Two new high Andean species of Liodessus diving beetles from Venezuela (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae, Bidessini)

By

Balke, Michael
Bilton, David T.
García, Mauricio
Viloria, Angel L
Villastrigo, Adrian
Hendrich, Lars

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2022-5-10

Original Publication

Metabarcoding and metagenomics

Volume

6

Pages

7--12

Subjects

Dytiscidae , Liodessus , Mérida , new species , Venezuela

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers 2017-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/alpento.6.79598

 

Abstract

Two new species of the diving beetle genus Liodessus Guignot, 1939 are described from high mountain regions in Venezuela: Liodessus meridensissp. nov. from Laguna de Mucabají, Mérida and L. venezuelensissp. nov. from Laguna de Mucabají and below Pico Bolívar, Mérida. We delineate the species using morphological characters such as male genital structure and beetle size, shape and color. Mitochondrial cox1 sequence data provided an additional character source. Both new species occur at altitudes above 3,500 m and were collected in shallow water at the edge of high-altitude ponds.