Holaptilon, Beier, 1964

Mirzaee, Zohreh, Battiston, Roberto, Ballarin, Francesco, Sadeghi, Saber, Simoes, Marianna, Wiemers, Martin & Schmitt, Thomas, 2024, The Six Dwarfs of the Middle East: revision of the enigmatic praying mantis genus Holaptilon (Mantodea: Gonypetidae: Gonypetinae) with the description of four new species under integrative taxonomy, Arthropod Systematics & amp; Phylogeny 82, pp. 89-117 : 89

4.2. Genus Holaptilon

Type species.

Holaptilon pusillulum Beier, 1964.

Redescription.

Small size (11-23 mm), both sexes apterous. Head thick, wider than pronotum, with rounded apex. Lower frons wider than high. Compound eyes globular; ocelli rounded, bigger in males, the third ocellus in the centre is smaller than the other two in both sexes; vertex rounded and more or less convex. Lower frons two times wider than high. Antennae filiform, ciliated in both sexes. Pronotum flat with some more or less pronounced dorsal bulges, short and compressed, almost entirely oval, only slightly incurved at the anterior margin and truncate at the posterior margin, lateral margin dentated with some setae and irregular black spots. The supra-coxal sulcus strongly bold and curved separating the prozone part from the metazone part. Prozone stout and arched; metazone slightly longer than prozone, with three different sized gibbosities on each side of supra-coxal sulcus. Meso- and metatergum a little different from abdominal tergites, a bit longer, finely keeled along midline, with posterior margin more or less inward curved. Forelegs stout, the coxae widely surpassing the prosternum posteriorly, very weakly spined, with divergent lobes and black coloured in the anterior side; femora broad, with curved dorsal margin, four or five short posteroventral spines, four discoidal spines, the 1st extremely short, and a variable number of anteroventral spines more or less developed, 9-13; tibiae with very variable number of anterior spines, 10-13. Anterior side of forelegs variably coloured with reddish anteroventral area and back anterodorsal area with more or less developed black spot patterns. Tarsus slightly broadened distally and slightly flattened. Meso- and metafemora distinctly thickened basally. Meso- and metathoracic legs long and slender with fine setae, coxae shiny blue-black; the rest of legs yellowish, ciliated, with some small black spots on their posterior view; femora clearly thickened in the first part, with rounded genicular lobes, each bearing a single short apical spine. Tibiae with two tibial spurs. Abdomen slender, tergites weakly keeled. Supra-anal plate wider than long, nearly triangular but with variably rounded apex. Cerci short, rotund, only slightly surpassing supra-anal plate. Male subgenital plate with styli.