Apertochrysa ‘Ap3’

Duelli, Peter & Henry, Charles S., 2022, The Apertochrysa prasina group (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae), with a key to the European species, Zootaxa 5134 (1), pp. 61-91 : 80-81

Apertochrysa ‘Ap3’ (temporary name)

‘greenhead’ partim (Duelli and Obrist, 2020)

‘pp3’ (Duelli and Henry, 2021)

Diagnosis: Available live-colored material: 37♀, 46♂ ( Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria)

A medium to large-sized lacewing species with mostly bluish-green body coloration, but sometimes grass-green or locally bright green. Tips of palps dark brown. Frons, scape and clypeus glossy green. Subantennal sutures pale. A majority of specimens examined had a roundish (mostly pear-shaped) interantennal spot, but about a third had triangular spots.

Black dots on the scape occur regionally ( Fig. 15 ), which might be the effect of an alternative allele. Individual females can produce offspring both with scape dots and without. The green or rarely yellowish vertex never bears dots. Female forewings measure 12.5–16.0 mm, male forewings 10.5–14.0 mm.

The costal crossveins often are 100% dark, but specimens with only 40% dark have been observed. The males have no furwings, which helps to distinguish them from A. prasina males of similarly large size. The im cell is formed by veins, which are usually 12–40% dark, clearly different from either A. abdominalis with 80–100% dark im veins or A. prasina with less than 12% dark veins. The dark portions of the im veins are usually on different veins, while in A. prasina , A1, and A2 the dark portion tends to be on one vein only ( Fig. 10 ). All gradate crossveins are darker than the longitudinal wing veins. There is normally one pair of large black (rarely brown) spots on the prothorax. The lateral prothoracic spots also are mostly large and black; sometimes the first (anteriormost) one is larger than the other and brown. The dorsal spots on the abdomen are usually black, but their number and size can vary. There are populations with hardly any dots, but most populations have two pairs of black dots per segment. The black lateral marks on the abdomen can build an almost continuous line, or they can form a downward hook (“hockey stick”) on most segments ( Fig. 15 ). The ventral side of the abdomen is green with black setae. The eggs are deposited singly and the larvae enter diapause as third instars.

Distribution: This species is thus far known from Europe and central Asia. Ap3 is probably the most widespread prasinoid species in the western Palearctic region. It was found from Spain to Kyrgyzstan and from the Mediterranean coast to central Europe. In northern Italy (Badano, unpublished) and southern Switzerland, a morph was found where the males do not have a triangular prothorax as in all other prasinoid males, but a more rectangular prothorax similar to that of the female. Otherwise, they look like ordinary specimens of Ap3. The two forms coexist syntopically in southern Switzerland, without hybrid forms, and thus the rectangular male prothorax might be an alternative allele, or represent a different species. In fact, some specimens with traces of pink in the subantennal sutures were found but only in the strain with rectangular male prothorax.

Figures

FIGURE 10. Percentage of black in the three veins forming the intramedian cell. Low percentage is usually a black part in one piece, with increasing darkness the number also of black parts increases. The blue bars indicate the range for each species.

FIGURE 15. Apertochrysa Ap3 with black dots on scape and large black spots on prothorax. The black lateral stripes along the abdomen are almost continuous and the dorsal abdominal spots on the last segments are in a double row (male from Agarone, Ticino, Switzerland).