Anacroneuria quetzali, Gutiérrez-Fonseca, Pablo E. & Springer, Monika, 2015

Gutiérrez-Fonseca, Pablo E. & Springer, Monika, 2015, A new species of Anacroneuria Klapálek 1909 (Plecoptera: Perlidae) and notes on the altitudinal distribution of the genus in Costa Rica, Zootaxa 4058 (4), pp. 595-600 : 597

Anacroneuria quetzali , sp.n.

( Figs. 2–6 )

Material examined. Holotype ♂ ( USNM), Costa Rica: San José, Los Quetzales National Park, Paraíso de los Quetzales, Parrita stream, 9° 38' 53.25''N; 83° 51' 17.96'' W, 2600 masl, 2 May 2015, M. Springer, P.E. Gutiérrez Fonseca, light trap. Paratypes: Same location, 1♂ ( PEGFC). Same location, 1♂ ( MZUCR).

Adult habitus. General color brown. Head with dark pigment over occiput and ocelli, extending laterally to eyes and forward to M-line; antennae brown. Pronotum mostly dark brown, but with scattered pale areas, narrow mesal stripe pale. Femora mostly brown, but hind femora banded in two sections, basal section yellowish and apical section brown. Tibiae brown with a yellow band in the middle. Wing membrane brownish, veins brown. Cerci yellow ( Fig. 2 ).

Male. Forewing length 26–26.5mm. Hammer absent ( Fig. 3 ). Aedeagal apex simple, truncate and slightly emarginated, with base wide and low rounded shoulders ( Fig. 4 ). Lateral aspect of aedeagus spoon-shaped ( Fig. 5 ). Ventral membranous lobes small, ventrolateral margin sclerotized ( Fig. 6 ). Dorsal keel absent, aedeagal hooks slender.

Female. Unknown.

Nymph. Unknown.

Etymology. The species name refers to the collection site which is dedicated to the Resplendent Quetzal, considered one of the most beautiful birds in the region. It is used as a noun in apposition.

Comments. Anacroneuria quetzali is similar to A. socapa Stark & Zúñiga 1999 in Stark et al. (1999) from Colombia. However, the head of A. socapa is mostly yellow, except for a pair of dark spots in front of the ocelli. The middle stripe of the pronotum is wider in A. socapa than in A. quetzali . The two species differ in the extent of shoulders of the aedeagus and A. socapa lacks membranous lobes. The aedeagus of A. quetzali is similar to that of A. magnirufa Stark 1998 , but differs in several structures, such as the dorsal keel, which is present only in A. magnirufa . Finally, males of A. quetzali are notably larger than males of any other known Anacroneuria species from Costa Rica and exceed A. socapa in body length by 4mm.

Altitudinal distribution of Anacroneuria species in Costa Rica. Costa Rican Anacroneuria species are distributed within a wide range of elevations from near sea level (10 masl) to páramo areas (~2700 masl). The altitudinal distribution of individual species is shown in Figure 7 , which shows that only 3 species (16.1%) are found at elevations above 2000 masl. The 1500 masl elevation band has 15 species (48.4%), decreasing to 12 species (38.7%) at the 1000 masl elevation band. Species richness increases to 20 (64.5%) in the 500 masl elevation band. Finally, only 11 species (35.5%) are recorded at the 0 masl elevation band.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Altitudinal distribution range for Costa Rican Anacroneuria species, based on collection sites in published literature (Stark 1998, 2014, Gutiérrez-Fonseca & Springer 2011, Gutiérrez-Fonseca et al. 2015). * Species for which the altitude was estimated based on the collection site due to the lack of altitude data in the original descriptions.

FIGURES 2 – 6. Anacroneuria quetzali sp. n. male 2, habitus. 3, ninth sternum. 4, dorsal aedeagus. 5, lateral aedeagus. 6, ventral aedeagus.