New species and new collection records of Prosthetopine water beetles from southern Africa (Coleoptera: Hydraenidae)

2014

Zootaxa

Mesoceration hantam sp. nov. and Parhydraena faeni sp. nov., are described from the Hantamsberg plateau, an inselberg in the Northern Cape of South Africa. The new species are so far known only from temporary waters on the Hantamsberg summit, where they were both abundant. Sampling in these mountains also revealed an interesting accompanying water beetle fauna, including the northernmost known record of Hydropeplus montanus Omer-Cooper, a species characteristic of mountain fynbos further south in the region.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…The Cape highlands are particularly important for this aquatic biodiversity, with a large number of the species known from the Western Cape uplands being endemic, sometimes apparently to single mountain systems (e.g. Perkins, 2005Perkins, , 2008Perkins, , 2009Bilton, 2013aBilton, -c, 2014Bilton & Gentili, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two new water beetles from the Hantamsberg, an inselberg in the Northern Cape of South Africa (Coleoptera, Hydraenidae)

2014

Zootaxa

“…Whilst a large number of water beetles have been described from the Western Cape in the last 25 years (e.g. Perkins & Balfour‐Browne, ; Ribera et al ., ; Perkins, , ; Bilton, ,b, ; Bilton & Gentili, ), most of these taxa are non‐dytiscids and are small, cryptic and/or occupy madicolous habitats (Vaillant, ) largely neglected by earlier workers. The fact that such a large, distinctive diving beetle as C. prykei gen. et sp.n.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capelatus prykei gen. et sp.n. (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae: Copelatinae) – a phylogenetically isolated diving beetle from the Western Cape of South Africa

Toussaint

Turner³

et al. 2015

Systematic Entomology

Capelatus prykei gen. et sp.n., a distinctive new lineage of copelatine diving beetle, is described from the greater Cape Town area of the Western Cape Province, South Africa, on the basis of both morphological and molecular data. The genus‐level phylogeny of Copelatinae is reconstructed using a combination of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA regions, demonstrating that Capelatus gen.n. has no close relatives within the Afrotropical region, instead forming a clade with the Palaearctic Liopterus and largely Australasian Exocelina. Capelatus gen.n. apparently represents a striking example of a phylogenetically isolated Cape lineage, which also appears to be narrowly endemic and endangered by ongoing habitat loss.

“…The remaining ones are found mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, and occupy the entire range of habitats utilized by extant Hydraenidae (with the exception of saline waters), from mountain streams, wetlands, rock pools and wet rock faces, to forest litter (see Bilton, 2014aBilton, , 2014bBilton, , 2015aBilton, , 2015bBilton, , 2015cBilton, , 2017Bilton, , 2018Perkins, 2005aPerkins, , 2008Perkins, , 2009Perkins, , 2017Perkins & Balfour-Browne, 1994). These genera, here termed the 'Gondwana group', are morphologically and ecologically diverse (Figure 1) and classified across all four currently recognized hydraenid subfamilies (see Table 1; Hansen, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minute moss beetles in the Southern Hemisphere: Molecular phylogeny, historical biogeography and habitat shifts (Coleoptera: Hydraenidae)

Jäch

Ribera

et al. 2022

Systematic Entomology

Minute moss beetles (Hydraenidae) are one of the most speciose and widespread families of aquatic Coleoptera, with an estimated 4,000 extant species, found in the majority of aquatic habitats from coastal rock pools to mountain streams and from the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic islands. Molecular phylogenetic works have improved our understanding of the evolutionary history of the megadiverse Hydraena, Limnebius and Ochthebius in recent years, but most genera in the family have not yet been included in any phylogenetic analyses, particularly most of those which are restricted to the Southern Hemisphere. Using a multimarker molecular matrix, sampling over 40% of described species richness and 75% of currently recognized genera, we infer a comprehensive molecular phylogeny of these predominantly Gondwanan Hydraenidae. Whilst the genera we focus on are morphologically diverse, and currently classified across all four hydraenid subfamilies, our phylogenetic analyses suggest that these Gondwanan genera may instead constitute a single clade. As a result of our findings, the African genus Oomtelecopon Perkins syn.n. is shown to nest within Coelometopon Janssens, the New Zealand Homalaena Ordish syn.n. and Podaena Ordish syn.n. are synonymised with Orchymontia Broun, and the South African Pterosthetops Perkins syn.n. is synonymised with Prosthetops Waterhouse, resulting in Pterosthetopini Perkins syn.n. being synonymised with Prosthetopini Perkins. Mesoceratops Bilton & Jäch gen.n. is erected to accommodate six former members of Mesoceration Janssens, which is shown to be polyphyletic. We propose the replacement name Orchymontia ordishi Jäch & Bilton nom.n. for Homalaena dilatata Ordish, 1984 (now a junior homonym); altogether 39new combinations are proposed. Our Bayesian divergence times infer an origin for this "Gondwana group" of genera in Africa plus Madagascar in the mid-Cretaceous and suggest that both vicariant and dispersal processes, together with extinctions, have shaped the biogeographic history of these beetles in the Southern Hemisphere during the Cretaceous, resulting in geographically conserved extant lineages. Finally, we reconstruct ancestral habitat shifts across our phylogeny, revealing numerous changes in habitat occupancy in these genera, including multiple origins of fully terrestrial, humicolous taxa in different regions.