Megadytes Explained

Megadytes is a genus of diving beetles in the family Dytiscidae. They are found in slow-moving or static freshwater habitats throughout most of the Neotropics, ranging from Florida and Mexico, through the West Indies and Central America, to South America as far south as central Argentina.^[1] The adult beetles measure about NaNabbr=onNaNabbr=on long depending on the exact species and the largest is also the largest in the family (together with certain Dytiscus).^{[1] [2] [3]}

Species

Megadytes contains the following 21 species in 4 subgenera:^[4]
Subgenus Bifurcitus:

• †Megadytes ducalis Sharp, 1882
• Megadytes lherminieri (Guérin-Méneville, 1829)
• Megadytes magnus Trémouilles & Bachmann, 1980

Subgenus Megadytes:

• Megadytes carcharias Griffini, 1895
• Megadytes ecuadorius Zimmermann, 1919
• Megadytes flohri Sharp, 1882
• Megadytes fraternus Sharp, 1882
• Megadytes guayanensis (Wilke, 1920)
• Megadytes guignoti Mouchamps, 1957
• Megadytes laevigatus (Olivier, 1795)
• Megadytes latus (Fabricius, 1801)
• Megadytes marginithorax (Perty, 1830)
• Megadytes steinheili (Wehncke, 1876)

Subgenus Paramegadytes:

• Megadytes australis (Germain, 1854)
• Megadytes glaucus (Brullé, 1837)

Subgenus Trifurcitus:

• Megadytes aubei (Wilke, 1920)
  • Megadytes aubei meridionalis Mouchamps, 1957
• Megadytes fallax (Aubé, 1838)
• Megadytes gravidus Sharp, 1882
• Megadytes obesus Sharp, 1882
• Megadytes perplexus Sharp, 1882
• Megadytes robustus (Aubé, 1838)

The subgenus and status of these two species are unknown:

• Megadytes costalis (Fabricius, 1775)
• Megadytes obovatus (Kirby, 1826)

Notes and References

1. Book: Miller, K.B. . J. Bergsten . Diving Beetles of the World: Systematics and Biology of the Dytiscidae . 2016 . 107–108 . JHU Press . 978-1-4214-2054-7 .
2. Book: G.N. Foster . D.T. Bilton . 2014 . The Conservation of Predaceous Diving Beetles: Knowns, Unknowns and Anecdotes . D.A. Yee . Ecology, Systematics, and the Natural History of Predaceous Diving Beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) . 437–462 . Springer . 978-94-017-9109-0 .
3. Hendrich. Lars. Manuel. Michael. Balke. Michael . 2019 . The return of the Duke—locality data for Megadytes ducalis Sharp, 1882, the world's largest diving beetle, with notes on related species (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) . Zootaxa. 4586 . 3 . 517–535. 10.11646/zootaxa.4586.3.8 . 31716121 . 1175-5334 . free .
4. Web site: Anders N. . Nilsson . Jiří . Hájek . A World Catalogue of the Family Dytiscidae or the Diving Beetles (Coleoptera, Adephaga) . 2021 . 1.I.2021 .