa, Luis
name: Hendrich, Lars
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Dytiscidae
Liodessus
Liodessus thespesios

description: Liodessus thespesios sp. nov.
(Figs 3A, B, 4E, 6A, B, 7)
Type locality. Peru, Cusco, Calca, Lares District, Abra Lares, 4,353 m, -13.190° -71.940°.
Type material. Holotype: Male (MUSM): “ Peru: Cusco, Calca, Lares District, Abra Lares, 4353 m, 2.ix.2018, -13.190° -71.940°, Y. S. Megna & N. Zenteno (PER _YSM_2018_42)”; “ Holotype Liodessus thespesios sp. nov. Balke, Megna, Hendrich des. 2020” [red printed label].
420 Paratypes (MUSM, ZSM): 50 exs.: same data as holotype; 54 exs.: “ Peru: Cusco, Quispicanchi, Marcapata, Yanatturo, 4433 m, 23.viii.2018, -13.633° -71.151°, Y. S. Megna & N. Zenteno (PER _YSM_2018_23)”; 35 exs.: “ Peru: Cusco, Quispicanchi, Marcapata, Yanatturo, 4458 m, 23.viii.2018, -13.634° -71.143°, Y. S. Megna & N. Zenteno (PER _YSM_2018_24)”; 37 exs.: “ Peru: Cusco, Quispicanchi, Pirhuayani, 4662 m, 23.viii.2018, -13.641° -71.107°, Y. S. Megna & N. Zenteno (PER _YSM_2018_25)”; 19 exs.: “ Peru: Cusco, Quispicanchi, Pirhuayani, 4702 m, 23.viii.2018, -13.641° -71.104°, Y. S. Megna & N. Zenteno (PER _YSM_2018_26)”; 35 exs.: “ Peru: Cusco, Calca, Calca District, Chaypa, 4129 m, 2.ix.2018, -13.202° -71.92°, Y. S. Megna & N. Zenteno (PER _YSM_2018_ 40)”; 171 exs.: “ Peru: Cusco, Calca, Calca District, Pitociray, 4315 m, 2.ix.2018, -13.203° -71.94°, Y. S. Megna & N. Zenteno (PER _YSM_2018_41)”; 50 exs.: “ Peru: Cusco, Calca, Lares District, Abra Lares, 4353 m, 2.ix.2018, -13.19° -71.94°, Y. S. Megna & N. Zenteno (PER _YSM_2018_42)”; 19 exs.: “ Peru: Cajamarca, Cajamarca, Lares District, Pampacorral, Mapacocha, 3948 m, 2.ix.2018, -13.178° -72.004°, Y. S. Megna & N. Zenteno (PER _YSM_ 2018_43)”. All paratypes are provided with our red printed paratype labels
Description of holotype. Habitus with distinct discontinuity between pronotum and elytra (as in Figs 3A, B). TL: 2.2 mm; TL-H: 2.0 mm; TW: 1.0 mm.
Colouration. Mostly dark dorsally and ventrally (as in Figs 3A, B).
Surface sculpture. Head with faint microreticulation at base and along hind angles of eyes, frons and clypeus more or less smooth and with few fine setiferous punctures; pronotum shiny with sparser and fine setiferous punctation; elytra shiny with dense and coarser setiferous punctation.
Structures. Antenna stout. Head without cervical line but few serial punctures instead. Pronotum on each lateral side (or margin) with distinct bead; with distinct and deep basal plicae. Elytron without basal plicae. Metathoracic wings short, about half the length of elytron.
Genitalia. Median lobe of aedeagus thick in lateral view, tip with short nose; lateral lobes (parameres) with distal part appearing comparably broad (Fig. 4E).
Variation. TL: 2.2–2.3 mm; TL-H: 1.8–2.0 mm; TW: 1.0–1.0 mm. Very few specimens show a short depression at the elytral base in place of the elytral plicae. Additionally, very few specimens show an extremely faint, interrupted occipital line. We assessed the length of the metathoracic wings in 10 specimens, which all had the same short wing length. While these specimens are certainly not able to fly actively, there might be few fully winged individuals that are capable of flight.
Female. Dorsal surface dull due to distinct microreticulation (Fig. 3B).
BOLD platform. We provided 30 entries in the “COLLI” project, all retrieved in one cluster. Assignment to that cluster was unambiguous, meaning all specimens were correctly assigned to this morphologically delineated species.
Etymology. From the Greek thespesios (divine, wondrous). The name is a noun standing in apposition.
Distribution. High Andes of southeastern Peru (Fig. 7), ca. 3,900 –4,700 m.
Habitat. Shallow and exposed puddles, collected with strainer out of mats of vegetation (Fig. 6A, B). Other Dytiscidae associated with this species were species of Rhantus Dejean, 1833 and Lancetes Sharp, 1882, as well as Liodessus acollensis.
description: Published as part of Balke, Michael, Megna, Yoandri S., Zenteno, Nilver, Figueroa, Luis & Hendrich, Lars, 2020, New Liodessus species from the high Andes of Peru (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae Bidessini), pp. 151-165 in Zootaxa 4852 (2) on pages 157-162, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4852.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4519043