Perlesta armitagei n. sp. (Plecoptera: Perlidae): More cryptic diversity in darkly pigmented Perlesta from the eastern Nearctic Author Grubbs, Scott A. Author Dewalt, R. Edward text Zootaxa 2018 2018-06-29 4442 1 83 100 journal article 29801 10.11646/zootaxa.4442.1.4 0f0f11d9-27bb-487e-93e0-6c33ec5958b6 1175-5326 1301366 937D9736-2646-45D6-8C5D-3625A88FF2FB Perlesta browni Stark, 1989 Toothed Stone http://lsid.speciesfile.org/urn:lsid: Plecoptera .speciesfile.org:TaxonName:1237 ( Figs. 3‒4 & 11 ) Perlesta browni Stark 1989 :279 . Holotype ( USNM ), Rock Creek , Latimer Co. , Oklahoma . Perlesta browni : Poulton & Stewart 1991 :39 Perlesta browni : Stark 2004 :91 Perlesta browni : Kondratieff et al. 2011:300 Distribution. USA : AR, MO, OK, VA ( DeWalt et al. 2018 ) Remarks. Adults of P. browni display golden-brown background color with darker pigmentation on the head, thorax ( Figs. 3a‒3d ), and abdomen. Whereas the abdominal terga for females are nearly uniform in color throughout their length, by comparison male terga 6‒10 are markedly darker than the anterior five segments. The posterolateral corners of the male 9th sternum are clothed by a dense matting of long hairs, noticeably longer and denser than the anterolateral and medial portions of the segment ( Fig. 4d ). Males have long, slender, tubular paraprocts with a mesoapical tooth ( Figs. 4a‒4c ) that are similar to sympatric P. cinctipes ( Figs. 5e‒5f ) but longer than those of P. armitagei sp. nov. ( Figs. 7a, 7c ). In addition, Poulton & Stewart (1991) showed that P. browni femora are pigmented only in the distal third, the brown color extending to the articulation with the tibia (their Fig. 344). Conversely, P. cinctipes femora are pigmented in approximately the middle 40%, the articulations with the coxae and tibiae are unpigmented ( Poulton & Stewart 1991, their Fig. 342 ). Females can be separated by characteristics of their subgenital plate lobes and median notch ( Stark 2004 ). The eggs of P. browni are easily differentiated from P. cinctipes . The egg of P. browni has a short, slightly distallyflanged ribbed collar and the chorionic surface is covered by fine punctations except near the eclosion line ( Figs. 4e‒4f ; Stark 1989 , his Fig. 15). The egg of P. cinctipes has a similar collar but the chorionic surface is coarsely pitted except for the smooth eclosion line region ( Stark 1989 , his Fig. 17; Stark 2004 , his Figs. 7.394‒7.396). Perlesta browni was considered endemic to the Interior Highland region ( Fig. 11a ; Poulton & Stewart 1991 , Stark 2004 ) until specimens seemingly indistinguishable from this species were reported from a single locality in eastern Virginia (Kondratieff et al. 2011). Perlesta browni is sympatric with P. cinctipes mainly in the Ouachita Mountain region of western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma ( Fig. 11a ).