Austrogymnocnemia forcipata New, 1985

Machado, Renato Jose Pires & Oswald, John David, 2020, Morphological phylogeny and taxonomic revision of the former antlion subtribe Periclystina (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae: Dendroleontinae), Zootaxa 4796 (1), pp. 1-322 : 114-116

Austrogymnocnemia forcipata New, 1985

( Figs. 49–51 )

Austrogymnocnemia forcipata New, 1985:14 (OD); New 1996:67 (cat); Stange 2004:99 (cat); Oswald 2018 (cat).

Diagnosis. Body mostly pale; pronotum with a medial discontinuous longitudinal line; hind wing with small rhegmal infuscation; profemur without a series of long white setae.

Description. Lengths: forewing: 19 mm; hind wing: 16 mm.

Head ( Figs. 49 a–b): Labrum pale, set with a line of elongate setae. Clypeus pale with a longitudinal median black line; set with few elongate black setae. Frons mostly pale, area between antennae slightly darker, a dark median longitudinal line and a dark transverse line above antennae; set with some short black setae. Gena pale. Vertex strongly raised; in anterior view pale, with a transverse dark line and a median longitudinal dark line; in dorsal view mostly pale but with a longitudinal median line, and some faded dark marks posteriorly; covered with short pale setae. Ocular setae absent. Antennae clubbed; elongate,> 2x length of pronotum; distance between antennae wider than scape width; scape and pedicel pale, flagellum light brown; torular membrane pale; flagellomeres almost as long as wide at base, apical ones wider than long; all segments set with short black setae. Mandibles pale, with tip black. Palpi, maxillary and labial pale; covered with short black setae, apical labial palpomere fusiform, palpimacula opening oval-shaped, located medially.

Thorax ( Fig. 49b ): Pronotum about as long as wide; posterior margin as wide as anterior; subapical furrow present; mostly pale except for lateral margins dark brown, a discontinuous longitudinal medial brown line, and two longitudinal curved brown lines laterally; set with pale setae, which are longer on margins. Mesonotum pale with some dark brown marks as follows: two central longitudinal lines on prescutum; lateral areas of scutum; two curved longitudinal lines on scutellum; all segments set with short pale setae. Metanotum mostly pale except for two rounded dark brown spots on prescutum and the dark brown lateral areas of scutum. Pterothoracic pleura mostly dark brown with irregular pale marks; covered with elongate white setae; Miller’s organ present.

Wings ( Fig. 49c ): Rather narrow with tip acute; anterior Banksian line present in both wings, posterior only present in the forewing; veins mostly pale, but apical veins intercalated with brown spots, beset with short black setae. Male pilula axillaris present. Forewing membrane hyaline; pterostigma white; CuA fork located basal to RP origin; three presectoral crossveins; subcostal veinlets simple; posterior area narrower than prefork area. Hind wing membrane hyaline with small brown infuscations on rhegmal area; MP fork located near RP origin; subcostal veinlets simple; one presectoral crossvein.

Legs ( Figs. 49 a–b): All pairs of legs, femur elongate (> 2x length of coxa); tibia and tarsi about same size of femur; tibial spurs absent; T3 and T4 about same size, T2 slightly longer than T3, T1 about twice longer than T2 and T5 slightly longer than T1; claws as long as half of T5 length; coxa set with white setae. Proleg sense hair as long as femur width; tibia with antennal cleaning setae ventroapically; all segments pale except for two small brown marks on anterior surface of tibia; coxa, trochanter and femur set with short pale setae, and some long pale setae on dorsal surface of femur; tibia and tarsi set with short black setae with scattered long black setae on tibia. Meso and metaleg with same colour pattern of proleg. Metaleg with femur and tibia slightly longer than in anterior legs.

Abdomen: Mostly pale except for lateral areas around pleura, dark brown; covered with short pale setae.

Male Terminalia ( Figs. 50 a–b): Ectoproct posterior margin rounded in lateral view, set with elongate black setae. 9 th sternite short, with posterior margin rounded in ventral view; set with elongate black setae medially. Gonarcus broad, arched, with anterior margin narrow, very long and curving downwards in lateral view; in posterior view anterior margins point medially. Mediuncus absent. Paramere broad in lateral view, with an elongate apical hook curving downwards; posterior margin curved with dorsal region longer.

Female Terminalia: Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 51 ). Australia: NT (known only from holotype).

Adult activity period. Record for October.

Biology. Unknown, larva unknown.

Name-bearing type. Austrogymnocnemia forcipata : Holotype (by original designation), male, ANIC, examined. Type locality: Australia, Northern Territory, 8 km NNW of Elliott (town). From original description: “ Holotype, ♂, Northern Territory, 17 o 29’S., 133 o 30’E., 8 km NW. by N. Elliott, 14.x.1972, M.S. Upton ( ANIC)”. Condition: good; apical half of left antenna missing, terminalia dissected.

Comments. Austrogymnocnemia forcipata is known only from the male holotype, but the genitalic shape clearly distinguishes this specimen from other Austrogymnocnemia species. It is also easily distinguished from its congeners by its hyaline wings and mostly pale body with distinctive dark marks. The female is still unknown, but the elongate anterior margin of male gonarcus and the apical hook on the male paramere support placement of this species in the bipunctata species group. For phylogenetic relationship see Fig. 4 .

Figures

FIGURE 4. Strict consensus tree of morphology-based parsimony analysis of species belonging to the former subtribe Periclystina (ingroup, names in black), and outgroups (names in red). Former Glenoleon species are shown on blue branches, former Austrogymnocnemia species on green branches. Numbers above branches are Bremer support values; numbers below branches are bootstrap values (shown where>50%).

FIGURE 49. Austrogymnocnemia forcipata: a) head, anterior; b) head and thorax, dorsal; c) wings, dorsal.

FIGURE 50. Austrogymnocnemia forcipata: male: a) genitalia, lateral; b) genitalia, posterior. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.

FIGURE 51. Distribution of Austrogymnocnemia species (part).