The New World whirligig beetles of the genus Dineutus Macleay, 1825 (Coleoptera, Gyrinidae, Gyrininae, Dineutini)
Author
Gustafson, Grey T.
Department of Biology and Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
gtgustafson@gmail.com
Author
Miller, Kelly B.
Department of Biology and Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
text
ZooKeys
2015
2015-01-23
476
1
135
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.476.8630
journal article
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.476.8630
1313-2970-476-1
086D71AF8A294F028559C2E0456B5C5B
FC4DC947FF97FF86190BFFD8B82CAB56
578702
Dineutus amazonicus Hatch, 1930
Dineutus (Cyclinus) amazonicus
Hatch, 1930: 16.
Type locality.
U.S.A., Arkansas, "Sevier Co., Ark. Saline R. about 18 miles east of DeQueen."
Material examined.
None-see comments below in Discussion.
Diagnosis
.
Male: unknown.
Female: Length 10 mm, elytral apices regularly oval, serration absent, lateral margins weakly sinuate, profemora of female with apicoventral tooth present running 1/5 its length.
Distribution.
Known only from the type locality.
Habitat.
Unknown
Discussion.
Dineutus amazonicus
was described from a single female specimen collected in Arkansas during the 1930's. The species, as described by Hatch (1930), is unique among all other North American
Dineutus
in having females with an sub-apicoventral tooth present on the profemora, running approximately 1/5 its length. In
Dineutus
this is a commonly sexually dimorphic character, with the tooth present only in males. Hatch (1930) indicated the elytra of this species are similar to those of
Dineutus emarginatus
, being regularly rounded and lacking serration.
We were unable to locate the type specimen either at the Smithsonian (F. Shockley, pers. comm.) or Oregon State University (C. Marshall, pers. comm.) where
Hatch's
collection was deposited. No specimens in the University of Arkansas collection were identified as
Dineutus amazonicus
(J. Barnes, pers. comm.). It appears that the type may be missing, and that no other published records of this species have occurred since its description in 1930. Although
Hatch's
(1930) description at first sounds dubious, as the profemoral sub-apicoventral tooth is in all other species unique to males, Hatch was unlikely to mistake a female gyrinid for a male (
Hatch 1925b
,
1926
), and it therefore seems unlikely that he described a merely aberrant form. For this reason we have included the enigmatic
Dineutus amazonicus
, without having seen neither type nor any other specimens of this species.
The first author recently visited the type locality in an attempt to recollect this species, but was unsuccessful. The locality, Saline River, a large mud bottom river, also had present
Dineutus ciliatus
as described by Hatch (1930), but unsettlingly, the only other species collected at this locality was
Dineutus emarginatus
, the species stated to be most similar to that of
Dineutus amazonicus
. Hopefully in the future the type may be rediscovered or this enigmatic species recollected and its relationship with
Dineutus emarginatus
clarified.