Ameles maroccana Uvarov, 1931

Battiston, Roberto, Correas, José, Lombardo, Francesco, Mouna, Mohamed, Payne, Keith & Schütte, Kai, 2018, Morphological convergences in Ameles Burmeister and Pseudoyersinia Kirby: Taxonomic implications of wing reduction and flight predisposition in some West-Mediterranean Amelini (Insecta: Mantodea), Zootaxa 4377 (1), pp. 21-38 : 26-29

Ameles maroccana Uvarov, 1931

Ameles maroccana Uvarov, 1931

Ameles abjecta maroccana Morales Agacino, 1948

Type. Holotype ♀ (BMNH); male allotype A. abjecta maroccana (MNCN).

Type locality. Morocco, Ifrane (holotype) , Tangier (allotype)

Distribution. Morocco.

Material examined. Morocco: Moulay-Yakoub, 30.V.2011, leg. R. Battiston, coll. Battiston, 1 ♂ (collected as juvenile an reared to the adult stage); Ain Dalia , VIII.1912, coll MNCN, 1 ♀; Buhal-la (El Ajmas), VIII.1932, leg. F. Escalera, coll. MNCN, 2♂ ; El Monte ( Tánger), VIII.1912, leg. Escalera, coll. MNCN, 1 ♀ ; Ifrane (Moyen Atlas, 1650 mts.) 22.IX to 6.X.1940, leg. Rungs, coll. MNCN, 1 ♀ ; Morocco , leg. Vaucher, coll. MNCN, 2 ♂ 1 ♀ ; Tánger , leg. Escalera, coll. MNCN, 2 ♂ 1 ♀ ; Tánger , IX.1912, leg. Escalera, coll. MNCN, 1 ♀ ; Tánger, leg. Olcense, coll Inst. Esp. Entomología, 1 ♂ 1 ♀ ; Tánger 1908, leg. Vaucher, coll. MNCN, 2 ♂ 1 ♀ .

TABLE I. Comparison between the morphometry of the species here consiđeređ anđ A. spallanzania (đata from Battiston & Fontana, 2005 anđ Agabiti et al., 2010). All linear measures are in mm.

Taxonomic notes. Bolivar (1914) extended the original distribution of A. abjecta Cyrillo, 1787 to North Africa after including a population of Morocco and describing it as the subspecies A. a. africana. In 1931 Uvarov described A. maroccana as a separate species using a female holotype with rounded eyes different from the conical ones typical of A. abjecta ; however, Morales Agacino (1948) considered it as a subspecies of A. abjecta , renaming it as Ameles abjecta maroccana and he described the male allotype. He described it with long wings (20 mm, 4.4 times longer than pronotum), however he did not report other measurements of other type specimens which, as we observed, show much shorter flight organs compared to the allotype. This species however exhibits different eye (the main character cited by both Uvarov and Morales Agacino to separate it from A. abjecta ) and pronotum shape, which lead Badih & Ruiz (1998) to support the validity of Ameles maroccana as a separate species, citing three males as macropterous in opposition to the brachypterous females. Summarizing, Ameles maroccana is here confirmed as valid and distinct because of the characters outlined above and its marked tendency for wing reduction.

Diagnosis. Similar to A. spallanzania but wings are shorter, not reaching the terminalia, and rounded eyes lacking an apical tubercle (present in A. spallanzania ). Similar to A. s. obscura but with hyaline hind wings and sinuous pseudophallus ( Fig. 5 ), as opposed to the infumated hind wings and straight pseudophallus of A. s. obscura .

Remarks. Most of the specimens we measured are from the type series and from the collection of the MNCN, already studied and cited by Morales Agacino (1948). The variability of forewings when related to the pronotum length is here remarkable (26% between min-max in the TL/PL ratio) especially if compared with the other species of Ameles and presents both the short-winged morph with forewings not reaching the terminalia ( Fig. 6 ) and the long winged one covering them. The length of the forewings and their ratio with the pronotum remain however well distinct from the higher values of A. spallanzania (Table 1). On the contrary, we did not notice any evident variability in ocelli size, which remain always very small when compared with other fully-winged species.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Ameles maroccana, male habitus from Moulay-Yakoub (Morocco).Photo by R. Battiston.

FIGURE5. Ameles maroccana, male genitalia. Left: left epiphallus with pseudophallus on the left and titillator on the right in dorsal view.Centre:distal process of hypophallus in dorsal view.Right:right epiphallus inventral view.Scale bar = 1 mm.