New record of Hydaticus (Prodaticus) Bipunctatus Bipunctatus Wehncke, 1876 (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) from Meghalaya

Abstract

Hydaticus Leach, 1817 is a large genus under the family Dytiscidae which comprises of predatory water beetles. These beetles generally occupy clean and fresh macrophytic leaves near bottom along littoral zone of both lentic and lotic freshwater habitats. Hydaticus (Prodaticus) bipunctatus bipunctatus Wehncke, 1876 was originally described from the Philippines. In India, it was first reported from the Andaman Islands (Wewalka 1982). Thereafter, the species has been reported from Kerala (Mukherjee & Sengupta, 1986), Sikkim (Mukhopadhyay & Ghosh, 2003) and Manipur (Mukhopadhyay & Ghosh, 2004). So far, from Meghalaya only two species of Hydaticus Leach, 1817 have been reported: Hydaticus luczonicus Aube, 1838, and Hydaticus vittatus vittatus (Fabricius, 1775) (Mukhopadhyay et al., 2000). In the course of study of aquatic beetles collected from Jaiñtia Hills, one of the least explored and ecologically threatened part of Meghalaya, the author came across two specimens of Hydaticus collected from Wah Kongong in East Jaiñtia Hills District, Meghalaya. These specimens are identified as Hydaticus (Prodaticus) bipunctatus bipunctatus Wehncke, 1876, based on observed diagnostic characters and confirmed with available literatures on the species (Ghosh and Nilsson, 2012; Wewalka, 1975b; Vazirani, 1969; 1973; 1977). Hydaticus (Prodaticus) bipunctatus bipunctatus Wehncke, 1876, has not yet been reported from Meghalaya. Therefore, the present paper forms the first confirmed report on the availability of this species in Meghalaya.