Ameles spallanzania obscura, Battiston & Correas & Lombardo & Mouna & Payne & Schütte, 2018

Battiston, Roberto, Correas, José, Lombardo, Francesco, Mouna, Mohamed, Payne, Keith & Schütte, Kai, 2018, Morphological convergences in Ameles Burmeister and Pseudoyersinia Kirby: Taxonomic implications of wing reduction and flight predisposition in some West-Mediterranean Amelini (Insecta: Mantodea), Zootaxa 4377 (1), pp. 21-38 : 29-32

Ameles spallanzania obscura n. ssp.

Type. Holotype ♂: Spain: Comares , el Esnite, 380m, 4.IX.2013, leg. K. Payne ( MNCN).

Type locality. Spain, Comares, el Esnite.

Distribution. Southern Spain, Province of Málaga.

Material examined. Holotype: Comares, el Esnite, 380m, 4.IX.2013, leg. K. Payne, MNCN, 1 ♂ Paratypes: Comares, el Esnite, 380m, 4.IX.2013, leg. K. Payne, MNCN, 1 ♂, 1 ♀; Comares , el Esnite, 7.IX.2013, leg. K. Payne, coll. R. Battiston, 1 ♀ ; Comares , el Esnite , 11.IX.2013, Leg. K. Payne, coll. R. Battiston, 1 ♂ 1 ♀ ; Montes de Malaga , 865m, 1.IX.2013, leg. K. Payne, coll. R. Battiston, 1 ♀ ; Sierra de Tejeda 12.IX.2013, 1220m, 1 ♂, leg. K. Payne, coll. R. Battiston.

Taxonomic notes. A. spallanzania is one of the most widespread species of Ameles , exhibiting great variability in overall size and in the shape of some structures, such as head and genitalia. This variability resulted in a long list of synonyms at both species and subspecies levels ( Agabiti et al., 2010; Battiston et al., 2010), including Ameles nana (Charpentier, 1825) , and Ameles brevis (Rambur, 1838) , both with type locality in Spain and none described as having short nor infumated wings.

Diagnosis. A. s. obscura is similar to A. spallanzania but differ as follow: 1) flight organs shorter in the male, not reaching the terminalia, as opposed to the long wings of A. spallanzania which always exceeding the terminalia; 2) hind wings dark and infumated in the anal area, as opposed to the hyaline wings of A. spallanzania ; 3) ocelli poorly developed, about the same size in both sexes, as opposed to the well-developed and sexuallydimorphic ocelli of A. spallanzania ; 4) male pseudophallus ends in a narrow triangular shape, never rounded, while in A. spallanzania the same has a more variable and usually curved/rounded shape ( Agabiti et al., 2010). The new subspecies is similar to A. maroccana but with infumated hind wings, eyes are more markedly conical and with an apical tubercle (absent in A. maroccana ), and apex of the pseudophallus straight (curved in A. maroccana ). Similar to A. gracilis but with a stouter habitus, shorter pronotum, eyes more markedly conical and with apical tubercle, pseudophallus with narrow apex and slimer right epiphallus.

Description male. Head: About 1,53 times as wide as the supracoxal dilatation; eyes ovoid, subconical near the apex, with a small apical tubercle; ocelli very small, about the same size of those of females; vertex straight, lower than imaginary line connecting apex of eyes; frontal shield transverse, upper margin forming an obtuse angle.

Thorax: pronotum 1.64 times as long as its maximum width; lateral margins smooth; pronotal supracoxal dilation (maximum width of the pronotum) rounded and distinct; anterior legs robust: coxae carinated; fore femora about 3.11 times as long as their maximum width. Hind and posterior femora slender, bearing short sparse hairs.

Hind and posterior tibiae slender, bearing short and robust hairs on its external aspect, long and thin on its inner aspect. Flight organs short, not reaching terminalia. Forewings 2.91 times as long as pronotum, hyaline, brown with narrow white strip on external anterior margin, distal margin rounded. Stigma concolour. Hind wings with costal and discoidal hyaline, anal area more or less infumated — this latter trait is particularly evident when wings are folded over the abdomen ( Fig. 7 ).

Abdomen: cylindrical. Supranal plate triangular with rounded distal margin. Cerci with 9 short and pilose cylindrical segments. Genitalia ( Fig. 8 ) with hypophallus with distal process strongly bifid, the two formed branches are separated by a deep, acute incision, the proximal branch narrows near its base. Right epiphallus long and narrow. Left epiphallus well-sclerotized, titillator hook-shaped, larger near the base. Pseudophallus hookshaped, bearing bristle of hairs near the base and ending in a straight, triangular spine-like projection.

Description female. Head: 1.57 times as wide as the supracoxal dilatation; eyes ovoid, subconical near the apex with a small apical tubercle; ocelli very small, vertex straight, lower than imaginary line joining apex of eyes; frontal shield transverse, upper margin forming an obtuse angle.

Thorax: pronotum 1.52 times as long as its maximum width; lateral margins smooth; pronotal supracoxal dilation rounded and distinct; Anterior legs robust: coxae carinated; fore femora about 2.69 times as long as their maximum width. Hind and posterior legs bearing short, sparse hairs. Micropterous insects. Forewings 0.84 times as long as pronotum, of the same colour of the body. Stigma concolour. Hind wings opaque, red with a large black spot in the anal area.

Abdomen: rhomboid, more or less arched. Supranal plate triangular with rounded distal margin. Cerci with nine short cylindrical hairy segments.

Remarks. The majority of A. s. obscura specimens collected and/or observed in the field are brown with at least the anal area of hind wings distinctly smoky-brown. Some individuals were observed in green or beige and these always had shortened wings, the metathoracic ones variably infuscated.

While males of this species exhibit distinctive character states, such as wing length and colour, ocelli size, and distinct male genitalia, female’s body shape and morphometrics can be included within the variability of A. spallanzania . However, as occurs also in the males, the general body length seems to be smaller than the average A. spallanzania and this can be noticed also in the early stages of the small nymphs of A. s. obscura . While published records of A. spallanzania females point to a minimum length of 18 mm (measured from fore margin of the head to the apex of abdomen; Agabiti et al., 2010), the four females herein examined varied between 13.04 and 18.38 mm. It must be noted that final body length of adults is often influenced by resource availability or the prevailing environmental conditions during development, and thus it could also be considered an ecological parameter and not only a genetic one. All males we reared from the same ootheca conserved the smoky wing character, but they also exhibited remarkable variability in the length of their flight organs. A broader sample of specimens might provide further evidence on the morphological limits of A. s. obscura and perhaps even support its own species status, distinct from the nominotypical form. Considering however the various historical rearrangements in A. spallanzania , the numerous synonyms that this generated over the years, and addition to the apparent absence of evident reproductive barriers, we cautiously present A. s. obscura as a new subspecies of southern Spain.

Ecological notes. A. s. obscura was collected among herbaceous vegetation, especially in the nymphal stage. Adults are also commonly found around scrubs or near bushes of the genera, Ulex, Rosmarinus , Cistus and Genista, all representative from the Mediterranean matorral ecosystem, from 50 to 1600 m ( Fig. 7 ). In its type locality A. s. obscura nymphs emerge by early spring and are found on the ground and vegetation from June through September, overlapping with adults between July and October. Overwintering generally occurs within the ootheca, but a small number of nymphs of A. s. obscura were also observed in the Sierra de Tejeda (above 1000 m) during the winter. Two oothecae produced by reared females measured 10–15 mm and were similar in general shape to those laid by A. s. spallanzania . No specimens of A. s. spallanzania , nor long-winged specimens of A. s. obscura , were found in the sampled localities. The nearest population of A. s. spallanzania was found 25 km away from the nearest specimen of A. s. obscura . Also, A. s. spallanzania seems to have a different life-cycle in that locality, were it overwinters in the nymphal stage. The available information suggests that A. s. obscura is restricted to the coastal mountains of Andalulcia, in southern Spain, more specifically from the Montes de Malaga to the Sierra Nevada. This peculiar distribution, together with its different life cycle, could be promoting reproductive isolation between this subspecies and A. s. spallanzania , but more distributional records are needed to have a better picture of the evolutionary implications of this geographic and ecological separation. Other praying mantids sympatric with A. s. obscura and found within same habitat include Ameles picteti, Iris oratoria (Linnaeus, 1758), Empusa pennata (Thunberg, 1815) , Sphodromantis viridis (Forsskål, 1775) , Perlamantis alliberti Guerin- Meneville, 1843 and Mantis religiosa (Linnaeus, 1758) .

Etymology. The subspecific epithet comes from the Latin adjective “obscūrus” meaning dark or obscure, in reference to the peculiar character of the dark and infumated membrane of the hindwings.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Ameles spallanzania obscura, male habitus (left) and its habitat in Sierra de Tejeda, Spain (right). Photos by K. Payne.

FIGURE 8. Ameles spallanzania obscura, male genitalia in dorsal view. Left: left epiphallus complex and hypophallus (variation in the latter shown in line drawings). Right:right epiphallus in dorsal view (variation in pseudophallus shown in line drawings). Scale bar = 1 mm.