Liposcelis plesiopuber Broadhead & Richards, 1982

DILIAN GEORGIEV, 2021, Additions and corrections to the list of Psocoptera of Unguja Island (Zanzibar, Tanzania), ZooNotes 187, pp. 1-3 : 1

Liposcelis plesiopuber Broadhead & Richards, 1982

Material examined: 5.3.2021, Michamwi Peninsula, sandy coastal area with scrubs, from a pile of old palm leaf mats, S06 07 55.5 E39 29 31.2, 6 m a. s. l., 1 ♀, collected by beating over white plastic container. The species was only known from Kenya . New record for Tanzania.

Both puber and plesiopuber have similar pale-brown to whitish coloration, often with a greyer tinge on abdomen ( Fig. 1 ). According to Broadhead & Richards (1982) the chaetotaxy of the lateral lobes of the prothorax provides an absolutely diagnostic character between these closely related species. The bristles adjacent to the humeral seta are short in plesiopuber but stronger and longer in puber ( Fig. 2 ).

Figures

Fig. 1. Light microscope photograph of a female L. puber from Unguja Island (10x).

Fig. 2. Light microscope photograph of the chaetotaxy of prothorax of a female L. puber (A) and L. plesiopuber (B) from Unguja Island (40x). The much shorter bristle of plesiopuber is shown by arrows.