Pseudagrion munte Dijkstra

Dijkstra, Klaas-Douwe B., Kipping, Jens & Mézière, Nicolas, 2015, Sixty new dragonfly and damselfly species from Africa (Odonata), Odonatologica 44 (4), pp. 447-678 : 528-529

Pseudagrion munte Dijkstra sp. nov. – Upemba Sprite (Type Photo 20, Photo 31, Fig. 13)

Taxonomy

Genetically close to the sympatric P. symoensii Pinhey, 1967 that is also endemic to Katanga’s high plateaus, but morphologically well-separated, and treated as a distinct species by Dijkstra & Clausnitzer (2014).

Material studied

Holotype ♂. RMNH.INS.505608 , Congo-Kinshasa, Katanga , Upemba National Park, Munte , river with grassy verges, gallery patches and rapids in miombo woodland, 1450 m a.s.l. (8.77 ° S 26.84 ° E), 18 -xi- 2011, leg. K.-D.B. Dijkstra, RMNH .

Further material. 10 ♂ ( RMNH.INS.505607 ), 1 ♀ ( RMNH.INS.505606 ), as holotype, RMNH . 1 ♂, as holotype, CKJL .

Genetics

One unique haplotype (n = 3) close to four similar but distinct haplotypes (n = 7) of the sympatric P. symoensii .

Male morphological diagnosis

Similar to several highland species of the A-group of Pseudagrion by (a) the small size, Hw 18.5 –20.0 mm (n= 10); (b) the bluish green labrum that is narrowly black at its base, contrasting with black postclypeus; and (c) the frons and dorsum of the thorax and abdomen base that are pruinose with maturity. Differs from the somewhat similar P. vumbaense Balinsky, 1963 , sympatric P. inconspicuum Ris, 1931 and syntopic P. spernatum Selys, 1881 by (1) the evenly pruinose dark mesepisternum without defined pruinose or pale ante-humeral stripes with maturity; (2) the black rather than pale brown or reddish Pt; (3) the entire dorsum of S 8 but only the basal half of S 9 being blue, rather than both segments completely blue dorsally or wholly pruinose; and (4) the cerci nearest to those of P. symoensii with an internal flange on the lower branch that extends almost to the base and ends in a sharp up-turned tooth, although this tooth is not as large and there is no additional tooth more basally and dorsally ( Fig. 13). Note that latter species, while genetically and geographically close, is otherwise very different, e.g., with orange labrum and frons, and red Pt.

Etymology

Name refers to the type locality (noun in apposition).

Range and ecology

Grassy borders of open sections of the Munte , a small swift-flowing blackwater river with some gallery forest at 1 450 m a.s.l. on the otherwise open Kibara Plateau of Upemba National Park, Katanga ( Photo 31).