Oulopteryx illuminata Evangelista and Legendre, 2023

Evangelista, Dominic A., Nelson, Dvorah, Varadínová, Zuzana Kotyková & Abstract, Frédéric Legendre, 2023, Phylogenomics and deep convergence in cockroach hind-wing morphology, Organisms Diversity & Evolution (New York, N. Y.) 23 (4), pp. 929-940 : 935-936

Species Oulopteryx illuminata Evangelista and Legendre sp. nov.

[Zoobank LSID: lsid:zoobank.org:act: 0845FCB3-D4C6- 440A-B0D3-D90A3E94E350]

( Fig. 2 )

Type material Holotype male: OUMNH-2005-065; Evergreen Forest , 1080 m alt.; @ M. V. light; coll. Mann, Hamel & Simmons.

Type locality BOLIVIA: Dep. Santa Cruz; Bermejo, Refugio Los Volcanes , 18°06’S 63°36’W .

Description (male, female unknown) General color reddishchestnut. Head ( Fig. 2g ) large and round, yellow–brown, frons darker as well as four dark brown stripes on the vertex; clypeus unipartite but two-colored (tip hyaline); eyes black, bean-shaped; ocelli absent; maxillary palps five-segmented with the first two segments short, the third one the longest (ca. three times longer than the second one), the fourth segment half as long as the third, the fifth segment enlarged, oval, with fine setae mostly on the edges; interocular space slightly larger than inter-antennal space; antennae brown, darker at their tips, scape as long as the first two antennomeres. Pronotum ( Fig. 2f ) elliptical, rugose in its discal area, punctuated; anterior edge transverse, raised, lateral edges raised as well but to a lesser extent, posterior edge convex. Tegmina ( Fig. 2a, b, f ) fully developed, coriaceous, densely and regularly punctuated, apex sharply rounded; hind-wings ( Fig. 2c, h ) slightly infuscated, with a large apical field coiled at rest. Venation as in Fig. 2c , with no clear vein in the apical field. Anal plate symmetrical, concave medially. Subgenital plate small, convex, symmetrical, with two concave indentations where the small and elongate styli attached. Cerci short, stout, monomerous, flatten dorsad but with ventral side bulbous with several setae. Front femurs unarmed, only with a short genual spine, fifth tarsomere as long as the others combined, no pulvillus, claws symmetrical; Hindlegs with first tarsomere almost as long as the others combined, fifth tarsomere longer than the three previous ones, with pretarsal claws symmetrical and lacking pulvilli and arolia.

Genitalia as in Fig. 2d, e . Genitalia of congeneric species have never been illustrated or described.

Measurements Body length (with tegmina): 16 mm; length of tegmina: 13 mm; largest width of tegmina: 4.5 mm; pronotum (width x length): 5.5 × 2.5 mm.

Diagnosis Differs from M. magnifica Shelford (1912) and M. mimetica Shelford (1912) in coloration of pronotum and forewings (strongly reddish chestnut in O. illuminata ) and the color of the hind-wing (mostly translucent in O. illuminata ). Body coloration as in Aclavoidea socialis but more strongly reddened. Pronotum and body wide with stout legs. Strongly differs from A. socialis and M. magnifica in length of cerci (which are stout and roughly equal with the end of the male’s styli). Differs from A. socialis in presence of forewing PCu vein. Differs from Oulopteryx meliponarum Hebard (1921) in shape of pronotum (nearly circular in O. meliponarum ), pattern of cross venation between radius and medial vein in hind-wing (roughly parallel in O. illuminata but not in O. meliponarum ), non-setose pronotum, elytra and supra-anal plate (all setose in O. meliponarum ), and body length larger.

Most similar to Oulopteryx dascilloides Hebard (1921) but with the following differences: body coloration reddish chestnut (as opposed to hazel-chestnut in O. dascilloides ), styli half as long as distance between styli (as opposed to 1/3 the distance in O. dascilloides ), cerci stouter with less than 1/3 extending past the supra-anal plate (as opposed to nearly half in of cerci extending past plate in O. dascilloides ), supra-anal plate without setae (setose in O. dascilloides ) and body length ~ 15 mm (~ 8 mm in O. dascilloides ). Female unknown.

Etymology The specific epithet is from the Latin illuminatus, meaning “lighting up or illuminating”. It has been chosen because this new species, belonging to the obscure Oulopterygidae family, has shed light on deep convergent evolution in cockroaches.

Figures

Fig. 2 Oulopteryx illuminata sp. nov. is demonstrative of a typical species with an apical folded membrane, but having a rare method of concealment at rest (i.e., coiling, a feature shared among Oulopterygidae, Theganopteryx, Prosoplecta, and possibly a few others). Forewing (a, b) and hind-wing (c) morphology to scale with full body (f, g). Folding occurs alone dashed lines. Method of rolling the hind-wing apical field at rest shown (h). Genital morphology (d, e) of male holotype from posterior dorsal views (d) and dorsal view (e). Labels identify genital sclerites using the nomenclature of Klass (1997). See supplementary figures for more details. Wing venation (b, c) nomenclature based on Li et al. (2018) with modification. *Pcu not identi- fied. See Schubnel et al. (2019) for a discussion of Pcu’s identity among Blattodea.