Copelatus Erichson, 1832 from Maharashtra, India, with description of three new species and notes on other taxa of the genus (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae: Copelatinae)

Abstract

The Copelatus species occurring in Maharashtra State, India, are reviewed. Altogether, nine species are recorded, three of which are described as new: Copelatus deccanensis sp. nov. (C. nigrolineatus species group), C. maushomi sp. nov. (C. consors group) and C. bezdeki sp. nov. (C. irinus group). Habitus and male genitalia are illustrated for all Copelatus species from Maharashtra, a key to the species and distribution maps are presented. New distributional records along with short diagnoses of already known species are provided. In addition, the study of extensive material of Copelatus species from the Indian subcontinent outside Maharashtra revealed the following new synonymies: Copelatus freudei Guignot, 1955 = C. gibsoni Vazirani, 1974 syn. nov. = C. gibsoni Vazirani, 1975 syn. nov. = C. spangleri Vazirani, 1974 syn. nov. = C. spangleri Vazirani, 1975 syn. nov.; Copelatus oblitus Sharp, 1882 = C. karnatakus Holmen & Vazirani, 1990 syn. nov.; C. sociennus J. Balfour-Browne, 1952 = C. bangalorensis Vazirani, 1970 syn. nov.; Copelatus tenebrosus Régimbart, 1880 = C. ceylonicus Vazirani, 1969 syn. nov. = C. assamensis Vazirani, 1970 syn. nov.

Taxonomic revision of the genus Copelatus of Madagascar (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae, Copelatinae): the non- erichsonii group species

“…Hájek and Reiter (2014) recorded the species from Yemen and stated that the likely distribution in the Middle East included the entire Arabian Peninsula. Guignot (1961) also gives India and Ceylon (= Sri Lanka) but this was likely based on the misidentification of closely related oriental species (see Ghosh and Nilsson 2012; Sheth et al 2018). Copelatus pulchellus was not previously recorded from Madagascar following the revision by Balfour-Browne (1950) but as we synonymise C. mimetes with C. pulchellus , Madagascar now forms part of the distribution.…”

Factors affecting aquatic beetle communities of Northern Western Ghats of India (Arthropoda: Insecta: Coleoptera)

“…The literature-based list of aquatic beetles of Maharashtra (Sharma and Bano, 2012) is an underestimation (57 species) as the present survey revealed 66 species, including new records and discovery of new species (Sheth et al, 2018).…”

“…Previous work on Indian aquatic beetles is primarily taxonomical (see supplementary material) with limited information on their habitats (Sheth et al, 2018) and some general observations (Tonapi and Ozarkar, 1969a,b). The Northern Western Ghats (NWG) are part of the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka megadiverse region with high endemism in its floral and faunal elements (Myers et al, 2000;Mittermeier et al, 2005).…”

A Citizen Science Case Study to Chart Indonesian Biodiversity: Updating the Diving Beetle Fauna of Bali (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae)

“…One of the most widespread Copelatus species. It occurs from the Indian Subcontinent, southern China and Japan, through Southeast Asia to the Northern Territory, and Queensland in Australia (Satô, 1985;Hendrich et al, 2004Hendrich et al, , 2019Sheth et al, 2018) (Fig. 8E).…”