Agabus alexandrae sp n. from Morocco, with a molecular phylogeny of the Western Mediterranean species of the A-guttatus group (Coleoptera : Dytiscidae)

A new species of the Agabus guttatus group, A. alexandrae sp. n., is descri bed from the Moyen Atlas in Morocco. A phylogeny of most of the Western Med iterranean species of the group based on Cytochrome Oxydase I and 16S rRNA sequences (approximately 1,250 bp) shows that A. alexandrae sp. n. is siste r to the remaining species of the group. The evolutionary history of the sp ecies of the group is tentatively reconstructed, based on a Maximum Likelih ood estimate of divergence time of approximately 2% per MY for the combined 16S and COI genes, similar to other estimates of evolutionary rates of the mitochondrial DNA of Coleoptera.