Nuevo genero de hydrophilidae del amazona venezolano

Aquatic Insects March 2007; 29(1): 1 – 7

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Tobochares sulcatus, a new genus and species of water scavenger beetle from Amazonas State, Venezuela (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae: Hydrophilini)

´ ANDREW EDWARD Z. SHORT1 & MAURICIO M. GARCIA2
Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA, and 2Centro deInvestigaciones Biologicas, Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela ´
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Abstract A remarkable new genus and species of water scavenger beetle, Tobochares sulcatus, is described and illustrated from the rock formation known as El Tobogan de la Selva, in Amazonas State, Venezuela. It is placed in the subtribe Acidocerina of the tribe Hydrophilini. It is characterised by its small size, eightsegmentedantennae, nearly glabrous hind femora, and sulcate elytral striae. It is associated with flat, wet rock faces and small rock pools that are covered with or contain fallen leaves.

Keywords: Coleoptera, Hydrophilidae, new species, Venezuela

Introduction The recent discovery of a new aquatic coleopteran family, Meruidae, (Spangler & Steiner 2005) shed light on a remarkable rock formation on thenorthwestern fringe of the Guianan Shield in Venezuela, El Tobogan de la Selva. Here, the Rio Coromoto exits a dense jungle and flows as a shallow film over a wide expanse of exposed rock for more than half a kilometer. Aside from currently being the only known locality for an entire family of aquatic beetles, ‘‘El Tobogan’’ and other regional streams harbor an extremely diverse community of waterbeetles, the majority of them unknown to science. Here, we report on one of these taxa, Tobochares, a remarkable new genus of hydrophiline water scavenger beetle. Found under fallen leaves on wet exposed rock at and around El Tobogan, it is unusual for its deeply grooved elytra, an uncommon condition in aquatic hydrophilids. Materials and methods A total of 437 specimens were examined for this study.Terminology largely follows Hansen (1991), except for the substitution of meso- and metaventrite for meso- and metasternum respectively.
Correspondence: Andrew Short, Department of Entomology, Comstock Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. E-mail: as384@cornell.edu ISSN 0165-0424 print/ISSN 1744-4152 online ª 2007 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/01650420701247869

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A. E. Z. Short& M. M. Garcıa ´

Museum and depository abbreviations AEZS – Collection of A.E.Z. Short, Ithaca, NY, USA; CUIC – Cornell University Insect Collection, Ithaca, NY, USA (J.K. Liebherr); FHC – Collection of Franz Hebauer, Plattling, Germany; MALUZ – Museo de Artropodos de la Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo, ´ Venezuela (J. Camacho, M. Garcıa); MIZA – Museo del Instituto de Zoologia Agrıcola, ´ ´Maracay, Venezuela (L. Joly); MCZ – Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, U.S.A. (P.D. Perkins); MFPC – Collection of Martin Fikaek, Prague, Czech Republic, ´c NHML – Natural History Museum, London, UK (C. Taylor); NMNH – US National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC (W.E. Steiner); NMW – Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Austria (M.A. Jach, A. Komarek). ¨ Taxonomy Tobocharesgen. n. Type species. Tobochares sulcatus sp. n.

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Diagnosis. Size small, less than 2.5 mm. Antennae with eight segments, including threesegmented club (Figure 2). Mentum with deep anteromedial notch (Figure 3). Each elytron with distinct, deep grooves (Figure 1). Median elevation of mesoventrite low, forming a narrow transverse ridge(Figure 4). Metafemora glabrous except for a few scattered setae. Fifth abdominal ventrite evenly rounded (Figure 5), without apical emargination or coarse setae. Aedeagus with basal piece extremely short (Figure 6). Description Punctation. Systematic punctures on clypeus, pronotum, and elytra present and usually each bearing a short seta. Elytra with 10 rows of serial punctures set in distinct,...