Goniodes meinertzhageni Clay, 1940

Gustafsson, Daniel R., Grossi, Alexandra A., Ren, Mengjiao & Zou, Fasheng, 2023, The Goniodidae (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera) of peafowl (Aves: Galliformes: Pavo), with description of a new genus, Journal of Natural History 57 (17 - 20), pp. 996-1048 : 1007-1013

Goniodes meinertzhageni Clay, 1940

Goniodes meinertzhageni Clay, 1940: 9 .

( Figures 10–17 )

Type host

Pavo cristatus Linnaeus, 1758 – Indian peafowl.

Type locality

Delhi, India.

Description

Both sexes. Head broader than long ( Figure 12 ), frons gently rounded to somewhat flattened medianly. Marginal carina uninterrupted, not indented. Preantennal nodi slender, elongated. Coni slightly curved. Antennae sexually dimorphic. Head chaetotaxy as in Figure 12 ; as1–3, avs1 and pcs clearly ventral; os sexually dimorphic. Temples sexually dimorphic, not much extended posteriorly at site of mts4–5. Temporal carinae not distinct. Prothorax with anterior margin indented ( Figures 10–11 ); rhombic sclerite not fused to pronotum, oval. Postero-lateral corner of pronotum with single ppss on each side. Proepimera not fused medianly, mesofurcal pit lateral. Mesosternal plate present, oval. Metasternal plate may be present, but variable among examined specimens. Mesosternum with 1 seta on each side; metasternum with 2–3 setae on each side. Postero-lateral corner of pteronotum not modified, ipts very medial to lpts. No sensillum associated with marginal smns; mpts absent. Posterior margin of pteronotum sexually dimorphic. Abdominal plates and chaetotaxy as in Figures 10–11 ; tergopleurites II–VIII extended medianly. Intertergal plates absent. Accessory lateral sternal plates present on segments II–VI as elongated, oblique ovals (not visible in single examined male); central sternal plates absent. Tergopleurites IX–XI sexually dimorphic. Measurements as in Table 1 .

Male. Antennae modified ( Figure 12 ): scape very swollen and elongated, with single squamous thumb-like process on posterior margin; pedicel slightly curved with slight bulge on posterior margin of distal end; distal flagellomere I extended posteriorly; flagellomeres II–III more or less as in female. Post-antennal head with 8 sensilla on each side in curved band anterior to temporal carinae; s1–2 present most posteriorly and s5 (?) – 6 present anterior to preantennal nodi. Some dorsal head setae slightly longer in male than in female, particularly os. Temple margin not expanded laterally, gently rounded posteriorly. Pteronotum medianly connected to tergopleurite II by narrow bridge ( Figure 10 ). Tergopleurites II–VIII with most or all tps microsetae; tergopleurite II with post-spiracular setae. Abdominal segments IX–XI as in Figure 17 : tergopleurite IX somewhat crescent-shaped, extending interior to tergopleurite X; medianly continuous tergopleurite X roughly rectangular, with irregularly shaped lateral and anterior margins, not extending anteriorly towards tergopleurite VIII, postero-laterally with narrow extension. No inner row of setae along genital opening, and no inner sclerite. Accessory lateral sternal plates absent in examined male, and no sternal microsetae visible laterally. Subgenital plate as in Figure 17 . Male genitalia as in Figures 14–15 . Basal apodeme long, slender, fused distally to mesosome and parameres. Mesosome elongate, simple, with irregular oval puncture marks in distal half. Parameres elongate with soft distal ends; pst1–2 sensilla, widely separated on lateral margins of parameres.

Female. Many macrosetae broken off or absent in examined specimen, and illustrated as broken setae. Antennae slender, not modified ( Figure 13 ). Post-antennal head with 4 central sensilla, in addition to s1–2 and s5 (?)– 6; os short. Temple margin more expanded, with slight posterior bulge at site of mts4–5. Pteronotum not fused to tergopleurite II. Tergopleurites II–VII with all tps microsetae, tergopleurite VII with tps increasing in length laterally; post-spiracular setae absent on tergopleurite II. Tergopleurites IX–XI fused, medianly continuous, with posterior margin deeply indented medianly. Accessory lateral sternal plates present on segments II–VII, each associated with row of microsetae; on segments VI–VII these setal rows extend medianly to become more or less medianly continuous. Subgenital plate present as roughly parallel, strongly striated plates connected medianly only at vulval margin ( Figure 16 ). Internal sclerite present, strongly curved, fused medianly. Vulval margin deeply concave, with chaetotaxy as in Figure 16 . Curved subvulval plates present, overlapping subgenital plate for most of length.

Material examined

Paratypes: 2♂, 1♀, Delhi [ India], November 1899, leg. R. Meinertzhagen, 4452, one slide marked Brit. Mus. 1951–171, NHMUK010676788 , NHMUK0106767790 ( NHML).

Remarks

Clay (1940) considered G. meinertzhageni to be intermediate between her groups A [= Goniodes s. str.] and B [= unnamed group including Goniodes spinicornis (Nitzsch [in Giebel], 1866), Goniodes megaceros Kellogg and Paine, 1914 , and allies]; however, no morphological characters were given to support this placement. von Kéler (1940) included both G. megaceros and G. spinicornis in Goniodes but did not examine G. meinertzhageni . Mey (2009) included all these groups in Goniodes s. str. However, these four groups are morphologically distinct ( Table 2 ), and more likely represent four separate genera. Moreover, there are no characters that indicate any of these four groups is more closely related to any of the other three. More research is needed on the relationships among these four groups; we here retain all species in these groups in Goniodes s. lat.

Figures

Figure 10. Goniodes meinertzhageni Clay, 1940, male habitus, dorsal and ventral views.

Figure 11. Goniodes meinertzhageni Clay, 1940, female habitus, dorsal and ventral views. Many longer setae are broken in the examined specimen,and here illustrated only partially. Position and number of setae is thus accurate in the illustration, but cut-off setae should be longer. In most cases, the approximate length of these setae can be estimated based on the corresponding setae in other segments, or by the corresponding setae in the male.

Figures 12–16. Goniodes meinertzhageni Clay, 1940. 12, male head, dorsal and ventral views. 13, female antenna and conus, ventral view. 14, male genitalia, dorsal view. 15, male genitalia, ventral view. 16, female genitalia and abdominal segments VII–XI, ventral view.

Figure 17. Goniodes meinertzhageni Clay, 1940, male abdominal segments IX–XI, dorsal and ventral views.