Neoclypeodytes curtulus
Creators: name: Scheers, Kevin
name: Hájek, Jiří
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Dytiscidae
Neoclypeodytes
Neoclypeodytes curtulus

description: Neoclypeodytes curtulus (Sharp, 1887)
(Fig. 2)
Bidessus curtulus Sharp, 1887: 753 (orig. descr., Panama).
Neoclypeodytes curtulus: Young 1969: 3 (new combination).
Type material. Lectotype: m# (designated by Miller 2001), “ Bidessus cur- / tulus. Types D.S. / Taboga island. / Champion [Sharp’s hw] // B.C.A. Col. I.2. / Bidessus / curtulus, / Sharp. [p] // Taboga Isl., / Panama. / Champion. [p] // Sharp Coll / 1905-313. [p] // Type [p, round label with red frame] // Lectotype specimen / dissected and on red / point. Other specimen / (White point) is a / paralectotype. [p, pink label] KBM [hw] // LECTOTYPE / Bidessus curtulus / Sharp 1887 / designated by / K.B. Miller 1997 [p, pink label with double black frame]”. Paralectotypes: 1 specimen with same label data as lectotype; 3 specimens, “ Bidessus cur- / tulus D.S. / Taboga island. / Champion [Sharp’s hw] // Co- / type [p, round label with yellow frame] // Taboga Isl., / Panama. / Champion. [p] // Sharp Coll / 1905-313. [p] // B.C.A. Col. I.2. / Bidessus / curtulus, / Sharp. [p] // PARALECTOTYPE / Bidessus curtulus Sharp / 1887, designated by / K.B. Miller 1997 [p, blue label with double black frame]”; 1 specimen, “ Bidessus cur- / tulus. / Taboga island / Panama. Champion [Sharp’s hw] // Co- / type [p, round label with yellow frame] // Sharp Coll / 1905-313. [p] // PARALECTOTYPE / Bidessus curtulus Sharp / 1887, designated by / K.B. Miller 1997 [p, blue label with double black frame]”; 21 specimens, “Co- / type [p, round label with yellow frame] // Taboga Isl., / Panama. / Champion. [p] // B.C.A. Col. I.2. / Bidessus / curtulus, / Sharp. [p]”; 3 specimens, “ San Miguel, / Pearl Isl. / Champion. [p] // B.C.A. Col. I.2. / Bidessus / curtulus, / Sharp. [p]” (all BMNH).
Additional material examined. 7 specimens: “ Panama: Panama, Campana, / cascade below Anam office, / 270m, 19.vi.2007, / 08.40.818N 079.54.075W, / Balke (PAN 07) [p]” (CKSB, NMPC, ZSMG).
Diagnosis. Small, ovoid-shaped species, only slightly attenuated posteriorly; lateral outline nearly continuous between pronotum and elytra in dorsal aspect (Figs 2 A–B). Surface shiny. Elytron rufopiceous with two testaceous maculae; subbasal macula transversely quadrangular, longitudinally extended at lateral margin, narrower basomedially, not reaching suture; posterior macula longitudinal-oblique, expanded medially in apical half, reaching elytral apex. Head finely reticulated and punctate. Pronotum widest at base; lateral bead distinct; finely punctate over entire surface, basal striae sinuated, distinctly curved inwards near base, length about 0.60× length of pronotum measured along same line as stria. Elytra with basal striae straight, slightly shorter than those on pronotum; sutural striae absent; epipleura with moderately oblique humeral carina. Metaventrite sparsely and rather finely punctate over entire surface; metacoxal plates with punctate medial and lateral portions, broadly impunctate along anterior and posterior margins (Fig. 2C). Abdominal ventrites I and II coarsely punctate; ventrite VI unmodified. Median lobe in lateral view expanded medially, apical third linear with lateral margins convergent to acute apex (Fig. 2E); in ventral view with attenuation in apical fifth, then evenly convergent to obtusely pointed apex; ventral surface in apical part with numerous scale-like setae (Fig. 2D). Lateral lobe with apical segment almost straight and parallel-sided, apex slightly protruding (Fig. 2F).
Neoclypeodytes curtulus is easily distinguished from the other two Panamanian species by the smaller body size (TL: 1.65–1.80 mm; TL-h: 1.45–1.60; TW: 0.90–1.00 mm), characteristic elytral color pattern (Figs 2 A–B), and the male genitalia with the median lobe expanded medially, and the apex of the lateral lobe protruding but less distinctly than in N. fortunensis sp. nov. (Figs 2 D–F).
Note. Miller (2001) describes the subbasal elytral maculae as triangular in N. curtulus, which is however not completely accurate: although the macula is usually somewhat attenuated basomedially, it is never acute triangular (cf. Figs 2 A–B).
Collection circumstances. The recently collected specimens were found together with N. balkei sp. nov. (see above).
Distribution. The species was described and known so far only from two islands in Pacific Gulf of Panama; here we present the first record from continental Central Panama (Fig. 6).
description: Published as part of Scheers, Kevin & Hájek, Jiří, 2020, Neoclypeodytes Young from Panama, with description of two new species (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae: Hydroporinae: Bidessini), pp. 245-256 in Zootaxa 4890 (2) on page 249, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4890.2.5, http://zenodo.org/record/4301869