Protohermes sonus, Liu, Xingyue, Hayashi, Fumio & Yang, Ding, 2013

Liu, Xingyue, Hayashi, Fumio & Yang, Ding, 2013, The Protohermes latus species group (Megaloptera: Corydalidae), with description of two new species from India and Myanmar, Zootaxa 3609 (5), pp. 513-519 : 514-516

Protohermes sonus sp. nov.

( Figures 1 , 3–5 )

Diagnosis. Head pale brown with anterior margin of clypeus yellow. Pronotum reddish brown, with anterior ridge black, strongly broadened in male. Wings immaculate, slightly grayish, with costal area slightly darker. Male ectoproct bilobed, dorsal lobe transversely broadened, much shorter than ninth tergum, ventral lobe band-like, visible in dorsal view.

Description. Male. Body length 50 mm; forewing length 59 mm, hindwing length 49 mm.

Head ( Fig. 1 ) pale brown, immaculate, with anterior margin of clypeus yellow; postocular spine short and bluntly produced. Compound eyes pale brown; ocelli pale yellow, medially margined black, lateral ocelli nearly touching median ocellus. Antenna subserrate, black, with scape and pedicel pale brown. Mouthparts yellow; mandibles reddish brown with apex and inner margin blackish brown.

Prothorax ( Fig. 1 ) reddish brown, pronotum strongly broadened on anterolateral and posterolateral portions, and anteriorly produced into a black ridge. Meso- and metathorax yellow. Legs reddish brown with dense, yellowish, short setae; tibiae and tarsi blackish brown, except for distal three tarsomeres yellow; tarsal claws reddish brown. Wings hyaline, slightly grayish, immaculate, except for costal cellules with indistinct grayish stripes; veins yellow, forewing with bases of costal vein and bases of first and second anal veins black. Rs 10- branched; MA distally bifurcate; anterior branch of MP 5-branched in forewings but 4-branched in hindwings, posterior branch of MP 2-branched; CuA 4 or 5-branched; humeral area well developed, with a feebly developed humeral crossvein; 11–14 crossveins between R and Rs.

Abdomen blackish brown. Ninth tergum ( Fig. 3 ) subtrapezoidal, anterior margin nearly truncate, posterior margin medially concaved. Ninth sternum ( Fig. 4 ) about 1.5 times as long as ninth tergum, but much narrower than ninth tergum, posterior margin deeply incised, forming a pair of broadly subtriangular lobes. Ninth gonostylus ( Fig. 4 ) unguiform and strongly curved inward, with sclerotized claw extremely slender and elongated. Ectoproct ( Figs. 3–4 ) bilobed dorsoventrally; dorsal lobe transversely wide, much shorter than ninth tergum, with straight outer margin and arcuate inner margin; ventral lobe visible in dorsal view, elongate and band-like, much longer than dorsal lobe as well as ninth tergum, slightly narrowed toward apex. Cercus invisible in dorsal view. Tenth gonocoxite ( Fig. 5 ) extremely small, arched, with lateral lobes short, digitiform and ventrally setose.

Female. Unknown.

Type material. Holotype 3, MYANMAR: Chin State, near Tiddim [23°17ʹN, 93°41ʹE], VI.2009 (HFC).

Distribution. Myanmar ( Chin).

Etymology. The specific epithet ‘ sonus ’ means sound and refers to the male call during courtship possibly made by the beating between broadened pronotum and humeral areas of the forewings.

Remarks. The new species distinctly differs from P. latus by the male ectoproct, which has a short, transversely wide dorsal lobe and an elongate, band-like ventral lobe ( Fig. 3 ), and by the strongly curved male ninth gonostylus ( Fig. 4 ). In P. latus the male ectoproct has a rather broad and rounded dorsal lobe, which covers the digitiform ventral lobe (see Liu & Yang 2006: Figs. 13–14 ). Compared with P. sublunatus sp. nov., P. sonus sp. nov. has a subtrapezoidal posterior incision on male ninth tergum ( Fig. 3 ) and an ectoproct with nearly suboblong dorsal lobe and band-like ventral lobe ( Figs. 3–4 ). In P. sublunatus sp. nov., the male ninth tergum has a deeply Vshaped posterior incision ( Fig. 6 ), and the ectoproct has nearly semilune dorsal lobe and thickly digitiform ventral lobe ( Figs. 6–7 ).

Figures

FIGURE 1 – 2. Habitus of Protohermes spp. 1. Protohermes sonus sp. nov., male holotype; 2. Protohermes sublunatus sp. nov. Scale bar = 5.0 mm.

FIGURES 3 – 5. Protohermes sonus sp. nov., male holotype. 3. genitalia, dorsal view; 4. genitalia, ventral view; 5. tenth gonocoxite, ventral view. c: cercus, e: ectoproct, gs 9: gonostylus 9, S 9: ninth sternum, T 9: ninth tergum. Scale bar = 1.0 mm.

FIGURES 9 – 14. Pronotum and base of forewing costal area of Protohermes spp. 9. P. latus Liu & Yang, male; 10. same, female; 11. P. sublunatus sp. nov., male; 12. same, female; 13. P. s o n u s sp. nov., male; 14. P. davidi van der Weele, male. Arrows show well developed humeral area.

FIGURES 6 – 8. Protohermes sublunatus sp. nov., male holotype. 6. genitalia, dorsal view; 7. genitalia, ventral view; 8. tenth gonocoxite, ventral view. Scale bar = 1.0 mm.