The Hydrophiloid beetles of Socotra Island (Coleoptera: Georissidae, Hydrophilidae)
Author
Fikáček, Martin
Department of Entomology, National Museum, Kunratice 1, CZ- 148 00 Praha 4, Czech Republic; e-mail: mfikacek @ gmail. com & Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Viničná 7, CZ- 128 44 Praha 2, Czech Republic
Author
Delgado, Juan A.
Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, 30100, Murcia, Spain; e-mail: jdelgado @ um. es
Author
Gentili, Elio
Via San Gottardo 37, I- 21030 Varese-Rasa, Italy; e-mail: elio. gentili. 32 @ alice. it
text
Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae
2012
2012-12-17
52
107
130
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.5334580
0374-1036
5334580
Georissus
(
Neogeorissus
)
sp.
Material examined.
SOCOTRA
:
1 ♀
(
NMPC
):
Dixiam
plateau,
wadi Esgego
,
12°28′09″N
54°00′36″E
,
300 m
a.s.l.
,
2.–3.xii.2003
, lgt.
P. Kabátek
;
1 ♀
(
CULS
): same locality and date, lgt.
J. Farkač
;
1 ♀
(
NMPC
):
Zemhon area
,
12°30′58″N
54°06′39″E
,
270–350 m
a.s.l.
, at light,
3.–4.ii.2010
, lgt.
J. Purchart
&
J. Vybíral.
MAINLAND YE- MEN:
1 J (
NMPC
):
Lahj
gov., vadi
Am Rija
,
W of Lahj Al Hutah
by road,
13°01′57″N
44°33′30″E
,
297 m
a.s.l.
,
25.–26.x.2007
. lgt.
A. Reiter
;
1 spec.
(
NMPC
):
wadi Anis
60 km
SW of
Sana’a
,
15°00′N
44°09′E
,
1522 m
a.s.l.
,
7.x.2005
, lgt.
S. Kadlec
.
Comments.
The species belongs to the
G. costatus
species group sensu
DELÈVE (1967a
,b) based on the pronotal sculpture, even elytral intervals higher than odd ones, and the coloration at least partly metallic (strongly so on the head and pronotum, weaker metallic tint is present on elytra which are otherwise paler than rest of the body, reddish to dark reddish brown with dark base and darker spots at midlength of intervals 1–2 and in basal third of intervals 5–6). Three females from
Socotra Island
agree in external morphology and coloration to the specimens from southern mainland
Yemen
with which they may be conspecific. All six examined specimens belong to the African complex of rather large species with very distinctly elevated even elytral intervals, represented in Africa by five species:
G. intermedius
Paulian & Legros, 1943 (
Chad
)
,
G. fairmairei
Alluaud, 1902
(
Democratic Republic of the Congo
),
G. marlieri
Delève, 1967
(
Namibia
,
Zaire
),
G. renaudi
Delève, 1967 (
Chad
)
and
G. metallicus
Paulian & Legros, 1943
(
Chad
,
Guinea
) (see
DELÈVE 1967b
). The aedeagus of the male from mainland
Yemen
differs from all these species except
G. marlieri
by narrow and elongate phallobase, but is slightly smaller (
0.41 mm
versus
0.46 mm
in the
types
of
G. marlieri
), and the Yemeni specimens also slightly differ from
G. marlieri
in the basally narrower elytra. Without the comparison of longer series from
Socotra
and mainland
Yemen
(not currently available) with those from Africa, we are not able to assign the male from continental
Yemen
to
G. marlieri
reliably, and the identity of the Socotran specimens remains unclear as well, pending the collecting of males. However, the Yemeni and Socotran specimens clearly differ from
G. chameleo
Fikáček & Trávníček, 2009
from the
United Arab Emirates
(which also belongs to
G. costatus
species group, see
FIKÁČEK & TRÁVNÍČEK (2009))
by the morphology of male genitalia as well as the body size and form, and the above specimens therefore represent the second species of the genus
Georissus
from the Arabian Peninsula.