Pliacanthopus (Malayamantis) malayanus ( Beier, 1931 )

Wu, Chao & Liu, Chun-Xiang, 2022, New and little-known species of genus Pliacanthopus Giglio-Tos (Dictyoptera: Mantodea: Nanomantidae), Journal of Natural History (J. Nat. Hist.) 56 (29 - 32), pp. 1279-1296 : 1283-1284

Pliacanthopus (Malayamantis) malayanus ( Beier, 1931)

Xanthomantis malayana Beier, 1931: 150 . Xanthomantis (Xanthomantis) malayana: Beier 1935: 61 ; Ehrmann 2002: 365; Otte and Spearman 2005: 126. Pliacanthopus (Malayamantis) malayanus: Koçak and Kemal 2008: 9 ; Schwarz 2021: 40.

Type locality

Malaysia: Selangor, Bukit Kutu .

Notes

This species is similar to P. (M.) flavus ; prothoracic tibiae are armed with only 10 posteroventral spines (iIiiIiiiiI) in P. (M.) malayanus , compared to 12–13 in P. (M.) flavus . In addition, after checking the pictures of the type of Xanthomantis malayana Beier, 1932 in the Natural History Museum ( NHM) Data Portal ( URL: https://data.nhm.ac.uk/object/ 4ee76988-53b9-4399-a5f1-cfa57749dca6/1655337600000), we found that the juxtaocular bulges of the head do not have a black spot in P. (M.) malayanus ; that feature distinguishes the species from P. (M.) bimaculatus . Beier (1931) indicated that the costal field of the fore wings is green in P. (M.) malayanus , but this feature is not seen in its type specimen. The abdomen of the type specimen is mutilated, and the characteristics of the cerci are unclear.

Measurements (length in mm) ( Beier 1931)

Body: 20–21; pronotum: 4–4.2; fore wing: 16–16.5.

Distribution

Malaysia: Selangor.