Sternopriscus mundanus
Ordo: Coleoptera
Familia: Dytiscidae
Genus: Sternopriscus
Name
Sternopriscus mundanus Watts, 1978
Type locality
Pond, Healesville, Victoria.
Type material
Holotype: male [together with three paratypes on one card, marked with red dot]: "Healesville V. 12/68, CW", "Holotype", "Paratype", "Holotype Sternopriscus mundanus det. C. Watts 1976" (ANIC). Paratypes: 17 exs., same data as holotype (4 exs. in ANIC, 13 in SAMA); 10 exs., "Canberra, Feb’ 61, CW." (SAMA); 2 exs., "Marysville, Victoria, Dec. 1968, C. Watts leg." (SAMA).
DNA Sequences
European Nucleotide Archive (ENA)
Description
Measurements: Males: TL = 2.20 - 2.32 mm, TL-H = 1.92 - 2.08 mm; width = 1.08 - 1.12 mm. Females: TL = 2.12 - 2.24 mm, TL-H = 1.88 - 2.00 mm; width = 1.04 - 1.08 mm.
Colour: Head black with one central and two apical testaceous spots; pronotum black, quite widely testaceous at sides; elytron black with numerous narrow testaceous patches; ventral surface. Dark brown to black, sides of prosternum and appendages lighter, middle and apical segments of antenna darker.
Sculpture: Very strongly reticulate. Punctures on head shallow tending to be masked by reticulation, those on rest of body large, moderately dense and rugose. Pronotal plicae strongly raised, reaching to two-thirds way along pronotum, area between them with well-marked depression. Sides of pronotum and elytron narrowly but sharply margined, margins weakly serrate, more so towards apex of elytron. Prothoracic process robust, sides subparallel, strongly punctate, not reaching metasternum. Mesocoxae not touching. Metacoxal lines relatively close, short, moderately diverging in front half.
Male: Larger. Antenna stout, simple, segments 5 - 10 similar, apical elongate. Protarsus moderately expanded; protibia a little expanded with a small excavation on inner edge near base. Profemur expanded with ridge on inside near base quite strongly developed. Mesotarsus a little expanded, a little elongate; mesotibia a little thickened. Median lobe of aedeagus broad, tip simple, apical portion broad in ventral view; paramere thin.
Female: Smaller. Antenna stout, simple; pro- and mesotarsi a little expanded; pronotum with sides moderately sinuate.
Affinities
A member of the S. meadfootii complex. Within this complex male S. mundanus have the antennae least modified, in fact barely different from females. In southwestern Australia S. wattsi has similar antennae but is readily separable by its greatly extended metacoxal processes. Females cannot be separated from a number of other members of the S. tarsalis group.
Habitat
In artificial ponds and farm dams, at the edge of slow flowing rivers as well as in peaty ponds of higher altitudes. In general the species prefers habitats with dense aquatic vegetation such as mats of floating grasses or sedges.
Distribution
Southeastern coastal Australia, Murray-Darling basin, Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Victoria (Watts 1978; Lawrence et al. 1987). In the Great Dividing Range up to 1550 m.
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.
