Nanophyllium species (male)

Cumming, Royce T., Tirant, Stephane Le, Teemsma, Sierra N., Hennemann, Frank H., Willemse, Luc & Buescher, Thies H., 2020, Lost lovers linked at long last: elusive female Nanophyllium mystery solved after a century of being placed in a different genus (Phasmatodea, Phylliidae), ZooKeys 969, pp. 43-84 : 43

Nanophyllium species (male) Figure 22A

Collection data.

One male, observed and collected by Mike Wild (USA/Indonesia) in 2015. Indonesia: Papua Province, Puncak Jaya Regency, Mokndoma, around 2,180 meters elevation.

Discussion.

This individual was observed and photographed by Mike Wild, who notes that despite living in the area for more than 14 years, and actively observing and collecting insects there the entire time, this is the only leaf insect he has ever seen. This species has highly reduced exterior profemoral lobes, which places it morphologically most similar to N. australianum (Fig. 11D ) from Australia. This particular feature is not observed in other New Guinea known males to such a slender degree. This unknown species can be differentiated from N. australianum by the orange head, pronotum, and mesonotum (Fig. 22A ) a unique feature in and of itself as all other known Nanophyllium males have the head and thorax the same color as the rest of the body. It is possible that this male may represent the unknown sex of one of the known female Nanophyllium or represent an undescribed species, but at this time it cannot be determined with so many species only known from a single sex.

Originally proposed by Rentz (1988) we agree that these darker and slightly metallic Nanophyllium males appear to not mimic foliage, but to instead be mimicking a wasp. Easily observed in this individual from Mokndoma and noted by Rentz (1988) the dark coloration is "shining black with a bluish overcast". This coloration is common within Scoliidae and Pompilidae , both of which are large and intimidating wasps within the correct size range of a Nanophyllium male. Additionally, this particular specimen from Mokndoma has a bright orange head, pronotum, and mesonotum, and many species of these large wasps also have yellow, orange, or red segments of their bodies. We hope that examination of wasp species from this region and additional Nanophyllium males will help to identify possible species models.

Figures

Figure 11. Front legs and lobes of males of the stellae species group (A-C) and the pygmaeum species group (D-H) A Nanophyllium stellae B Nanophyllium miyashitai sp. nov. C Nanophyllium larssoni D Nanophyllium australianum E Nanophyllium asekiense comb. nov. F Nanophyllium rentzi Coll SLT G Nanophyllium hasenpuschi H Nanophyllium adisi line drawing based on holotype.

Figure 22. Live observations of unidentifiable male Nanophyllium A individual observed by Mike Wild in Mokndoma, Indonesia B individual observed by Achmad Rian Dietra, May, 2017 on Aiduma Island, Indonesia.