Climaciella Enderlein, 1910

Ardila-Camacho, Adrian, Calle-Tobón, Arley, Wolff, Marta & Stange, Lionel A., 2018, New species and new distributional records of Neotropical Mantispidae (Insecta: Neuroptera), Zootaxa 4413 (2), pp. 295-324 : 310

Genus Climaciella Enderlein, 1910

Type species: Mantispa brunnea Say in Keating, 1824: 309 .

The genus Climaciella comprises conspicuous and colorful mantispids. Little is known about this group whose species have a remarkable pattern of Batesian mimicry with polistine wasps ( Opler 1981; Hoffman et al. 2017). However, some behavioral and ecological aspects of the Central and North American species Climaciella brunnea Say have been studied ( Opler 1981). The rest of the Climaciella species inhabit across of the Neotropical region and for these species their respective models have not been identified. Immature stages are likely associated with spiders of the families Ctenidae and Lyscosidae, and the larvae of C. brunnea have been reported to be spider boarders ( Redborg 1998). The genus is composed by eight species with a distribution ranging from southern Canada to northern Argentina, including the Greater Antilles ( Hoffman 2002; Ohl 2004). Four species were recorded for Colombia. Climaciella amapaensis from Risaralda, C. porosa from the lowlands of the Anchicayá basin in the department of Valle del Cauca, C. semihyalina from the Colombian Amazonia and C. obtusa from the Colombian Pacific coast and Caribbean region ( Ardila-Camacho & García 2015). The genus is easily distinguished by the flagellum possessing flagellomeres three times wider than long at midlength in anterior view, pronotum straight or angled at midlength in lateral view, pterothorax with mesoscutal furrow not apparent, and anterior half of wings light to dark amber (Hoffman 1992; Machado & Rafael 2010).