Dinotopera jacobsi, Theischinger, 2016

Theischinger, Gunther, 2016, A Second Species Of Dinotoperla Tillyard, 1921 From The Warrumbungle (Plecoptera: Gripopterygidae), Illiesia 12 (4), pp. 21-24 : 22-24

Dinotopera jacobsi sp. n.

( Figs. 1-4 )

http://lsid.speciesfile.org/urn:lsid:Plecoptera.speciesfile.org:Tax onName:479686

A moderate sized Dinotoperla species , the male with conspicuous colour pattern on head and thorax, the terminalia similar to D. pseudodolichoprocta Theischinger, 1982 but with a shorter membranous cone on tergite X, a plumper epiproct and paraprocts and with cerci containing fewer and longer segments.

Material studied. Holotype ♂, New South Wales, Warrumbungle, Belar Creek , 31.3430° S, 149.09200° E, 29 September 2015, S. Jacobs; in Australian Museum.

Paratypes: 1 larva and 1 exuviae, same data as holotype . 4♂, Warrumbungle Range , New South Wales, 7 October 1953, G. Theischinger .

Male. Head and body dorsally largely dark greyish to blackish brown, ventrally yellowish grey to greyish brown; a bright yellow spot on vertex and some yellow along eye margin, an irregular stripe along mid-dorsal line of pronotum. Legs yellowish grey to greyish brown, distal 1/3-1/4 of femora, a subbasal ring on tibiae and the tarsi markedly darker, up to brownish black.

Wings faintly suffused with pale greyish; darker small blotches around most cross-veins, particularly in apical half of forewing.

Genitalia. Central sclerite of tergite 10 wide, produced posteriorly into a short, low and rather obtuse cone. Epiproct simple evenly curved, bladeshaped, with base not swollen and apical half deep. Paraprocts with base moderately long and wide, lobe largely almost parallel-sided, rather obtuse. Cerci 12-13 segmented, the basal segments longer than wide, the next 3-4 short, at least the apical 4 rather long.

Measurements: body 8.0 mm, forewing 9.0 mm.

Variability. Paratypes agree with holotype except colouration has faded into much paler (greyish to brownish yellow). Measurements: body 7.0-8.0 mm, forewing 8.5-9.2 mm (N=4).

Female. Unknown.

Larva. Described in Mynott et al. (in prep.)

Distribution. Possibly restricted to the Warrumbungle Range.

Etymology. Dedicated to Steve Jacobs who recently rediscovered the species after 33 years.

Affinities and diagnosis. Dinotoperla jacobsi sp. nov. is most similar to D. pseudodolichoprocta Theischinger, 1982 from the Blue Mountains. Preliminary, genetic studies suggest that it is a sister species of a group including D. hirsuta McLellan, 1971 , D. serricauda Kimmins, 1951 , D. subserricauda Theischinger, 1988 , D. thwaitesi Kimmins, 1951 , D. uniformis Kimmins, 1951 , D. walkeri Dean & St. Clair, 2006 and two as yet unassociated species (J. Mynott, pers. comm.).

Dinotoperla jacobsi can be distinguished from its most similar congeners D. dolichoprocta Theischinger, 1982 and D. pseudodolichoprocta by a yellow spot on top of the head and a yellow stripe along mid-line of the pronotum, by a shorter, more obtuse membranous cone on abdominal tergite X, a deeper epiproct without swollen base and more parallel sided, apically not attenuated, obtuse paraprocts. The width/length ratio of the pronotum is smaller (ca 1.6) than in D. dolichoprocta (ca 2.0) but wider than in D. pseudodolichoprocta (ca 1.5), whereas the first cercal segment is markedly shorter than in D. dolichoprocta (3 times as long as wide: Fig. 5 ) but longer than in D. pseudodolichoprocta (as long as wide: Fig. 6 ). The cerci as a whole are longer than in both species but with more segments (12-13) than in D. dolichoprocta (9-11) and fewer than in D. pseudodolichoprocta (13-16).

Dinotoperla jacobsi has a prominent colour pattern (very dark and yellow) on top of head and pronotum (similar to its coexisting congener D. inermis Theischinger, 1988 which has very different genitalia, in particular a very different epiproct ( Fig. 7 ), whereas its most similar congener in the Blue Mountains, D. pseudodolichoprocta , is rather uniformly dark. It appears that D. inermis is the only Dinotoperla species co-occurring with D. jacobsi in the Warrumbungle, whereas D. pseudodolichoprocta co-occurs with D. carpenteri Tillyard, 1921 , D. dolichoprocta , D. fontana Kimmins, 1951 and D. serricauda in the Blue Mountains ( Theischinger 1982).

Figures

Figs. 1-3. Dinotoperla jacobsi sp. n., ♂: (1) dorsal (without hindwings and abdomen); (2) head and pronotum, dorsal; (3) genitalia, lateral.

Figs. 4-7. Dinotoperla species, male genitalia, lateral (modified from Theischinger & Cardale, 1987): (4) D. jacobsi sp. n.; (5) D. dolichoprocta; (6) D. pseudodolichoprocta; (7) D. inermis.