Acontista aurantiaca Burmeister, 1838

Schwarz, Christian J., Ehrmann, Reinhard, Stiewe, Martin B. D., Mörtter, Rolf & Falkenberg, Michael, 2020, Mantodea of Panguana (Insecta: Dictyoptera), Zootaxa 4824 (1), pp. 1-66 : 40

Acontista aurantiaca Burmeister, 1838

( Figs. 84–85, 87 , 147 )

Acontista aurantiaca Burmeister, 1838: 531 .

Type locality. Brazil ( Burmeister 1838) .

Records. CeNak: ♂, 16.IX.1973, leg. H. W. Koepcke. SMNK: ♀, 230 m, 21.IX.–08.X.2012, leg. K. Schönitzer (SMNK-Mant 12828, ex. ZSM). ZSM: ♂, 230 m, lux, V.2015, leg. E. Diller ( Fig. 84 ); ♀, 220 m, 21.IX.–04.X.2004, lux, leg. K. Schönitzer, T. Kothe, M. Breitsameter, O. Conle & F. Hennemann ( Fig. 85 ) .

Distribution. Brazil, Ecuador, Peru.

Remarks. This species is not identical with the SE Brazilian A. concinna , as suspected by Kirby (1904) and Heitzmann-Fontenelle (1965). Our specimens agree with the ones from the MRSN identified by E. Giglio-Tos as A. aurantiaca . This species is very common in Peru and Ecuador, but has often been recorded as A. concinna in the past (see also Rivera & Vergara-Cobián 2017).

The nymphs of this species exhibit morphological and behavioral ant mimicry ( Fig. 147 ). Early instars use several sympatric species of the genus Pseudomyrmex as a model (see also Salazar 2003a), while later instars resemble Ectatomma tuberculatum (pers. obs.).

Figures

FIGURES 84–87. Genus Acontista. 84. Acontista aurantiaca Burmeister, 1838, male in dorsal view. 85. A. aurantiaca, female in ventral view. 86. A. festae Giglio-Tos, 1915, male in dorsal view. 87. A. aurantiaca, ootheca of a female from Tarapoto, dorsolateral view. Scale bars: 10 mm.

FIGURES 142–147. Life aspects of praying mantids at Panguana (continued). 142. Pseudacanthops lobipes, male. Photo © Dieter Schulten. 143. Metilia sp., male. Photo © Rolf Mörtter. 144. Stenophylla lobivertex, male. 145. Stenophylla lobivertex, female. 146. Raptrix occidentalis, male. Photos © Frank Glaw. 147. Acontista aurantiaca, juvenile. Photo © Dieter Schulten.