Deleproctophylla Lefèbvre, 1842

Badano, Davide & Pantaleoni, Roberto Antonio, 2014, The Larvae of European Ascalaphidae (Neuroptera), Zootaxa 3796 (2), pp. 287-319 : 300

Deleproctophylla Lefèbvre, 1842

Diagnosis. Head capsule not dilated posteriorly, dorsal side with a posterior depression; antennae thin, longer than the ocular tubercles; ocular tubercles cylindrical with a small apical protuberance; mandibles armed with three teeth, the median tooth is the largest and closer to the apical tooth than to basal tooth; mandibles equipped with interdental pseudo-teeth; labial palpi four-articulated, segments 2-4 thin, slightly longer than the basal width of the mandible; meso- and metathorax each bearing two sub-equal pairs of cylindrical scolus-like processes; first pair of abdominal spiracles placed on the lateral sides; abdomen with eight pairs of dorsal cylindrical scolus-like processes, ventral series formed by two pairs of scolus-like processes on the first two anterior segments and six pairs of very short tubercle-like processes on the following segments; VIII sternite with short odontoid processes bearing dolichasters; IX sternite with short rastra each bearing four digging setae ( Fig. 2D ); body covered with elongated, stick-shaped, dolichasters ( Fig. 3D ).

Examined species. D. australis (Fabricius, 1787) ; D. dusmeti Navás, 1914 .

Comments. Deleproctophylla is a western Palaearctic genus including 5 species distributed in the Mediterranean basin and Central Asia (H. Aspöck et al. 2001). The only reliable report on the larva of this genus regards D. dusmeti ( Escribano 1921) , while description of the larva of “ Theleproctophylla barbara ” from Anatolia by Hagen (1873) actually refers to the genus Bubopsis .

Remarks. Species delimitation and recognition in the genus Deleproctophylla are extremely complex, especially between the European D. australis and D. dusmeti , showing a considerable overlapping in characters normally considered useful for identification purposes. Similarly the larvae of D. australis and D. dusmeti do not display any valuable diagnostic features and the identification appears exclusively possible by means of their vicariant distribution and bio-molecular analysis (unpublished data).

Figures

FIGURE 2. VIII and IX abdominal sternites of 3rd instar larva of Ascalaphidae. A, Ascalaphus festivus; B, Bubopsis agrionoides; C, Puer maculatus; D, Deleproctophylla australis; E, Libelloides macaronius. Scale bar: 1 mm.

FIGURE 3. Chaetotaxy of the VIII abdominal sternite of 3rd instar larva of Ascalaphidae. A, Ascalaphus festivus; B, Bubopsis agrionoides; C, Puer maculatus; D, Deleproctophylla australis; E, Libelloides longicornis. Scale bar: 100 µm.