Layahima Navás, 1912

Zheng, Yuchen, Tu, Yuezheng, Badano, Davide & Liu, Xingyue, 2025, New insights into diversity and evolution of the Oriental antlion genus Layahima Navás, 1912 (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae), with description of new species and new larvae from China, Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny 83, pp. 543-571 : 543-571

Genus Layahima Navás, 1912

Layahima Navás 1912: 36. Type species: L. nebulosa Navás, 1912, by original designation.

Noues Navás, 1919: 13; Stange 1976: 309 (as synonym). Type species: Noues zonatus Navás, 1919, by original designation.

Asialeon Yang 1997: 614; Stange 2004: 76; Wan et al. 2006: 35 (as synonym). Type species: A. validus Yang, 1997, by original designation.

Diagnosis.

Adult: Frons wider than diameter of compound eye; vertex raised. Pronotum as long as wide. Legs short, as long as thorax at most; foreleg with femur nearly twice as long as coxa; maximum width of femur wider than that of tibia; tibial spurs slightly curved, not reaching tarsomere 5. Wings distally rounded. Forewing mediocubital area with some indistinct brown markings. Banksian lines absent. Male pilula axillaris absent. Male gonocoxites 9 as a pair of broad plates in posterior view, apex strongly sclerotized and scaly; gonocoxites 11 arched. Female ventral segment 8 forming an antrum, gonocoxites 8 as a pair of digitiform structures; gonapophyses 8 various, absent in some species, nearly wide rectangular if present; digging setae on gonocoxites 9 long and blunt. — Larva: Body laterally covered with many blunt pale setae. Head wider than long. Dolichasters on anterior margin of clypeo-labrum thick, distally swollen and truncate. Ocular tubercles prominent. Distance between the first and second teeth on mandible longer than that between the second and third teeth. Pair of large spiracles present on laterodorsal abdominal segment 1. Odontoid process on abdominal segment 8 present. Abdominal sternum 9 ventrally with some tapered setae of uneven size; rastrum with four distal pair of tapered digging setae.

Biology.

The known larvae of Layahima are not fossorial and do not camouflage under debris, living exposed under rocks or on tree trunks.

Distribution.

China; India; Nepal; Thailand; Vietnam (Fig. 18 ).

Remarks.

According to Zheng et al. (2023), Layahima lacks female gonapophyses 8. However, further examination demonstrated that the absence of gonapophyses 8 only occurs in the L. elegans species group, while this character is present in most other species of the genus. Besides, unlike the related genus Paralayahima Zheng, Badano & Liu, 2023 , the gonapophyses 8 of Layahima is broad and subrectangular, whereas the gonapophyses 8 of Paralayahima is thin and ribbon-like.

Figures

Figure 18. Distribution map of Layahima spp.