Mortoniella (Mortoniella), 1906

Blahnik, Roger J. & Holzenthal, Ralph W., 2017, Revision of the northern South American species of Mortoniella Ulmer 1906 (Trichoptera: Glossosomatidae: Protoptilinae) *, Insecta Mundi 2017 (602), pp. 1-251 : 83

Mortoniella (Mortoniella) “unplaced species”

All of the taxa treated here have the same primitive venational character as species in the bilineata group, as discussed above (hind wing with Cu 1 forked, thus with 3 forks–II, III and V). Many of them also have an elongate, narrow ventral process on segment VI. Exceptions to the latter are several species of the argentinica and tridens subgroups, discussed below. Unlike the two major species groups of Mortoniella (Mortoniella) , which are morphologically coherent in many respects, the species in the subgroups discussed below are markedly divergent, suggesting that they are not “closely” related. Despite this, a number of the species tend to have similar character attributes, in particular the presence of elongate, retrorsely reflexed dorsal lobes on the inferior appendages; elongate, spine-like projections on the mesal pockets of the inferior appendages; and the absence of endophallic spines. It is likely that these characters, along with the more complete venation and the elongate, narrow ventral process of segment VI, are plesiomorphic characters within the subgenus Mortoniella . Most of the species within this “group” are newly described below. Rather tenuous and speculative support for a relationship between the argentinica, esrossi, and tridens subgroups is included in the discussions of those subgroups. The remaining taxa treated here are each distinctive and do not seem to be closely related.

— argentinica subgroup

Included species: M. argentinica (Schmid) ; M. cornuta , n. sp.; M. croca , n. sp.; M. curvistylus , n. sp.; M. spinulata (Flint) .

The similarity of Mortoniella argentinica (Schmid) to M. spinulata (Flint) was discussed in a previous paper ( Blahnik and Holzenthal 2011) and the reader is referred to that paper for a redescription and reillustration of M. argentinica . Mortoniella spinulata and 3 related new species are described below. Of the species assigned to this subgroup, only M. argentinica has an elongate, narrow ventral process on segment VI; the others have the process more or less trianguloid, relatively short and wide basally and more or less ventrally projecting, thus more like species in the leroda group. Females of M. argentinica and M. cornuta , n. sp., which are the only species of the subgroup for which females were available, have genitalia similar to those in the leroda group, without an invaginated dorsal margin of segment VIII. All of the species in the argentinica subgroup, except M. curvistylus , n. sp., are characterized by having 2 pairs of paramere appendages (considered an apomorphy for the subgroup); elongate, narrow, lance-like projections from the mesal pockets of the inferior appendages; and an elongate, recurved dorsal lobe on the inferior appendages. As discussed above, the latter characters may be plesiomorphic for the subgenus Mortoniella as a whole, though absent or lost in the majority of taxa, in both the leroda and bilineata groups. The general shape of segment IX of species in the argentinica subgroup resembles species of the leroda species group: posterior margin uniformly rounded and with the lobes narrowly separated dorsally, or relatively narrowly separated. Most of the species seem to have at least a small mesal apodeme on the dorsal margin of the phallobase, as in species of the bilineata group. Species lack distinct dorsal projections on the base of the phallicata and also lack a ventromesal endophallic spine, although sclerotized phallotremal spines or paired endophallic spines (possibly modified phallotremal spines) are present. On balance, the subgroup seems to be more closely related to the leroda group than to the bilineata group.