Kiwisaldula laelaps

Kiwisaldula laelaps (White, 1878)

Salda laelaps White, 1878: 160. Lectotype (designated by Larivière & Larochelle, 2016): male (BMNH; Fig. 7–8) labelled: “LECTO- TYPE (circular purple bordered label; typed in 2 lines) / Type (circular red-bordered label; typed) / LECTOTYPE S. Loelaps B. White R. Cobben 1961. (red label; first word typed, remainder text handwritten) / New Zealand (handwritten) / Salda laelaps B.W [partly legible] (handwritten) / Pres. by Perth Museum. B.M. 1953-629. (typed) / LECTOTYPE [male symbol] Salda laelaps White, 1878 desig. M-C Larivière & A Larochelle 2016 (red label; typed) / BMNH(E) #1005937 (typed).” Good condition; right antenna missing segments III–IV; right foreleg missing tarsal segments; mounted on two cards (top card with specimen, bottom card with dissected abdomen). Paralectotype: female (BMNH) labelled: “PARA- LECTO- TYPE (circular pale blue-bordered label; typed in 3 lines) / Cotype (circular yellowbordered label; typed in 2 lines) / New Zealand (handwritten) / Salda laelaps B.W (handwritten) / Salda laelaps BW. (long folded label; handwritten) / Pres. by Perth Museum. B.M. 1953-629. (typed) / PALECTOTYPE [female symbol] Salda laelaps White, 1878 desig. M-C Larivière & A Larochelle 2016 (blue label; typed). Acanthia laelaps: Kirkaldy, 1909: 27.

Saldula laelaps: Drake & Hoberlandt, 1950: 8.

Kiwisaldula laelaps: Larivière & Larochelle, 2016: 474.

Redescription (Brachypterous adult). Body length 3.58–3.93 (3.71 mm); subelliptical or nearly pear-shaped (Figs 4, 7). Dorsal colour largely dark, with completely dark lateral margins of pronotum and highly reduced individual (not coalesced) pale markings on hemelytra. Facial colour (Fig. 12) slightly contrasted. Head, pronotum, and scutellum rather shiny against mostly dull hemelytra. Dorsal pubescence short to moderately long, mostly reclined and rather thin (as opposed K. butleri, K. hurunui, K. waiho), mostly golden brown or silvery, usually more densely distributed on pronotum and clavus, rather sparse and corium. Hemelytra with highly reduced or missing cells in membrane; hindwings highly reduced. Head (Fig. 12, facial view). Preocellar spots pale yellowish brown. Preocular spots black (indistinct). Transverse swelling slightly developed (sometimes more developed at sides); lateral portions contiguous; yellowish brown to brown, usually broadly darker near facial midline. Mandibular plates slightly developed, concolorous with or darker than transverse swelling. Maxillary plates moderately developed, concolorous with or paler than transverse swelling. Rostrum yellowish brown, reaching hind coxae. Antennae about 4.0x longer than pronotum + collar medially; segment I almost completely dark brown to black, usually narrowly paler subapically; segment II almost completely dark yellowish brown to brown (not darker on any side), about 2.1x longer than segment I; segments III–IV dark brown to nearly black. Thorax. Lateral margins of pronotum subrectilinear to slightly convex, distinctly explanate, completely dark or with barely visible to moderately developed short yellowish patch near posterolateral angles. Pronotum somewhat narrow and long, about 2.4x as wide as long (wider and shorter in K. waiho, K. hurunui, K. butleri, 3–3.5x wider than long). Scutellum about 1.6x longer than pronotum + collar medially. Thoracic underside black, mostly glabrous and shiny, without contrasting acetabula (acetabula I, II and III completely dark) and completely or almost completely dark lateral margins. Legs marginally pale; fore, mid, and hind femora almost completely dark brown to black (darkly coloured sides coalesced into a long annulus), usually narrowly pale near base and apex; fore tibiae pale or slightly infumate dorsally (not darkly striped throughout); hind tibiae about 2.3x longer than tarsal segments II+III combined. Hemelytra: corium (Figs 4, 7, 15) largely dark brown to black, with nearly immaculate endocorium and highly reduced pale markings (brownish yellow) on exocorium; endocorium ill-defined, barely visible dark eyespot subbasally near R vein; costal margin dark; colour pattern in female consistent with that in male; pruinose areas well developed, distributed over most basal half of clavus and most of corium (usually slightly patchy on endocorium); basal pruinose area of clavus broad and long, covering more than one-third of clavus length (half of length); basal pale spot of clavus absent; subapical pale spot of clavus present (clearly visible or highly reduced); membrane with three or four highly reduced cells; cell 1 slightly shorter than or subequal to cells 2 and 3, oval to subtriangular; cells 2 and 3 subrectangular to suboval, subequal in length and width; cell 4 absent or when present, highly reduced and ending apically well before tip of cell 3 (near tip of corium). Abdomen. Venter: male, blackish, with or without hind margins of segments very narrowly pale; female, colouration as in male (not margined with pale as in other South Island species). Male parandria (Fig. 23) elongate, broadly subtriangular, acutely rounded and rather broad at tip; inner margins angled; medial membrane with blunt inward projection on each side; basal margin almost straight (barely convex medially). Male paramere (Fig. 19) with barely distinct processus sensualis bearing less than ten setae; processus hamatus moderately long, not constricted basally, its tip moderately narrowly, somewhat obtusely rounded; main body and shaft of similar width (as opposed to other three species). Female subgenital plate (segment VII ventrally) completely blackish (not pale in apical half as in other South Island species). Other characters as in generic description (Larivière & Larochelle, 2016: 459).

Geographic distribution (Fig. 24). South Island, Central Otago (Carrick Range, Watts Rock).

Material examined. A total of 7 specimens including types, from the following localities. South Island. CO – Carrick Range, Watts Rock (LUNZ, NZAC).

Biology. Altitudinal range. Subalpine; collected at 1,300 m. Inland. Habitat. Tussock grassland; collected by pitfall trapping. Seasonality. February. Food. Predator or scavenger. Behaviour. Undocumented.

Remarks. The male genitalia were previously undocumented for this species.

The lectotype was collected by CM Wakefield. It is labelled as originating from “ New Zealand ”. Larivière & Larochelle (2016) reported that Wakefield was an active insect collector in Canterbury, then a province, and that the type specimen may have been collected in North Canterbury (NC), Mid Canterbury (MC), South Canterbury (SC) or eastern Mackenzie (MK). The LUNZ specimens (three males, two females) collected by RM Emberson on 5–8 February 1986 at Watts Rock on the Carrick Range (CO), represent the only population that can so far be matched to the type series. The geographic location of this population sits slightly further south than expected by the authors, but it is still located within the greater “southern lakes district”. This is an area which, in addition to the Otago Region (CO, OL) and parts of western Southland (SL) and northern Fiordland (FD), also includes the Mackenzie Basin of inland Canterbury. Further collecting may eventually reveal additional populations of K. laelaps on mountain ranges in this region of New Zealand.

Kiwisaldula laelaps has a very dark dorsum and an ill-defined, barely visible hemelytral eyespot. There were too few specimens available to directly examine the hindwings and these could not be seen at all when slightly lifting the hemelytra. It is likely that hindwings are highly reduced in this species or possibly even vestigial.

Kiwisaldula laelaps may be just an odd “ Salda ” -looking Kiwisaldula or may eventually prove to belong to another genus, but such considerations need to be put aside until more of the South Island saldid fauna is revised.