Abstract
Telegeusinae is a small subfamily of Elateroid beetles presently attached to the Omethidae family. Pseudotelegeusis Wittmer, 1976 is composed of three species, two occurring in northern South America and one in Mexico. Here we describe the fourth species for the genus, Pseudotelegeusis meloi sp. nov., collected in a Malaise sample from the region of Madre de Dios, Peru. The new species is diagnosed mainly by the antennae serrate from antennomeres III to X, eyes occupying half of head width in lateral view and vertex occupying 3/5 of head in dorsal view. This new species is close to the other two South American species, P. howdeni Wittmer, 1976 and P. oculatus Wittmer, 1976, according to the serrate antennae and number of ventrites. The three South American species differ from the Mexican species, P. jiliotupaensis Zaragoza-Caballero, 2008, by the different antennae and the number of ventrites, which indicates that the Mexican species should possibly be classified in a different genus. The main morphological characters, including maxillar palpi, tentorial pits and male genitalia, are illustrated, and an updated key to the species of Pseudotelegeusis is given, as well as distribution maps.
Highlights
Pseudotelegeusis is represented by the following species: the type species, P. howdeni Wittmer, 1976 (French Guiana, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela), P. oculatus Wittmer, 1976 (Ecuador) and P. jiliotupaensis Zaragoza-Caballero, 2008 (Mexico)
The genus is recognized by the strongly serrate antennae; the maxillary palpi composed of four palpomeres, the last enlarged; labial palpi composed of one palpomere; and, according to the authors, only one single tentorial pit (Wittmer 1976b; Ivie 2002; Zaragoza-Caballero 2008)
In Pseudotelegeusis, we observed that the organization of the tentorium is similar to that of the Phengodidae Distremocephalus texanus (LeConte), as illustrated by Wittmer
Summary
Pseudotelegeusis Wittmer, 1976, with three species from French Guiana, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Ecuador and Mexico (Wittmer 1976b; Zaragoza-Caballero 2008); and Pseudokarumia Pic, 1931, with one species from Costa Rica and Panama (Ivie 2002). Recent molecular studies point to a relation of the group with the Omethidae (Mckena et al 2015; Bocak et al 2018), as a subfamily within the group (Kundrata et al 2014). Pseudotelegeusis is represented by the following species: the type species, P. howdeni Wittmer, 1976 (French Guiana, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela), P. oculatus Wittmer, 1976 (Ecuador) and P. jiliotupaensis Zaragoza-Caballero, 2008 (Mexico). The species were only recorded by their original description, except for P. howdeni, which was later recorded for French Guiana (Constantin 2010)
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