Two new species of Liodessus Guignot, 1939 diving beetles from Northern Peru (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae, Hydroporinae)

Abstract

The diving beetles Liodessus altoperuensissp. nov. and Liodessus caxamarcasp. nov. (Dytiscidae, Hydroporinae, Bidessini) are described from the high altitudes of the Puna regions of north western Peru. They occur in shallow and exposed mossy peatland puddles. We delineate the two species using structures such as male genitalia, beetle size, shape and colour pattern. Mitochondrial Cox1 data were also generated, and revealed clusters congruent with morphological evidence. Altogether fourteen Liodessus species are now known from the Andean region.

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

“…The description of morphological characters follows our previous work on Liodessus beetles, e.g. Balke et al (2020b). Images were taken with a Canon EOS R camera.…”

“…In the high Andes, at altitudes from ca. 3,000 to nearly 5,000 meters, they are probably the most abundant aquatic beetles (Balke et al 2020a;Balke et al 2020b). However, diving beetles from such high altitudes of the Páramo and Puna regions remain poorly studied.…”

A new Colombian species of Liodessus diving beetles from the Páramo de Sumapaz (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae, Bidessini)

“…The description of morphological characters follows our previous work on Liodessus beetles (e.g. Balke et al 2020b).…”

“…They are typically smaller than 3 mm and inhabit a variety of mainly lotic habitats. Andean species reach altitudes of nearly 5,000 m, where they are the most abundant aquatic beetles (Balke et al 2020a(Balke et al , 2020b.…”

“…However, diving beetles from the high altitudes of the Puna and Páramo regions re main poorly studied. Since 2019, as the result of a research and training cooperation between our institutions, 10 new species were described from these regions of Peru (Balke et al 2019(Balke et al , 2020b and Colombia (Megna et al 2019;Balke et al 2021). It became apparent that many more new species of Liodessus remain to be discovered in the vast Andean highland ecosystems, most of them likely en demic to one or a few Páramo or Puna areas, respective ly.…”