Minyleon Machado, 2020

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 : 266

Minyleon Machado , new genus

http://zoobank.org/NomenclaturalActs/ D55052BC-D6C3-45BA-AF89-B339828B767A

Type species. Austrogymnocnemia pygmaea New, 1985 , by present designation. Nomenclatural gender: masculine.

Diagnosis. Legs: femur> 3.5x length of coxa; tibial spurs absent; foreleg with T1 longer than T5; mandibles reduced, mostly hidden behind labrum; gena extended (head in anterior view with line of clypeo-labral articulartion lying dorsal to ventral margin of gena).

Description. Head: Mandibles reduced, mostly hidden behind clypeus. Gena extended (head in anterior view with line of clypeo-labral articulartion lying dorsal to ventral margin of gena). Ocular setae absent. Antennae clubbed and elongate; flagellomeres almost as long as wide at base, apical ones slightly wider than long, all segments set with short black setae. Palpimacula opening oval-shaped, located medially. Thorax: Pronotum much longer than wide; posterior margin wider than anterior. Miller’s organ present. Wings: anterior Banksian line present, posterior absent. Forewing CuA fork located after RP origin; subcostal veinlets simple; three presectoral crossveins; posterior area narrower than prefork area. Hind wing MP fork located beyond RP origin; one presectoral crossvein. Male pilula axillaris present. Legs: Femur> 3.5x length of coxa. Tibial spurs absent. Proleg, T1 longer than T5. Protibia, antennal cleaning setae absent. Male Terminalia: Gonarcus broad and arched; short and well sclerotized. Female Terminalia: Ectoproct posterior margin rounded, without cavisetae; lateral gonapophyses smaller than ectoproct, set with few cavisetae; posterior gonapophyses elongate, broad and set with few cavisetae apically; 9 th tergite with a long membranous digitiform process; anterior gonapophyses absent.

Distribution ( Fig. 137 ). Australia: SA, VIC, WA. Known from sparse records across far southern Australia.

Included species (1 sp.). Minyleon pygmaeus .

Biology. Unknown.

Etymology. Miny- (from Greek minys, little or small) + - leon (from Greek leon, lion; a traditional antlion genus-group name ending), in reference to the small physical size of its type species.

Comments. The new genus Minyleon is erected here for the morphologically divergent and phylogenetically distinct species Minyleon pygmaeus , which was originally described in Austrogymnocnemia based on its lack of tibial spurs. The type species is among the smallest species in the Periclystus genus group (only some specimens of Glenoleon minutillus have shorter forewing lengths) and exibits a number of striking apomorphies that are unique within the clade, particularly the reduced mandibles and extended genae. Phylogenetically, Minyleon pygmaeus was recovered ( Fig. 4 ) in an isolated position sister to the Periclystus genus group subclade Glenoleon + ( Periclystus + Riekoleon ), further justifying its recognition as a separate genus-ranked taxon.

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 137. Distribution of Megagonoleon (part) and Minyleon species.