Neoperla aethiopica, Zwick & Zwick, 2023

Zwick, Peter & Zwick, Andreas, 2023, Revision of the African Neoperla Needham, 1905 (Plecoptera: Perlidae: Perlinae) based on morphological and molecular data, Zootaxa 5316 (1), pp. 1-194 : 80-81

32. Neoperla aethiopica n. sp.

( Figs. 177–178 )

Type material studied: ♁ Holotype ( NEOP074 ), 1 ♁ paratype: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, 15km NW of Chora, Illubabor prov. , 1600m, vii.1973, G.de Rougemont (slides Z16.166 & 166A; SMNS).

Habitus. WL 12.0– 12.3mm. Ochre colour, legs a little darker, brownish, wings infuscate. A black ring around each ocellus.

Male ( Figs. 177–178 ). Hind tibiae unmodified. T7 with rather long triangular projection. T8 flat, front of median sclerite band as wide as the T7 process above it, narrowing caudally, with some SB. T9 unmodified, the paramedian pilose humps not much raised. Callus of HT10 inconspicuous, tongue-shaped. Tip of HT10 sinuous, short, the sharp apex points cephalad.

Penis tubular, slender, smooth except one or two single spinelets on sides, about one third from tip (bl in Fig. 177 ). Distally, is a rough dorsal patch of spines, plus a smaller spine patch on each side (dd and dl, respectively in Fig. 177 ). Endophallus almost straight, long base bare, distal half narrowing. Sides bare, the armature begins dorsolaterally as band of large hooks, distal hooks smaller, more numerous. Conical apex with many dorsal spines and a short ventral row of single spines ( Figs. 177–178 ).

Female. Unknown.

DNA ( Figs. 491–492 , 494). Only the male holotype from Ethiopia was sequenced with the genome skimming approach, resulting in 10,983bp of mitochondrial, protein-coding genes. The species is very strongly supported (98.2/99/99) as sister to N. pilulifera n. sp . .

Etymology. The name was derived from the patria of the species.

Figures

FIGURE 491. Codon-model maximum likelihood phylogram based on 83 largely complete mitochondrial genome sequences only (mt-NT). Statistical support values (SH-aLRT, UFBoot) from this and other analyses summarised by squares as explained in the figure. Terminal labels include information on the species, type status, gender, originating country, unique sequence identifier (NEOP###), sequencing approach and total basepairs of 13 mitochondrial, protein-coding genes. Clades of particular interest highlighted with colours that correspond to the clades in other trees. HT = holotype; PT = paratype; PCR = Polymerase Chaine Reaction; WGS = Whole Genome Shotgun.

FIGURE 492. Simplified overview of codon-model maximum likelihood phylogram based on 356 mitochondrial genome and COX1 DNA barcode sequences (all-NT). Terminal labels include information on the species only. Clades of particular interest highlighted with colours that correspond to the clades in other trees. The full tree is shown in Figs 493-498.

FIGURES 177–180. Neoperla aethiopica n. sp. and N. occulta n. sp.. N. aethiopica: 177, penis of holotype (NEOP074); 178, enlarged distal section of the endophallus of the paratype. N. occulta: 179, distal half of penis with everted endophallus (Bayanga LP1); 180, distal part of contracted penis (Bayanga PJ, NEOP058). The curved line connects corresponding structures. Scales are 100µm. bbs, bare basal stretch; bl, basolateral, dd, dorsodistal, dl, dorsolateral spine groups.