Neoperla excisa Klapálek, 1909

Zwick, Peter & Zwick, Andreas, 2023, Revision of the African Neoperla Needham, 1905 (Plecoptera: Perlidae: Perlinae) based on morphological and molecular data, Zootaxa 5316 (1), pp. 1-194 : 138-140

64. Neoperla excisa Klapálek, 1909

( Figs. 365–372 )

Neoperla excisa Klapálek, 1909: 216 .

N. excisa, Klapálek 1923b: 137 , fig. 10.

not Neoperla excisa — Needham 1920: 36 = N. sjostedti needhami Lestage, 1921 .

Type material studied. To ensure nomenclatural stability the illustration of the ♁ from “Lolodorf, S. O. Kamerun, leg. L. Conradt, October 1907 ” ( Klapálek 1923a: 137, fig. 10) is here designated Lectotype. The drawing was prepared from the type by Klapálek himself ( Klapálek 1923a: 122). We found and drew fragments of it in MfN Berlin in the 1970ies but could not find it again in January 2019; it is apparently lost.

Misassociated paralectotypes (here designated): 2 pinned ♁, Neoperla excisa Klapálek \ L.Conradt S. Kamerun S. O. Kamerun, Lolodorf ( NMCZ) are N. heideae n. sp. See also the Notes. 1♁, Abutshi, R. Niger 5.1908 [print, date hand-written] \ Neoperla \ excisa Klapàlek \ Neoperla excisa ♁ Klapálek, 1909 Paralectotypus design. P. Zwick 1988: falsch zugeordneter Syntyp! \ Neoperla leroiana Klapálek, 1911 det. P. Zwick 1988 [cleared abdomen in microvial, penis missing] ( NMCZ) is N. leroiana .

Additional material studied. Republic of Angola: 1♁: Saurimo [9.675593°S, 20.387410°E, 1068m], Lunda Prov., Angola IX-22-49 at light, B.Malkin ( SMNS) ; 1♁, 1♀:ANG. 3158.7. Dundo [7.3666, 20.8166] piège lumineux 30./31. XII. 53 (L[una de Carvalho]) ( SMNS, slides Z16/165, Z18/06) . Republic of Cameroon: 1♁: Cameroun , 14 mi NE Bétaré-Oya [5.59N, 14.08E], 930m, 3.X.66 Ross & Lorenzen ( CASENT 8413047 , NEOP235 ) . 1♀ Cameroun , Nkongsamba, 960m, 3.XI.1966 E.S.Ross & K.Lorenzen ( CASENT 8413096 ; egg slide SMNS) . Central African Republic: 1♀, Bayanga , HP-1, 03°07’06.4” N 16°07’59.2”E, 09.10. 2008, 373m, Bord fleuve Sangha Camp de transit 1 (Depository) . Democratic Republic of the Congo: 2♀ Belg. Congo , 39km S Walikale, 14. IX.1957 Ross & Leech (slides &18.84, CASENT 8413097) ; 1♀ in SMNS, Z18.56 A ; 6♀ Belg. Congo , 39km S Walikale, 25. XII.1957 Ross & Leech (slides 18.55 & 84; CASENT 8413106; NEOP 233 , NEOP 234 )) . 1♀: B. Congo , 23 mi E of Kama [3.52S, 27.12E], 16.8.57, Ross & Leech ( CASENT 8413098 ; Z18.57, no eggs). 1 ♁, 1♀, Kongo , Odzala Nat. Park [1.19°N, 14.85°E; 560m], 29.9.– 3.3.1997 leg. V.Sinaev (slide Z18.83 \ ZMB _12-8). 1 probable ♀, Congo Belge : P.N. U.[Upemba]: Kiamokoto-Kiwakishi (1040m) 4–16-X-1948 Miss. F. G. deWitte, 1886a \ Coll. Mus. Congo (ex coll. I. P.N. C.B.) \ Hynes det. N. spio 1951 ( MRAC; slide Z19.37, no eggs) . Gabonese Republic: 2♁: Makokou [0.566202°N, 12.867°E] 229 L, H. Coiffait (coll. C. Berthélemy and SMNS) . Republic of Guinea: 1♀, Niandan r., Bambaya, 25.10.1984 [9.17°N, 10.07W] (Afr Z 86/13; NEOP236 ; SMNS, gift J. M. Élouard) . Republic of Sierra Leone: Northern Province , Bumbuna [9.05N, 11.75W] 19.11.1984, W. Rossi (gift R. Fochetti, SMNS) .

Habitus. WL of males 8.7–10.8mm, females 10.3–12.3mm. The body is yellowish brown to dark ochre, the wings tinged. The femora are light, the tibiae a little infuscate. Antenna with light scape and brown flagellum. The cercus is pale at the base, brownish towards the tip. A poorly delimited brown spot between the eyes continues along the occipital suture, to the tentorial calluses.

Male ( Figs. 365–367 ). Hind tibia a little wider than in a female. Caudal half of T7 with a strongly raised approximately rectangular process. The concave area between its blunt corners is soft and beset with SB. T8 with a strongly raised process which leans against T7 and fits in its concave centre ( Figs. 365–366 ). T9 is largely concealed between tergites 8 and 10. It has the usual median furrow and paramedian pilose humps. Ht10 is short, slightly sinuous, the mediobasal callus is tongue-shaped ( Fig. 367 ). S8 is unmodified.

The penis ( Fig. 368 ) is exceptionally long, at rest its base lies in abdominal segment 6. The narrow sclerotised tube is straight in dorsoventral, a little sinuous in lateral view. The annulated bare base of the endophallus projects, the very narrow endophallus is longer than the penis and bears two, far distally three dense rows of spinelets of uniform size (seen by transparency).

Female ( Fig. 369 ). Shapes of the nail on S8 and of its counterpart inside the vagina vary; the sclerite in the floor of the vagina has weak anterior crests. The vagina lacks scales and is unmodified, the SSt is a slender long tube forming 2–3 rings, the partly smooth basal section is short.

Egg ( Figs 370–372 ). Size 322*196µm, drop-shaped, no striae, the egg surface is finely and densely punctate, individual punctures are about twice their own diameter apart. Punctures are in no order but in one female there are short and narrow puncture-free strips ( Fig. 372 ) which lead to vestigial cells at the base of the broadly parabolic operculum, its top is irregularly punctate. Micropyles are freely visible. The collar is a structureless narrow ring.

DNA ( Figs. 491–492 , 497). A male from Cameroon and three females from the D. R. Congo and Guinea were sequenced for the COX1 DNA barcode fragment and with the genome-skimming approach, representing the core of the geographic spread of this species. The monophyly of the species is near maximally supported (98.7/100/100), and its sister relationship to N. larvata n. sp. + N. heideae n. sp. is strongly supported (55.1/99/99).

Notes and variation. Neoperla excisa was named in 1909. The diagnosis is short and precise: “Tergite 7 of male caudally with a bulge with saddle-shaped excavation in which the forward directed process of segment 8 rests” ( Klapálek 1909, our translation). A list of the study material and a drawing of the specimen in alcohol from the Berlin museum were published only much later ( Klapálek 1923a). the diagnosis perfectly describes Klapálek’s illustration of the lectotype. Amazingly, Klapálek confused his species with the superficially similar N. heideae n. sp., as shown by two misassociated pinned paralectotypes in his collection in Prague (see below under N. heideae n. sp.).

The nail on female S8 is mostly long, parallel or a little waisted, but may also be shorter, with convergent sides and apically truncate (e.g., a female from Walikale and the one from Guinea). The eggs of the Guinean female ( NEOP 236) have long narrow impunctate strips dividing the fine punctation into hard-to-see punctate bands, like flat obsolete sulci ( Fig. 372 ).

Figures

FIGURE 491. Codon-model maximum likelihood phylogram based on 83 largely complete mitochondrial genome sequences only (mt-NT). Statistical support values (SH-aLRT, UFBoot) from this and other analyses summarised by squares as explained in the figure. Terminal labels include information on the species, type status, gender, originating country, unique sequence identifier (NEOP###), sequencing approach and total basepairs of 13 mitochondrial, protein-coding genes. Clades of particular interest highlighted with colours that correspond to the clades in other trees. HT = holotype; PT = paratype; PCR = Polymerase Chaine Reaction; WGS = Whole Genome Shotgun.

FIGURE 492. Simplified overview of codon-model maximum likelihood phylogram based on 356 mitochondrial genome and COX1 DNA barcode sequences (all-NT). Terminal labels include information on the species only. Clades of particular interest highlighted with colours that correspond to the clades in other trees. The full tree is shown in Figs 493-498.

FIGURES 365–372. Neoperla excisa Klapálek: 365, ♁ lectotype, dorsal view of abdominal tip (from Klapálek 1923b); 366, abdominal tip of ♁ from Bumbuna, Sierra Leone, tergites and HT10 labeled; 367, handsketch of hemitergites and abdominal tip (lateral view) of the actual lectotype specimen, drawn in 1973; 368, penis, ♁ from Makokou, Gaboon; 369, 370, genital situs and egg of ♀ from Walikale; 371, egg from Odzala N. P.; 372, chorion of Guinean specimen (NEOP236). Scales are 100µm, except 50µm in Fig. 372. a, anchor; n, nail; sa, spermatheca; SSt, spermathecal stalk.