Sternopriscus multimaculatus
Ordo: Coleoptera
Familia: Dytiscidae
Genus: Sternopriscus
Name
Sternopriscus multimaculatus (Clark, 1862)
Type locality
Australia
Type material
Holotype of multimaculatus: male "Holotype", "Australia", "multimaculatus Clark Australia" (BMNH). Lectotype of sinuaticollis, "S. Australia Bakewell 59. 24.", "sinuaticollis Clark", (BMNH). – Paralectotypes of sinuaticollis: 6 exs., no data, "Paralectotype", "67-56", Hamlet Clark coll. (BMNH). Synonymy after Zimmermann (1920) and Watts (1978).
DNA Sequences
European Nucleotide Archive (ENA)
Description
Measurements: Males: TL = 2.40 - 2.76 mm, TL-H = 2.20 - 2.48 mm; width = 1.16 - 1.28 mm. Females: 2.36 - 2.72 mm, TL-H = 2.16 - 2.52 mm; width = 1.12 - 1.32 mm.
Colour: Head testaceous, hind angles and base usually dark brown; pronotum testaceous, broadly black in middle sometimes reduced to front and rear patches; elytron testaceous with numerous rather small, often isolated black spots; ventral surface dark brown to black with diffuse lighter areas, sides of prosternum and appendages lighter, tips of maxillary palpi occasionally darker.
Sculpture: Strongly rugose-reticulate, punctures all but obliterated on head. Rest of body strongly and closely rugose-punctate. Pronotal plicae well marked, reaching to half way or a bit more along pronotum, area between them depressed. Pronotum and elytra weakly margined. Prothoracic process robust, subparallel, strongly rugose-punctate, not quite reaching metasternum. Midline of metasternum raised in extreme front; metacoxal lines short, strongly diverging towards front.
Male: Larger. Antennal segments 8 and 9 a little expanded, apical segment elongate. Basal segments of protarsus strongly expanded; protibia a little expanded with a very slight basal indentation on side; profemur with small triangular expansion on inner margin near base. Mesotarsus stout, a little expanded and elongate. Median lobe of aedeagus narrow, tip rounded or occasionally a little bifid; in lateral view central portion thin, then rapidly widening in apical quarter giving a very deep apical portion.
Female: Smaller. Antennal segments relatively stout but simple; pro- and mesotarsi relatively stout; sides of pronotum strongly sinuate.
Affinities
The strongly spotted colour pattern of the elytra can be confused only with some S. meadfootii. Humeral angles light coloured. The sides of the pronotum in the female strongly sinuate. Median lobe of aedeagus strongly expanded dorsal-ventrally in apical quarter. The characters of the male antennae are also diagnostic.
Habitat
Common in open ponds, roadside ditches, puddles and stock dams often with little or no vegetation (Fig. 2), but also, less frequently, at the edges of small creeks and rivers among small stones and gravel.
Distribution
Northwestern coastal Australia, Western plateau, Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin, southern Gulfs, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania (Watts 1978, Lawrence et al. 1987). A widespread species with the most inland distribution of any Sternopriscus.
Images
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References
- Hendrich, L.; Watts, C.H.S. 2004: Taxonomic revision of the Australian genus Sternopriscus Sharp, 1882 (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae, Hydroporinae). Koleopterologische Rundschau, 74: 75–142.
