Heterogamodes (Heterogamisca) sulcata, Bohn, 2024

Bohn, Horst, 2024, The spine armament of the legs as an important means for the characterisation of the genera of Corydiinae and their relationships (Blattodea, Corydiidae), Zootaxa 5482 (1), pp. 1-79 : 24

No. 7. Heterogamodes (Heterogamisca) sulcata , sp. nov.

Figs. 5E,F , 21B

Etymology. The species name refers to rather strongly developed sulci on the pronotum.

Diagnosis. From all other species of the species group distinguished by the predominantly lightly coloured pronotum.

Material studied. 2♂, [ Libya], Tassili , Djanet preps .: 1♂, Bo 1417, Holotype; 1♂, Bo 1432, Paratype. (M. Paris).

Description of the male holotype (Bo 1417). Size. Length of pronotum: 4, 2 mm; length of tegmina: ca. 16 mm (apical parts damaged).

Colouration (mainly according to the paratype, Bo 1432). Head with dark brown vertex, frons and labrum lighter brown, anteclypeus yellowish, postclypeus ochreous. Pronotum mostly lightly coloured: disk with faint ochreous maculae, latero-anteriorly on each side with a large whitish patch, lateral and posterior margins brownish tinged, remaining parts transparent ( Fig. 21B ). Tegmina mostly transparent, with a narrow light brown stripe along the basal part of the subcosta, costal field whitish. Remaining parts of the body straw-coloured.

Head. Eyes and ocelli equidistant, distance between ocelli slightly shorter than their diameter. Between ocelli with a pair of rather deep foveolae.

Pronotum. Anterior and posterior border convex, the former more strongly so than the latter and mesally with a weak sinusoidal pojection; lateral borders truncate or rounded truncate. Sulci rather pronounced ( Fig. 21B ).

Wings. Tegmina with fairly regularly rounded anterior border, broadest behind the middle, without a subcosta lobe.

Other characters. Tibia armament: [1.8.0][6.8.1][10.7.4], dorsal spines of hindtibia in two groups a 7 and 3, ventral spines in two groups a 2.—Subgenital plate: Fig. 5E .—Right phallomere: Fig. 5F .

Female: unknown.

Remarks. The description is based on two males preserved in quite different state: One, considered as holotype (Bo 1417), has the complete set of legs, but is otherwise not well preserved and appears discoloured; the other male, considered as paratype (Bo 1432), is missing almost all legs, but shows especially in colouration a more natural appearance. The description of colouration is based mainly on the latter specimen. Comparison of the phallomeres confirm that the two specimens belong to the same species.

The specimens are provided with a determination label of Chopard considering them as “ Heterogamodes kruegeri (Salfi) ”. But the description of Salfi does not agree with this determination. According to Salfi, the midtibia should have 7 dorsal spines and an apical whorl with only 7 spines, and the pronotum should have a large brown patch. Moreover, H. kruegeri was found in Porto Badia (Northern Libya, near the frontier to Egypt), 1000 km away from the locality of the Paris specimens (Djanet, SE corner of Algeria). Chopard could not study the type specimen of H. kruegeri ; it is presently not traceable and presumably lost.

1 The original description ( Bohn & Sciberras, 2021) contains a wrong number of ventral spines of the midleg tibia: it is [6.8. 1] as here indicated in bold.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Subgenital plate (at the left, ventral view) and posterior part of the right phallomere (at the right, standard view) of male.—Species: A,B: Heterogamisca longipilosa. (A) Holotype, Bo 1329; (B) Paratype, Bo 1358, dents of R2 sclerite isolated; C,D: H. jeffreyana, Holotype, Bo 1328; E,F: H. sulcata, Holotype, Bo 1417; G,H: Heterogamisca arenarum, Type, Bo 1430.— Phallomere type: Type 1 in all corresponding figures.—Explanations: R1M, R2, R3 sclerites of the right phallomere, MD main dent of R2, ue its upper etage; tr tubercular ridge.—Enlargements: Scale 0.25 mm.

FIGURE 21. Pronota of some species of the genus Heterogamodes. Species: A: Heterogamisca longipilosa, Paratype; B: H. sulcata, Holotype (Bo 1417); C: H. cerverae (Bo 1360); D: H. pallens, Holotype; E: H. senegalensis (Bo 1419); F: H. zolotarevskyi (Bo 1418). Transparent parts of the pronotum appear dark due to the dark background; it mainly concerns a relatively large area mesally at the anterior margin, in (B) additionally an apparently dark band at the lateral margins. Preparation numbers between parentheses indicate that the same specimen was also used for the production of microscopical preparations.— Enlargements: Scale 2 mm.