Baliga brunneipennis ( Esben-Petersen, 1913 ) Lin & Ko & Tseng, 2024

Lin, Yu-Hsiu Hugh, Ko, Chiun-Cheng & Tseng, Hui-Yun, 2024, Taxonomic revision of the antlion tribe Myrmeleontini (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae) of Taiwan, European Journal of Taxonomy 969, pp. 1-61 : 11-15

Baliga brunneipennis ( Esben-Petersen, 1913) comb. nov.

Figs 1B , 5–7

Hagenomyia brunneipennis Esben-Petersen, 1913: 223 . Type locality: Taiwan (Kaohsiung).

Hagenomyia pterostigma Yang, 1999: 149 . Type locality: China (Fujiang).

Myrmeleon alticola Miller & Stange, 1999: 61 . Type locality: Taiwan (Taoyuan). Syn. nov.

Hagenomyia sagax – Esben-Petersen 1913: 223 (misidentification).

Myrmeleon alticola – Stange et al. 2003: 111. — Wang et al. 2018: 106.

Baliga brunneipennis – Stange 2004: 297.

Baliga pterostigma – Stange 2004: 298.

Myrmeleon (Myrmeleon) alticola – Stange 2004: 318.

Hagenomyia brunneipennis – Bao et al. 2007: 45. — Wang et al. 2018: 86. — Lin et al. 2019: 139.

Myrmeleon (Myrmeleon) alticolus – Lin et al. 2019: 139.

Material examined

Holotype of Hagenomyia brunneipennis TAIWAN • ♀ (labeled as ♂) (photos examined); Kaohsiung City, “ Kosempo ” [now Jiaxian ]; 7 Aug. 1911; H. Sauter leg.; SDEI.

Holotype of Myrmeleon alticola

TAIWAN • ♂ (photos examined); Taoyuan City, Fuxing District, “ Da-Kwan-Shan Giant Forest Reserve ” [also known as Lala Mountain ]; 1100 m a.s.l.; 12 Apr. 1998; Robert A. Miller, Lionel A. Stange and Hsiau-Yue Wang leg.; collected as larva, emerged 24 Apr. 1998; FSCA 00091045 .

Additional material

TAIWAN – Hualien County • 1 ♀; Xiulin Township, Hualushi ; 23 Jun.–24 Aug. 2009; W.T. Yang and K.W. Huang leg.; Malaise trap (KCN); NMNS . – Kaohsiung City • 1 ♀; Taoyuan District, Tengchih ; 22 Aug. 1996; Mei-Ling Chan leg.; NMNS • 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀; Taoyuan District, East Tengchih Mountain ; 12 Jul. 2022; Kai-Wei Chan leg.; preserved in alcohol; NTU . – Nantou County • 1 ♂; “ Chip Chip ” [now Jiji Township ]; Jun. 1908; F.Y. Lanter leg.; MFN • 1 ♂; Xinyi Township, Dongbu ; 6 Sep. 1990; Shun-Chun Hong leg.; NTU • 1 ♀; Lugu Township, Fenghuang Mountain ; 28 Nov. 2020; Yu-Hsiu Lin leg.; collected as larva, emerged 16 Apr. 2021; molting failed, preserved in alcohol; NTU • 1 pupa, 1 ♂ (1 larva reared to adult); Renai Township, Highland Experimental Farm N.T.U. , Meifeng Farm ; 17 May 2020; Yu-Hsiu Lin leg.; molting failed, preserved in alcohol, NTU . – Yilan County • 1 ♀; Datong Township, Jianqing Historic Trail ; 29 Jul. 2020; Hsuan-Pu Chen leg.; NTU .

Re-description of the adult

MEASUREMENTS (♀ n = 1). Body length: ♀ 37.2 mm; forewing: length ♀ 47.8 mm; width ♀ 12.9 mm; width/length ratio ♀ 0.2699; hindwing: length ♀ 48.9 mm; width ♀ 10.7 mm; width/length ratio ♀ 0.2188.

HEAD ( Fig. 5A–B ). Vertex strongly raised, rounded, reddish-brown, 4 brown spots along anterior margin and 4 brown spots along posterior margins, with sparse short black hairs; occiput dark brown. Frons shiny black, slightly reddish, covered with sparse short hyaline hairs, ventral margin pale yellow; gena whitish-yellow, with a whitish-yellow line along ocular rim; clypeus whitish-yellow, with sparse hyaline hairs. Antenna black, short, with slightly defined club, covered with short dark hairs; scape dark brown with a ring of white band at base; pedicel reddish-orange; flagellum comprising approximately 35 flagellomeres, 1 st flagellomere reddish-orange at base. Mouthparts reddish-yellow, labrum reddish-yellow, with several hyaline hairs; maxillary palps yellow, with the 5 th and 6 th palpomere black, labial palps reddish-yellow, 3 rd palpomere fusiform, tapering to acute apex, with round orange palpimacula on apical ⅓; submentum with long dark hairs.

THORAX ( Fig. 5B ). Pronotum broad, shorter than wide, dark brown, anterior margin with yellow bands on lateral, membrane dark brown, with hyaline hairs and long dark hairs. Cervical sclerites dark brown. Mesonotum dark brown. Metanotum dark brown, covered with sparse hyaline hairs. Meso- and metapleuron dark brown, moderately covered with long hyaline hairs. Sternum whitish-yellow.

LEGS. Whitish-yellow, short. Coxae moderately covered with long hyaline hairs, whitish-yellow; hind coxae with a brown line. Femora moderately covered with short dark hairs, mixed with sparse long black setae; fore femur whitish-yellow, with several small pale brown spots at apex; mid femora whitish-yellow on basal half and dark brown on distal half; hind femora whitish-yellow, with pale brown marking in middle; femoral sense hair length about ½ length of femur on fore legs and about ⅓ length of femur on mid legs, absent on hind leg. Tibiae moderately covered with short dark hairs, mixed with sparse long black setae, brown, fore tibia slightly pale on ventral surface. Tibial spurs reddish-brown, short, slender, almost straight, longer than tarsomere 1 (shorter on hind leg). Tarsi reddish-brown, sparsely covered with short dark hairs dorsally, short black setae ventrally; tarsomere 1 shorter than combined length of tarsomeres 2–4 (longer on hind leg); tarsomere 5 approximately as long as combined length of tarsomeres 1–4. Pretarsal claws reddish-brown, short, simple, curved, shorter than tibial spurs.

WINGS ( Fig. 5C ). Without markings, hyaline, with yellowish coloring. Forewings acute at apex; veins and crossveins mostly brown; costal area without or with very few interconnected crossveins, distal crossveins often branched; presectoral area with 8–10 crossveins and 0–2 irregular cells; RP arising almost opposite to CuA fork, with 24–32 crossveins from origin of RP to hypostigmatic cell, with an extra row of cell under hypostigmatic cell; CuP supporting 1 cell before fusing with 1A; 3A mostly fused with 2A; hypostigmatic cell short; pterostigma pale white; anterior Banksian line absent, posterior Banksian line distinct. Hindwings slightly longer and narrower than forewings; acute at apex; presectoral area with 4–7 crossveins and 0–3 irregular cells; RP arising almost opposite to MP fork, at origin runs equidistant to RA and MA, with 22–29 crossveins from origin of Rs to hypostigmatic cell; hypostigmatic cell as long as forewing; pterostigma pale white; anterior Banksian line absent, posterior Banksian line slightly distinct; male with pale pilula axillaris.

ABDOMEN ( Fig. 1B ). Shorter than hindwing, tergites brown, sternite brown, densely covered with short dark hairs dorsally and laterally, hyaline hairs ventrally.

FEMALE TERMINALIA ( Fig. 6A–B ). Tergite VIII at least 2 times as wide as tergite IX. Tergite IX narrow, triangular in lateral view. Ectoproct rectangular in lateral view, with long, black digging setae on ventral half. Lateral gonapophyses relatively long, rectangular in lateral view, slightly smaller than ectoproct, with long, black digging setae on posterior side and long, thin, black setae on ventral side. Posterior gonapophyses long, slender, with long, black setae. Anterior gonapophyses almost as long as posterior gonapophyses, thick at base, well separated, with long, thick, black setae. Pregenital plate distinct, rectangular, presented on posterior margin of sternite VII.

MALE GENITALIA ( Figs 6C–D , 7 ). Ectoproct rectangular in lateral view, with a ventral projection, dorsal margin slightly shorter than ventral margin, covered with short pale brown hair, ventral half with long black setae. Sternite IX almost as long as combined length of tergite IX and ectoproct, tapered in ventral view, with long black setae posteriorly. Gonarcus hyaline, arched, with short lateral arm produced posteriorly in lateral view. Mediuncus well sclerotized, dark brown, with two projections in lateral view, ventral one extending over parameres, caudal view with a three-pronged shape. Parameres well sclerotized, large, dark brown, oval and oblique in caudal view, slightly separated, with a small ventral projection in lateral view.

Distribution

Taiwan (central mountainous area) ( Fig. 31B ) and China (Fujiang, Henan, Sichuan, Zhejiang) ( Wang et al. 2018).

Biology

From the collecting and emergence date of the examined specimens, the adults appear from April to September. The larvae inhabit a forest environment with altitudes above 1600 m a.s.l. ( Lin et al. 2021).

Remarks

This species is similar to B. asakurae in characters, including wing venation (forewing RP arising almost opposite to CuA fork, often with an extra row of cells under the hypostigmatic cell; hindwing RP arising almost opposite to MP fork, at origin runs equidistant to RA and MA), genitalia (male mediuncus three-pronged in caudal view; female anterior gonapophyses more than half length of posterior gonapophyses), and larval morphology (IX abdominal sternite without or with few reduced digging setae) ( Figs 5C , 6A–B , 7 ; Lin et al. 2021: figs 3b, 4b, 6). Such a combination of characters can also be observed in other species of Baliga from Japan ( Hayashi et al. 2020). Due to such, this species should be placed in Baliga . This species differs from B. asakurae by the smaller pterostigma and fully dark brown abdomen of the adult ( Figs 1B , 5C ).

Since the original description, there have been no records of Baliga brunneipennis collected from Taiwan. During their 1998 collecting trip to the island, Stange and Miller did not collect this species and mentioned that only the holotype is known. As a result of this collecting trip, they described six new species of Myrmelon , including Myrmeleon alticola Miller & Stange, 1999 ( Miller et al. 1999; Stange et al. 2003). After comparing images of the holotypes of each nominal species, we conclude that M. alticola is a junior synonym of B. brunneipennis . In the identification key provided by Stange et al. (2003), B. brunneipennis is described to have several interconnected veins in the costal area of the fore wings and the wing membranes yellowish-brown, thus differing from the species M. alticola . However, the interconnected veins are not present in the holotype, and the yellowish-brown coloring of the wings is likely only a variation.

In Wang et al. (2018), B. brunneipennis was described to have large, white pterostigma as in B. asakurae , which is not present in the holotype. Such a misunderstanding might be caused by an error in a figure of the wing tip of B. asakurae wrongly captioned as B. brunneipennis in Stange et al. (2003: fig. 63b). Additionally, Hagenomyia pterostigma Yang, 1999 from China was synonymized with B. brunneipennis mainly due to the large pterostigma ( Bao et al. 2007; Wang et al. 2018). This synonym may be wrong and that name could be a synonym of B. asakurae , but because we have not examined any specimen from China, we do not propose this synonymy here.

Figures

Fig. 1. Adult habitus of species of Myrmeleontini Latreille, 1802 of Taiwan, lateral view. A. Baliga asakurae (Okamoto, 1910), ♀ (NTU). B. B. brunneipennis (Esben-Petersen, 1913), ♀ (NTU). C. Myrmeleon tenuipennis Rambur, 1842, ♀ (NTU). D. M. littoralis Miller & Stange, 1999, ♀ (NTU). E. M. wangi Miller & Stange, 1999, ♂ (NTU). F. M. heppneri Miller & Stange, 1999, ♂ (NTU). G. M. persimilis Miller & Stange, 1999, ♂ (NTU). H. M. punctinervis Banks, 1937, ♀ (NTU). I. M. taiwanensis Miller & Stange, 1999, ♂ (NTU). Scale bars = 10.0 mm.

Fig. 5. Baliga brunneipennis (Esben-Petersen, 1913) comb. nov. (NTU). A. Head, frontal view. B. Head and thorax, dorsal habitus. C. Wings. Abbreviations: A = anal veins; C = costa; Cu = cubitus; CuA = cubitus anterior; CuP = cubitus posterior; MA = media anterior; MP = media posterior; pB = posterior Banksian line; RA = radius anterior; RP = radius posterior; Sc = subcosta. Scale bars: A–B = 1.0 mm; C = 10.0 mm.

Fig. 6. Baliga brunneipennis (Esben-Petersen, 1913) (NTU). A. Female terminalia, lateral view. B. Same, ventral view. C. Male terminalia, lateral view. D. Same, ventral view. Abbreviations: ag = anterior gonapophysis; ect = ectoproct; lg = lateral gonapophysis; pg = posterior gonapophysis; pp = pregenital plate; S = sternites; T = tergites. Scale bars = 1.0 mm.

Fig. 7. Baliga brunneipennis (Esben-Petersen, 1913), male genitalia (NTU). A. Lateral view.B. Ventral view. C. Caudal view. Abbreviations: gon = gonarcus; med = mediuncus; par = parameres. Scale bar = 0.5 mm.

Fig. 31. Distribution of Myrmeleontini Latreille, 1802 from Taiwan and adjacent islands. A. Baliga asakurae (Okamoto, 1910). B. B. brunneipennis (Esben-Petersen, 1913). C. Myrmeleon tenuipennis Rambur, 1999.D. M. littoralis Miller & Stange, 1999.E. M. wangi Miller & Stange, 1999.F. M. heppneri Miller & Stange, 1999. G. M. persimilis Miller & Stange, 1999. H. M. punctinervis Banks, 1937. I. M. taiwanensis Miller & Stange, 1999.