Austrogymnocnemia diehli Machado, 2020

Machado, Renato Jose Pires & Oswald, John David, 2020, Morphological phylogeny and taxonomic revision of the former antlion subtribe Periclystina (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae: Dendroleontinae), Zootaxa 4796 (1), pp. 1-322 : 102-105

Austrogymnocnemia diehli Machado , new species

( Figs. 42–44 )

http://zoobank.org/NomenclaturalActs/ A0E8C161-B694-45C5-BCAB-2A363C0D8440

Diagnosis. Tibial spurs absent; male gonarcus with anterior margin acute; male paramere with apical hook absent and anterior margin acute; female posterior gonapophysis with tip enlarged and rounded; body colour mostly grey; forewing mediocubital area hyaline.

Description. Lengths: forewing: 18–23 mm; hind wing: 16–21 mm.

Head ( Figs. 43 a–b): Labrum pale, set with a line of elongate setae. Clypeus pale, with few elongate black setae. Frons mostly shiny brown with ventral margin pale, in some specimens there is a small central brown mark; covered with few short black setae. Gena pale. Vertex raised; in anterior view grey, with two short transverse dark marks laterally and a rounded central dark spot; in dorsal view mostly grey with two central perpendicular dark lines and two dark marks posterolaterally (some specimens posterior margin and a small area near ocular margin, pale); covered with short black setae anteriorly, and white posteriorly, in some specimens the white setae cover the whole head. Ocular setae absent. Antennae clubbed; elongate, about three times longer than pronotum; distance between antennae wider than scape width; mostly brown with distal margin of segments pale, and anterior surface of four to five subapical flagellomeres pale, in some specimens the posterior surface of these subapical flagellomeres also with pale areas; torular membrane pale; flagellomeres almost as long as wide at base, apical ones much wider than long; all segments set with short black setae. Mandibles pale, with tip black. Palpi, maxillary and labial pale with area enclosing palpimacula opening brown; apical labial palpomere fusiform, palpimacula opening oval-shaped, located medially.

Thorax ( Fig. 43b ): Pronotum about as long as wide; posterior margin as wide as anterior; subapical furrow present; mostly greyish with darker longitudinal lines: two around midline and two lateral (some specimens with two spots at furrow and two on posterior margin); beset with short white setae, few black setae, and some long white setae on borders. Mesonotum grey with a sagittal dark brown band and four narrower lateral bands on each side of scutum; covered with short white setae. Metanotum grey with irregular dark marks mainly at scutum; with short white setae. Pterothoracic pleura grey; covered with white setae; Miller’s organ present.

Wings ( Fig. 43c ): Rather narrow with tip acute; anterior Banksian line present in both wings, but posterior present only in the forewing. Male pilula axillaris present. Forewing membrane mostly hyaline with two apical longitudinal brown marks, one around anterior Banksian line and other near inferior margin, veins mostly white, Subcosta intercalated with brown spots, cubital crossveins, veins near border, and at anterior Banksian line black; in some specimens area around the black cubital crossveins brown infuscated, CuA fork located about the same place of RP origin; three presectoral crossveins; subcostal veinlets simple; posterior area narrower than prefork area. Hind wing membrane mostly hyaline except for a brown longitudinal mark at rhegmal area; veins mostly white, except for some dark crossveins at anterior Banksian line and at the brown mark; MP fork located near RP origin; subcostal veinlets simple; one presectoral crossvein.

Legs ( Figs. 43 a–b): All pairs of legs, femur elongate (> 2x length of coxa); tibia and tarsi about same size, but slightly shorter than femur; tibial spurs absent; T3 and T4 about same size, T2 slightly longer than T3, T1 slightly longer than T2 and T5 about twice longer than T1; claws slightly longer than half of T5 length; coxa, trochanter, femur and tibia set with short white setae; trochanter, femur, tibia and tarsi set with short black setae, and scattered long setae; T5 ventrally with two rows of thick, long, black setae. Proleg sense hair slightly longer than femur width; tibia with antennal cleaning setae ventroapically; coxa grey with internal surface pale, trochanter pale, femur internal surface pale, external brown, tibia pale with three irregular brown marks, tarsi pale. Mesoleg with colour pattern similar to proleg, except for femur with anterior surface brown, and posterior pale. Metaleg with femur, tibia and T1 slightly longer than in other legs; colour pattern similar to mesoleg, except for tibia pale.

Abdomen: Mostly grey except for distal margin of segments, pleura, and apical segments pale; covered with short white setae.

Male Terminalia ( Figs. 44 a–c): Ectoproct posterior margin rounded in lateral view set with elongate black setae. 9 th sternite short, with posterior margin straight in ventral view; set with elongate black setae. Gonarcus broad, arched, with anterior margin thin and elongate in lateral view; with medial area less sclerotized in posterior view. Mediuncus absent. Paramere broad, with anterior margin acute, and with tip and ventral margin more sclerotized in lateral view.

Female Terminalia ( Figs. 44 d–e): Ectoproct posterior margin rounded, covered with thin elongate setae. Lateral gonapophyses rounded, much smaller than ectoproct, set with few thickened setae. 7 th sternite long, with distal margin straight, covered with black setae. Pregenital plate with anterior margin elongate, and distal medial region enlarged with a central line more sclerotized. Posterior gonapophyses wide, elongate, with tip rounded and large; covered with long black setae, and with few cavisetae apically. 9 th tergite with an elongate membranous digitiform process. Anterior gonapophyses absent. Ventral membrane gonapophyseal plates present.

Distribution ( Fig. 42 ). Australia: NT, QLD, WA. Known from sparse records across northern Australia.

Adult activity period. Records for October to December.

Biology. Unknown, larva unknown.

Etymology. diehli (from the surname of Mr. Ben DIEHL, American entomologist), in recognition of his valuable assistance during the development of this revision and his role as the collector of much of the type series.

Name-bearing type. Austrogymnocnemia diehli : Holotype (by present designation), female, WAM. Type locality: Australia: Western Australia: highway 138, 9 air km EENE, Newman, 520m, 23.34699 oS– 119.82137 oE ± 80m, Oswald, Diehl & Machado, 25.xii.2012, M V, Oswald #616 // TAMU—ENTO X0909441. Condition: pinned; good; terminalia dissected.

Paratypes (7♂, 6♀). AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: All with same data as holotype: TAMU—ENTO X0909143 (1♂, WAM, pinned); TAMU—ENTO X0910644 (1♀, AMSA, pinned); TAMU—ENTO X0909415 (1♂, AMSA, pinned); TAMU—ENTO X0910290 (1♀, ANIC, pinned); TAMU—ENTO X0910665 (1♂, ANIC, pinned); TAMU—ENTO X0909832 (1♀, TAMU, pinned); TAMU—ENTO X0909401 (1♀, TAMU, pinned); TAMU—ENTO X0909822 (1♀, TAMU, pinned); TAMU—ENTO X0909780 (1♀, TAMU, pinned); TAMU—ENTO X0911267 (1♂, TAMU, pinned); TAMU—ENTO X0909086 (1♂, TAMU, pinned); TAMU—ENTO X0910251 (1♂, TAMU, pinned); TAMU—ENTO X0910716 (1♂, TAMU, pinned) .

Additional material examined (164♂, 179♀)— AUSTRALIA: Northern Territory: Devil’s Marbles : x.1961 (1♂, 1♀, FSCA) ; Tennant Creek : xi.1966 (2♀, ANIC) ; Queensland: 110 km NW of Mount Isa , 27.xi.1990, at light, W.F. Chamberain (1♀, TAMU) ; Mount Isa: Lake Moondarra , 21.xi.1978 (1♀, QMBA) ; Selwyn Mine , 29.xii.1991, T. Woodger (2♀, ANIC) ; Western Australia: Millstream Chichester National Park: Python Pool , 21.33309 oS– 117.23930 oE ± 130m, 180m, 23.xii.2012, M.V., Oswald, Diehl & Machado, Oswald #615 (4♂, 2♀, TAMU) ; Mill- stream: x.1970 (1♂, 3♀, ANIC) ; 1 km NE, 21.35S– 117.04E, 6.xi.1970, Upton & Feehan (1♀, ANIC) ; highway 136, 13 air km NENE of Nanutarra Roadhouse , 22.47124 oS– 115.60040 oE ± 70m, 22.xii.2012, M.V., Oswald, Diehl & Machado, Oswald #614 (31♂, 59♀, TAMU) ; highway 138, 9 air km EENE of Newman , 520m, 23.34699 oS– 119.82137 oE ± 80m, 25.xii.2012, M.V., Oswald, Diehl & Machado, Oswald #616 (125♂, 107♀, TAMU) ; Wittenoon : x.1970 (2♂, ANIC) .

Comments. Austrogymnocnemia diehli sp. nov. is closely related tp A. interrupta and A. lineata ( Fig. 4 ), based on the shape of the female and male terminalia. However, A. diehli can be distinguished from the other two species by the body and wing colour patterns. Austrogymnocnemia diehli was included in Machado et al. (2019) as “ Austrogymnocnemia sp3”, where it was recovered sister to A. interrupta , very similar to the morphological phylogenetic results obtained here.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Strict consensus tree of morphology-based parsimony analysis of species belonging to the former subtribe Periclystina (ingroup, names in black), and outgroups (names in red). Former Glenoleon species are shown on blue branches, former Austrogymnocnemia species on green branches. Numbers above branches are Bremer support values; numbers below branches are bootstrap values (shown where>50%).

FIGURE 42. Distribution of Austrogymnocnemia species (part).

FIGURE 43. Austrogymnocnemia diehli sp. nov.: a) head, anterior; b) head and thorax, dorsal; c) wings, dorsal.

FIGURE 44. Austrogymnocnemia diehli sp. nov.: male: a) terminalia, lateral; b) genitalia, lateral; c) genitalia, posterior; female: d) terminalia, lateral; e) 7th sternite and pregenital plate, ventral. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.