Bittacus geniculatus Erichson, 1848

Machado, Renato Jose Pires, Mendes, Diego Matheus De Mello & Rafael, José Albertino, 2018, The genus Bittacus Latreille (Insecta: Mecoptera) in Brazil: key to species, distribution maps, new synonym, and three new species, Zootaxa 4526 (3), pp. 303-330 : 318

Bittacus geniculatus Erichson, 1848

( Figs. 1d , 8l )

Bittacus geniculatus: Erichson, 1848:586 ; Esben-Petersen, 1921:150, 1927:13; Penny & Byers, 1979b:368; Willmann, 1983:55; Machado et al., 2009:36; Machado, 2018. Thyridates geniculatus: Collucci & Amorim, 2000:2 .

Holotype male: ZMHB (high resolution images examined). Species known from Guyana and Brazil (not possible to determine the state).

Bittacus geniculatus is a unique species, and rarely collected. It is known only by the male holotype from Guyana and another specimen from Brazil, reported by Esben-Petersen (1927) and held in the Helsinki museum. This specimen is likely from one of the Amazonian Brazilian states. Willmann (1983) did not include B. geniculatus in Thyridates , mainly because the first fork of Rs in the forewing does not form a right angle. However, the species was transferred to Thyridates by Collucci & Amorim (2000), who includes it in the “group angrensis ”, based on its falcate forewing. Bittacus geniculatus , can be easily distinguished from the remaining species based on its extremely long pterostigma, Rs 1+2 not forking, and by the elongated male epandrium.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Bittacus adult habitus images. a) B. angrensis; b) B. brasiliensis, lectotype; c) B. flavescens, holotype; d) B. geniculatus, holotype. Scale bars = 1 mm. Type specimen photos provided by Michael Ohl (ZMHB).

FIGURE 8. Brazilian Bittacus male epandria, dorsal view. a) B. angrensis; b) B. aripuanensis; c) B. blancheti; d) B. boraceiensis; e) B. brasiliensis; f) B. cruzi sp. n.; g) B. diversinervis; h) B. femoralis; i) B. ferreirai sp. n.; j) B. flavescens; k) B. froehlichi; l) B. genicutalus; m) B. latreillei; n) B. maculosus; o) B. omega; p) B. pintoi; q) B. varzeanus sp. n.