A new species of Desmopachria Babington (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) from Cuba with a prediction of its geographic distribution and notes on other Cuban species of the genus
Author
Megna, Yoandri S.
Author
Sánchez-Fernández, David
text
Zootaxa
2014
3753
6
585
596
journal article
46695
10.11646/zootaxa.3753.6.5
0e51f540-f3ad-4b51-af5b-8b073682c89b
1175-5326
225671
EF569C8D-71C0-4C5B-8A01-E93EF604AB8A
Desmopachria andreae
Megna & Sánchez-Fernández
,
sp. n.
(
Figs. 1
,
6
a, 7–9)
Type
material:
Holotype
male
(
CZCTR
):
CUBA
. Sancti Spíritus: Codina,
01–VII–10
, Y. S. Megna leg.
21°54′42′′N
,
80°03′36′′W
, elevation ca.
891 m
[printed],
Holotype
,
Desmopachria andreae
sp. n.
, Megna det. 2012 [red, printed].
Paratypes
(
CZCTR
if not stated otherwise):
6 males
,
5 females
, with same data as
holotype
.
1 male
,
CUBA
: Sancti Spíritus: Salto del Caburní,
29–VI–10
, Y. S. Megna leg.
21°55′17′′N
,
80°00′20′′W
, elevation ca.
520 m
.
1 male
,
CUBA
: Santiago de
Cuba
: Cabezadas del Río Cauto,
01–XII–2005
, Y. S. Megna leg.
20°02′38′′N
,
76°10′42′′W
, elevation ca.
620 m
.
2 males
,
3 females
,
CUBA
: Santiago de
Cuba
: El Olimpo,
04–VIII–2004
, A. Deler-Hernández leg.
20°0′17′′N
,
75°38′48′′W
;
1 male
,
1 female
,
CUBA
: Santiago de
Cuba
: La Marsella,
02–XII– 2005
, Y. S. Megna, leg.
20°00′4′′N
,
76°13′06′′W
, elevation ca.
370 m
.
3 males
,
1 female
(
NMPC
),
CUBA
: Santiago de
Cuba
: La Majagua,
14–VIII–2004
, Y. S. Megna, leg.
19°57′38′′N
,
76°52′32′′W
. Each
paratype
is provided with its respective red label.
Description (male).
Habitus
(
Fig. 1
a). Body oval, broadly rounded in dorsal view; slightly flattened dorsoventrally; greatest width slightly anterior to midlength.
Measurements and ratios
(minimun-maximun, mean), in mm (n=10): HL 0.2–0.3, 0.3; HW 0.7–0.8, 0.7; DBE 0.3–0.4, 0.3; PL 0.4–0.5, 0.5; PW 1.2–1.3, 1.2; PW/PL 0.3–0.4, 0.4; EL 1.2–1.5, 1.4; EW 1.3–1.4, 1.4; TL/EW 1.5–1.9, 1.6; TL 1.9–2.2, 2.1.
Color
. Dorsally, head testaceous, darker posteriorly (
Fig. 1
a); pronotum testaceous, darker along posterior margin. Elytra testaceous, darker along the elytral suture and anterior margin (
Fig. 1
a); venter testaceous. Antennae and palpi yellow. Pro- and mesothoracic legs yellow; metathoracic legs brown.
Sculpture and punctation.
Head inconspicuously punctate, clypeus indistinctly beaded; pronotum with rows of fine punctures along anterior margin, posteriorly with some fine sparse punctures, lateral bead of even width (
Fig. 1
a); elytron inconspicuously punctate. Venter without punctation.
Structure
. Antenna with segments 1-2 wider than following segments; pronotum with posterolateral angles produced, rounded laterally and continuous in outline with elytra; elytra with apex rounded; convex in lateral view; prosternal process short, with apex acute, contacting metaventrite; metacoxal process without lateral lobe; abdomen with last ventrite rounded; protarsi and mesotarsi pentamerous without modification; metatarsal claws unequal.
Male genitalia.
Median lobe with acute apex in dorsal view (
Fig. 1
b), in lateral view as in figure 1c. Parameres symmetrical, narrowing apically, with short setae on apex (
Fig. 1
d).
Female.
Similar in habitus, vestiture and coloration to male, except lighter in colour.
Measurements and ratios
(minimum-maximun, mean), in mm (n=10): HL 0.2–0.3, 0.3; HW 0.7–0.8, 0.7; DBE 0.3–0.4, 0.3; PL 0.4–0.5, 0.5; PW 1.1–1.3, 1.2; PW/PL 0.3–0.4, 0.4; EL 1.3–1.4, 1.3; EW 1.2–1.4, 1.3; TL/EW 1.5–1.8, 1.6; TL 2.0–2.2, 2.1.
FIGURES 1–5.
Desmopachria
species from Cuba. 1)
D.andreae
sp. n.
a) dorsal habitus; b) male genitalia, dorsal view; c) median lobe in right lateral view; d) right paramere, lateral view; 2-5) male genitalia, dorsal view; 2)
D. aspera
; 3)
D. darlingtoni
; 4)
D. glabella
; 5)
D. tarda
.
Drawings of
D. aspera
and
D. glabella
are reproduced from Young (1981).
Diagnosis.
Adults of
D. andreae
can be readily distinguished from other species of the genus by the aedeagus, with the median lobe having an unsclerotized and acute apically (
Fig. 1
b); and parameres without a preapical, articulated process and the apex narrowing evenly (
Fig. 1
d).
Etymology.
The new species is dedicated to Andrea Megna Alicio, mother of the first author, for her love. The species name is a noun in the genitive case.
Distribution.
D. andreae
has been recorded from localities in mountainous areas of the Sierra Maestra (Oriental region) and Guamuhaya (Central region) (
Fig. 6
a).
Ecology
. According to
Miller (2005)
species of
Desmopachri
a can occupy a wide variety of habitats including ponds, streams, forest pools and phytotelmata. Specimens of
D. andreae
were collected in the backwaters of freshwaters with clear water and muddy-stony bottoms, located in highlands with little exposure to sun, with abundant cover vegetation but without aquatic vegetation (
Fig. 7
).
Species distribution modelling.
The predictive map for
D. anderae
shows a high suitability (red areas in
Fig. 9
) in a few areas of the Sierra Maestra (S-SW of
Cuba
), while other suitable areas are distributed in the south of the island, mainly in the mountainous areas and also in the Macizo de Guamuhaya (central part of
Cuba
). Our model also predicted that most of the study area has a low (<0.5) probability of presence (mainly in the western parts of
Cuba
; blue areas in
Fig. 9
).
The model achieved a 1.26 regularised gain value indicating good fit to presence data. The AUC was high, with a mean value of 0.94 for test data; i.e., values indicate an excellent predictive ability.
FIGURE 6.
Map of the known distribution of
Desmopachria
species in Cuba. a)
D. andreae
sp. n
;
b)
D. aspera
; c)
D. darlingtoni
; d)
D. glabella
; e)
D. tarda
. See Appendix 2 for additional information on the localities reported in each map.
The analysis of single variable contribution (
Fig. 8
) showed that mean temperature of the wettest quarter (63%), maximum temperature of the warmest month (10%) and altitude (10%) were the main factors influencing model performance. Mean temperature of the wettest quarter seems to provide more information by itself than the other variables, as derived from the Jackknife procedure (
Fig. 8
).
FIGURE 7.
Type locality of
D. andreae
sp. n.
Codina (Cuba, Sancti Spíritus). Photo D. Leyva.
FIGURE 8.
Representation of the contribution provided by the environmental variables considered to develop the MaxEnt model for
D. andreae
sp. n.
Grey bars show the percent contribution of each variable to the model and corresponding values are given on the right axis. Jackknife results for the model (values on the left axis) are also shown for single variables (diagonal shade), for all variables except the one selected (black bars) and for all variables (white).
FIGURE 9.
Maximum entropy model developed for
D. andreae
sp. n.
in Cuba. Values range from high (red areas) to low environmental suitability (blue areas).
Key to
Desmopachria
of
Cuba
1 Parameres with apex deeply bifid (
Fig. 3
) and with long apical setae;
Jamaica
, Hispaniola,
Colombia
, eastern
Cuba
(
Fig. 6
c)................................................................................
D. darlingtoni
Young, 1989
- Parameres not deeply bifid, apical setae absent or very short;
USA
,
Bahamas
,
Cuba
................................. 2
2 Larger, TL>
1.9 mm
; parameres without a preapical, articulated process (
Fig. 1
b); central and eastern parts of
Cuba
(
Fig. 6
a).......................................................................................
D. andreae
sp. n
.
- Smaller, TL <
1.7 mm
; parameres with a preapical, articulated process............................................ 3
3 Median lobe of aedeagus with a single tip and apex narrowed (
Fig. 2
);
USA
,
Bahamas
, central part
Cuba
(
Fig. 6
b)...........................................................................................
D. aspera
Young, 1981
- Median lobe of aedeagus with two tips and apex expanded;
Cuba
................................................ 4
4 Median lobe of aedeagus expanded, bulbous at the base (
Fig. 4
); body color usually uniformly dark brown; western part of
Cuba
(
Isla
de la Juventud) (
Fig. 6
d)....................................................
D. glabella
Young, 1981
- Median lobe of aedeagus not expanded at the base (
Fig. 5
); color reddish brown, with sutural margin of elytra darker brown; central and eastern parts of
Cuba
(
Fig. 6
e)...............................................
D. tarda
Spangler, 1973