Anacroneuria

Stark, Bill P. & Armitage, Brian J., 2018, The Plecoptera of Panama. II. Two new species, one new country record, and additional locality records of Anacroneuria (Perlidae) from western Panama, Zootaxa 4459 (2), pp. 315-326 : 320-321

Anacroneuria sp. PA-1

( Figs. 13–14 )

Material examined. PANAMA: Chiriqui Province: Cuenca 108 (Río Chiriqui), Quebrada La Velo , Alto Quiel Rd., E of Finca Lerida, 8.82043°N, 82.48429°W, 1782 m, Malaise trap, 5–10 May 2017, B. and T. Armitage, 3 ♀ ( COZEM, BPSC) .

Adult habitus. General color yellow patterned with dark brown. Head almost entirely yellow but with a small dark area over the ocelli; lappets pale, antennae and palpi dark brown. Median band of pronotum narrow and dark brown, sublateral bands on disk dark brown; posterolateral angles of pronotal margin dark brown ( Fig. 13 ). Femora of all legs with a distal, dorsoapical, small, dark area with most of femora yellow; tibiae of all legs dark brown. Wing membrane brown, veins darker except for pale costa.

Male. Unknown.

Female. Forewing length 12–15 mm. Subgenital plate bilobed; lobes almost truncate, notch small ( Fig. 14 ). Sternum 9 with a narrow, median stick-like sclerite that continues under subgenital plate notch.

Larva. Unknown.

Diagnosis. Six known species of Anacroneuria from Costa Rica-Panama share the above described pronotal color pattern of this taxon. The females for two of these [ A. lineata ( Navás, 1924) and A. tornada Stark, 1998 ] are undescribed and the female subgenital plates for two others ( A. chiriqui sp.n. and A. divisa ( Navás, 1924) are 4- lobed. Thus these females may represent either of the two species whose females are unknown, either of the two known species with bilobed subgenital plates [ A. maritza Stark, 1998 and A. planicollis ( Klapálek, 1923) ], or they may represent a previously unknown species. Because all these species have relatively dark lappets on the dorsolateral margins of the frons, and the lappets are pale on these three females, we consider the possibility that these specimens represent an undescribed species to be the most suitable hypothesis.

Comments. Stark (1995) adopted the practice of Zwick (1986) in designating female stonefly specimens unassociated with males by an informal method that is used above to designate the present species. DeWalt et al. (2018) list some of these as “temporary names” on the Plecoptera Species File website; reference to this list suggests no previous PA (Panamanian) Anacroneuria have been recognized in this fashion, however, other authors (e.g. Castillo Sánchez et al. 2018) have designated samples of Anacroneuria as “sp. 1”, etc., but without providing characters or figures that would allow other workers to recognize the taxon. As indicated in the diagnosis section Anacroneuria sp. PA-1 is one of seven known Costa Rican and/or Panamanian Anacroneuria ( A. divisa , A. lineata , A. maritza , A. planicollis , A. tornada , A. chiriqu i sp. n.) to share a similar pronotal color pattern that includes a narrow, median brown band, and a pair of sublateral, broader dark bands. Comparison of the ocellar area pigment patterns, lappet patterns, leg patterns, forewing length and other features indicate these three specimens do not appear to represent any of the already described Anacroneuria species with the distinctive pronotal color pattern described above. We encourage an intensified effort be made to collect males of this species in order to determine the identity of this species. Armitage and Stark (2017) note seven Panamanian species have unknown females and several have unknown larvae.

Figures

FIGURES 11–14. Anacroneuria spp. Head and pronotum, or female subgenital plate. 11. A. chiriqui, subgenital plate. 12. A. ngabe, subgenital plate. 13. Anacroneuria sp. PA-1, head and pronotum. 14. Anacroneuria sp. PA-1, subgenital plate.