Riekophlebia crocina

Christidis, Faye, 2009, Riekophlebia crocina, a new genus and species of Atalophlebiinae (Ephemeroptera: Leptophlebiidae) from the Wet Tropics bioregion of north-eastern Australia, Zootaxa 2063, pp. 64-68 : 66-68

Riekophlebia crocina sp. n

Type material. Queensland. Holotype: male imago reared from nymph, Cloudy Ck, Paluma Range National Park (19o00’S, 145o26.4’E), collected 10 January 1999, F. Christidis (QM). Paratypes: all collected from type locality by F. Christidis; 1 reared male imago and 1 reared female imago, 29 March 1998; 1 reared female imago, 10 January 1999; 13 nymphs, 17 November 1996; 4 nymphs, 21 July 1999; 3 nymphs, 19 April 2008; (QM).

Other material examined. Queensland. Camp Ck, Paluma Range National Park: 1 reared male imago, 1 reared female imago and 4 nymphs, 24 October 1996, F. Christidis (QM). Birthday Ck, Paluma Range National Park: 1 reared male imago, 19 May 1999; 1 nymph, 24 October 1996; 1 nymph, 12 April 1998; F. Christidis (QM).

Male imago. Length: body 6.0– 6.2 mm, forewings 6.2–6.4 mm. Head brown. Eyes in contact dorsally; upper portion of eye orange-brown, lower portion black. Antennae reddish brown. Thorax dark brown. Wings hyaline ( Figs. 1, 2 ), costal and subcostal cells in apical third of forewing whitish, longitudinal veins and cross veins pale brown; forewing with 9–11 costal cross veins; hind wing with 5–6 costal cross veins and 5–6 subcostal cross veins; MP of hind wing with discoidal cell; hind wing width 0.60–0.62 of length. Foreleg with femur dark brown, remainder of leg yellowish-brown. Middle and hind legs brownish yellow. Abdomen dark red with areas of black ( Fig. 3 ); terga 2–8 with paired pale submedian maculae. Genitalia reddish; styliger plate deeply cleft; claspers 3 segmented, segment 1 narrowing at about 0.4 of length, segment 3 slightly shorter than segment 2, segment 2 about 0.18 length of segment 1 ( Fig. 4 ). Penes fused along most of their length, each lobe with large ventral spine near apex ( Fig. 4 ).

Female imago. Length: body 6.0–7.0 mm, forewings 6.5–7.2 mm. Similar to male except as follows: eyes black, separated on meson of head by a distance of 2 times the maximum width of an eye; fore wing with 16–18 costal cross veins; sternum of ninth abdominal segment entire, pointed apically ( Fig. 5 ).

Nymph. Body length: male 6.2–7.4 mm, female 7.2–8.2 mm. Mouthparts as in Figures 6–11 . Labrum width 1.32–1.38 times maximum width of clypeus, labrum length 1.18–1.20 times maximum length of clypeus. Thorax brown. Forelegs yellow, femora of foreleg with limited dark brown pigmentation ( Fig. 12 ). Abdomen yellow with dark brown to black markings. Gill lamellae pale yellow, tracheae black, lateral tracheae moderately developed ( Fig. 13 ).

Etymology. Crocina , Latin for yellow, saffron colored, in reference to the yellow pigmentation of the nymph, particularly when alive.

Remarks. This species was included as Tillyardophlebia sp. AV 7 in the key of Dean (1999) and as ‘WT species 1’ in the phylogenetic analyses of Christidis (2001, 2005). The nymphs of this species occur on stones in pool habitats of rainforest streams.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 5. Riekophlebia crocina. Male imago: (1) wings; (2) hind wing; (3) abdominal terga 3 – 5; (4) penes and claspers, ventral view. Female imago: (5) ninth abdominal sternum.

FIGURES 6 – 13. Riekophlebia crocina. Nymph: (6) labrum and clypeus; (7) right mandible; (8) maxilla, ventral view; (9) hypopharynx; (10) labium, dorsal view left of midline and ventral view right of midline; (11) segment 3 of labial palp, dorsal view; (12) foreleg; (13) abdominal gill.