Chrysopa sogdianica McLachlan

Chrysopa sogdianica McLachlan in Fedchenko, 1875

(Fig. 56)

Chrysopa sogdianica McLachlan in Fedchenko, 1875: 20. Type locality: Unknown.

Chrysopisca minuta McLachlan in Fedchenko, 1875: 23. Type locality: Unknown.

Chrysopa nadali Navás, 1913c: 218. Type locality: Tunisia (Kébili).

Chrysopa euprepia Navás, 1915a: 369. Type locality: Tozeur.

Chrysopa indiga Navás, 1915a: 370. Type locality: Tozeur.

Chrysopa harterti Navás, 1929a: 57. Type locality: Algeria.

Chrysopa cufrina Navás, 1932d: 420. Type locality: Libya.

Minva punctata Navás, 1919c: 288. Type locality: Algeria.

Sencera fezzanina Navás, 1932a: 114. Type locality: Libia.

Chrysopa asiatica Steinmann, 1971: 256. Type locality: Mongolia.

Diagnosis and notes

This species is closely related to C. astarte by the absence of basal dilation in pretarsal claws, but can be distinguished by the following characters: frons with dark brown spots; scapes with dark markings on lateral margins; and vertex with four dark spots. No additional specimens were added in this study. Although this species is unique among its congeners in Pakistan by lack of im cell in the forewing (Hölzel 1967: fig. 1). The male and female genital photographs of C. sogdianica were presented by Hölzel (1966) based on the syntypes deposited in the Natural History Museum, London. In the same paper, McLachlan described a monotypic genus, Chrysopisca to accommodate Chrysopisca minuta, distinguished by lack of im cell in forewing. Based on similar male genitalia, Brooks & Barnard (1990) later considered Chrysopisca minuta as a junior synonym of C. sogdianica.

Distribution

Pakistan. Balochistan (Quetta) –– Afghanistan, Russia (Turkestan), Northern Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan), Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Iran) east to Mongolia (Hölzel 1967, 1980; Aspöck et al. 2001; Hassan et al. 2019; Oswald 2022).

Genus Chrysoperla Steinmann, 1964

Diagnosis

The genus Chrysoperla can be characterized by the following characters: medium-sized green lacewings (forewing length 9.0–14.0 mm); body generally pale green with dorsal median yellow stripe; head with dark brown spots on genae and clypeus; antennae not longer than forewing; legs unmarked; pretarsal claws with or without basal dilation; wings hyaline, without marking; im cell narrow, ovate; first radial crossvein meets Psm well distad of apex of im cell; gradates in two parallel series, meeting Psm in both wings; icu1 shorter than icu2; icu2 broad, rounded apically; male with sterna 8+9 fused, with apical lip. Apart from the above morphological characters, the structure, and shapes of male and female genitalia are most useful in distinguishing the Chrysoperla species. The male genitalia feature the following characters: absence of gonapsis and pseudopenis; entoprocessus small or absent; spinellae present or absent; arcessus narrow, pointed at apex and often recurved distally; tignum arcuated. The female genitaliafeature the following characters: absence of pregenitale; subgenitale bilobed distally, slightly extended at proximally; spermatheca narrow; ventral impression shallow or deep; vela short or long; spermathecal duct long, cylindrical, multiple-coiled, attached to bursa copulatrix (bc).

Notes

Currently, Chrysoperla comprises ca. 36 valid species distributed throughout the world (Brooks 1994). Of these, three species are known in Pakistan (Henry et al. 2010; Hassan et al. 2019). The genus is further divided into four species groups: the carnea -group, the comans -group, the nyerina -group and the pudica -group, and each of them, except comans -group are further divided into two subgroups (Brooks & Barnards 1990). Of these, two species groups are present in Pakistan: the carnea -group (including C. carnea and C. zastrowi sillemi), and the pudica -group (C. mutata).

Key to Chrysoperla species from Pakistan

1 Basal crossvein between Rs and M meets at or beyond apex of im cell in forewing (Figs 38A–B, 41A–B); male genitalia without spinellae.......................................................................................2

– Basal crossvein between Rs and M meets beyond apex of im cell in forewing (Brooks 1994: fig. 160); male genitalia with spinellae (Brooks 1994: fig. 165)....................................................... C. mutata (McLachlan)

2 Basal crossvein between Rs and M meets beyond at apex of im cell (Figs 38A–B); pretarsal claws with basal dilation more than 1/3 of claw hook; female subgenitale rounded, nearly as long as wide........................... C. carnea (Stephens)

– Basal crossvein between Rs and M meets apex of im cell in forewing (Figs 41A–B); pretarsal claws with basal dilation, 1/3–1/4 length of claw hook (Brooks 1994: fig. 5; Fig. 42F); female subgenitale heart-shaped, wider than long (Fig. 43C).............................................................................. C. zastrowi sillemi (Esben-Petersen)