Tribonium rothi Crespo, Valverde & Iglesias

Crespo, Francisco Antonio, Valverde, Alejandra Del Carmen & Iglesias, Mónica Sandra, 2015, A new species of Tribonium Saussure, 1862 from the Province of Misiones, Argentina (Blattaria, Blaberidae, Zetoborinae), Zootaxa 3936 (4), pp. 593-599 : 595-597

Tribonium rothi Crespo, Valverde & Iglesias sp. n.

( Figs. 1–10 , 31, 34 )

Type material. Holotype male, pinned, genitalia in a separate microvial. Type-locality: Argentina, Misiones Province, Departamento Frontera, Piñalito, (-25,927.383; -53,927.986) 01/XI/1954, leg. W. Partridge ( MACN). Original label reads: “ Argentina, Misiones, D° Frontera, Piñalito, XI.954, W. Partridge” “MACN-Ent”. Paratypes: 2 males and 3 females from Misiones Province, Iguazú (-25,668.525; -54,312.803) 30/I to 13/III/ 1945 col. Hayward K.J., Willink A. & Goldbach R ( IMLA).

Additional specimen: adult and microscope permanent slide examined by Roth (1970) ( ZMUC): Labels [1]–[4]: [1] Mus. Western, [2] Brasilien Reinhardt conspersa (Guèrin) [3] Tribonium conspersum (Guèrin) , [4] 1.CU2ZM genitalia L. Roth’69.

Measurements (mm). Holotype. TL: 27.0. BL: 23.0. BW: 8.5. TeL: 23.5. TeW: 7.0. PL: 5.0. PW: 9.1. IO: 1.6. IA: 2.0. IOc: 1.25. Paratypes. Males. TL: 29.0–26.3. BL: 27.0–24.5. BW: 14.8–12.1. PL: 6.2–5.0. PW: 11.3–9.1. TeL: 24.0–21.0. TeW: 8.4–7.0. IO: 1.6–1.4. IA: 2.0–1.9. IOc: 1.25–1.2. Females. TL: 28.5–26.7. BL: 28.0–25.3. BW: 14.3–12.7. PL: 5.7–5.2. PW: 10.7–9.8. TeL: 23.5–22.0. TeW: 8.2–7.4. IO: 1.6–1.6. IA: 2.2–2.1. IOc: 1.5–1.4.

Description. Large size for the genus; body slender and flattened; tegmina cover the abdomen ( Fig. 1 ).

Head. Particularly flattened and exhibiting the typical characteristics of the genus: small outstanding eyes, important interocular distance on vertex, front broad and flattened, fronto-genal suture with a cuticular invagination on the frontal side, maxillary palps short. Clypeus subdivided into a dark basal half and yellow distal half. Labrum light yellow.

Thorax. Pronotum elliptic oval, almost flattened ( Fig. 2 ); tegmina with the subcostal field expanded, the subcostal vein presents a carina on its ventral surface, the anal veins reach the posterior border ( Fig. 3 ); legs short; prothoracic coxae with coxal suture not sinuous and scarcely visible, meso- and metathoracic coxae with a sharp distal apophysis. Legs exhibiting the following morphology: all femora are type D0, with ventral posterior margins unarmed and genicular spine absent. Tibial formula: holotype [6*2*2] [10*3*4] [13*3*7], paratypes: males [7–6*2*3–2] [10*3–2*5–4] [13*3*7], females [7–6*2*3–2] [11–9*3*5–4] [14–12*3*7]. Tarsi exhibiting large arolia.

Abdomen. Supra-anal plate (sub-quadrangular, with distal border bilobated, medial incision strongly indicated, see Fig. 4 ). Paraprocts sclerified below the supra-anal plate ( Fig. 5 ), right paraproct with curved apophysis, directed upward and forward. Subgenital plate (hypandrium) asymmetrical, bearing long setous styli ( Fig. 6 ).

Male genitalia ( Figs. 7–10 ). The male genital sclerites of the genus ( Fig. 33 ) are those of the left complex (L2’ L3’ and L4U’) and those of the right phallomere (R1T’, R2’, R3’ and R5’).

The sclerite L2’ presents an elongated cranial region, an apophysis (ap) near its apex, and is distally articulated to the process via ( Fig. 8–9 , 31 ). The process via presents a blunt cranial projection (cb) and a broad caudal projection (cpr) on the opposite side to the dorsal process (dp). L2’ has three points of articulation with via, two at the main corps and a third one between its apophysis (ap, Valverde et al. 2012; dorsal extension = E, sensu Roth 1970) and the dorsal process (dp) of via. The main corps of via presents two swellings (sw), one anterior close to L2’, and another on its posterior margin. L3’ is the terminal hook sclerite of the tubular evagination hla ( Fig. 7 ), which at rest lies retracted into the proximal soft cuticular tube. L3’ has a wide sub-conical base and a narrow, curved apex with a sub-apical notch (45). The neck (nk) that bridges both regions is narrow. The ventro-internal margin of the apical hook apex is strongly convex ( Figs. 7 , 34 ) and the external margin presents irregularities along its curvature.

L4U’ is a small sclerite ( Fig. 33 ) placed near the base of the hook lobe evagination (hla).

R1T’ has a thin arm, part of the cleft (clf) formed with R2’, and a ventrocaudal sclerotized area cpR1T’ sensu Anisyutkin (2014) contained in the fold evagination, ventral below the dorsal lobe evagination. The external margin of cpR1T’ bears a conspicuous tooth (t) articulated with R3’ ( Fig. 10 b).

R2’ is the dorsal cranial largest arm of the cleft which is fused externally with R1T’ and closely related to R5’.

R3’ with a flattened triactinal shape in ventral view, its latero-cranial apex blunt. Caudal apex near the cpR1T’ tooth and internal apex close to the free extreme of R2’ and R5’ ( Fig. 10 b).

R4’ is absent. Dorsal lobe evagination (dla) can be observed ( Fig. 20 ), its caudal posterior margin covered with very small hairs with dark bases.

Coloration. Pronotum with thick, chestnut borders and whitish surface, with a central, symmetrical dark spot ( Fig. 2 ); extended wings reveal a semicircular, black mark on the mesonotum, the same appears triangular when wings are in resting position; tegmina and dorsal abdominal surface tawny with dark impressions, the hidden surface of the right mesothoracic wing is hyaline; head black; ventral surface of body light tawny.

Etymology. The species T. rothi is dedicated to the late Dr. L.M. Roth.

Distribution. Argentina, Misiones Province: Piñalito and Iguazú. Brazil (locality not specified).

Conservation status. Holotype and paratypes are dried, pinned specimens. Genital structures are preserved inside vials containing a mix of 80 % ethanol and glicerine.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 29. Figs. 1 – 10, Tribonium rothi sp. n., Holotype ♂: 1) Habitus, dorsal view; 2) Pronotum, dorsal view; 3) Left tegmina, dorsal view; 4) Anal plate, ventral view; 5) Paraprocts, ventral view; 6) Subgenital plate, ventral view; 7) L 3 ’, dorsal view; 8) L 2 ’ + via, dorsal view; 9) L 2 ’ + via, detail; 10) Right phallomere: a) dorsal view, b) ventral view. Figs 11 – 20, Tribonium conspersum, ♂: 11) Habitus, dorsal view; 12) Pronotum, dorsal view; 13) Left tegmina, dorsal view; 14) Anal plate, dorsal view; 15) Paraprocts, ventral view; 16) Subgenital plate, ventral view; 17) L 3 ’, dorsal view; 18) L 2 ’ + via, dorsal view; 19) L 2 ’ + via, detail; 20) Right phallomere: a) dorsal view, b) ventral view. Figs 21 – 29, Tribonium neospectrum, ♂: 21) Habitus, dorsal view; 22) Pronotum, dorsal view; 23) Left tegmina, dorsal view; 24) Anal plate, dorsal view; 25) Subgenital plate, ventral view; 26) L 3 ’, dorsal view; 27) L 2 ’ + via, dorsal view. 28) L 2 ’ + via, detail; 29) Right phallomere: a) dorsal view, b) ventral view. Scales: Habitus, pronotum, and tegmina = 5 mm; all the other figures = 1 mm.

FIGURES 30 – 36. Figs. 30 – 33, Schematic rotation of L 2 ’ + via (from ventral view to dorsal view): 30) Tribonium neospectrum; 31) Tribonium rothi sp. n.; 32) Tribonium conspersum. 33) Schematic drawing of the phallomeres in their natural position (dorsal view). Figs. 34 – 36, Scheme of L 3 ’: 34) Tribonium rothi sp. n.; 35) Tribonium conspersum; 36) Tribonium neospectrum (dorsal view).