Ciulfina Giglio-Tos, 1915

Holwell, Gregory I., Ginn, Scott G. & Herberstein, Marie E., 2007, Three new species of Ciulfina Giglio-Tos (Mantodea: Liturgusidae) from north-eastern Australia, Zootaxa 1583 (1), pp. 23-35 : 26

Ciulfina Giglio-Tos, 1915

Genus Ciulfina Giglio-Tos, E. 1915 , Mantidi Esotici. Generi e specie nuove. Boll. Soc. Entomol. Ital. 46(1914): 31–108 [64].

Type species Nanomantis biseriata Westwood (1889) , by original designation.

External morphology is highly conserved in this genus. External morphology for all species is as per original description of Ciulfina by Giglio-Tos (1915). There are no significantly different features of external morphology that can be consistently used to distinguish one species from another. Adult body length ranges between 25–30 mm in males and 28–38 mm in females. The body markings are generally brown with mottled lighter patches (see Figure 2 ). Colour variation within species is commonly observed ranging from very dark brown to light brown, with some specimens exhibiting patches of green. Colour variation often reflects the colour of the tree stems that individuals are frequenting. C. baldersoni , C. klassi and C. rentzi are considered to be heterospecific to C. biseriata due to clear differences in male genitalic morphology.

Taxonomic definitions follow those used by La Greca (1954). Diagnostic features used in this paper’s descriptions are labelled using the following abbreviations (indicated in Figure 3 ): ventral phallomere (vph), left dorsal phallomere (lph), right dorsal phallomere (rph), anterior apodeme (aa), phalloid apophysis (pa), distal process of the ventral phallomere (dpr), apical process of the left dorsal phallomere (apr) and the ventral sclerotised process (vspr).

Material examined (unless otherwise stated) is deposited in the Australian Museum Sydney.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Habitus images of four Ciulfina species: C. biseriata (1. male, 2. female); C. baldersoni (3. male, 4. female); C. klassi (5. male, 6. female); C. rentzi (7. male, 8. female). Scale bar = 25 mm

FIGURE 3. Ciulfina baldersoni sp. nov. Illustration of male genitalia: (a) dorsal view; (b) ventral view.