Ptilosphen ramosus Marshall sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 11422180-D24B-4C35-BB08-302D2004CC2D

Fig. 23

Etymology

The species name is from the Latin for ‘branched’, referring to the branched arms of the genital fork.

Type material

Holotype

COLOMBIA • ♂; Prov. Amazonas, Parque Nacionales Naturales Amacayacu, San Martin; 3°23′ S, 70°6′ W; 150 m a.s.l.; 5–19 Dec. 2001; D. Chota leg.; Malaise trap; IAVH.

Paratypes

COLOMBIA • • 1 ♀; same data as for holotype; 2–16 Apr. 2001; CO1 specimen MYCRO959-22; DEBU • 1 ♀; 12–26 Feb. 2001; DEBU • 1 ♀; 26 Feb.–12 Mar. 2001; DEBU • 1 ♀; 24 Aug.–1 Sep. 2001; B. Amado leg.; DEBU • • 1 ♀; same data as for holotype; 14–22 Jan. 2001; B. Amado leg.; IAVH • 1 ♂; same data as for preceding; 15–23 Feb. 2001; IAVH • 1 ♀; same data as for preceding; 22–30 Apr. 2000; IAVH • 2 ♀♀; Amazonas, Parque Nacionales Naturales Amacayacu Matamata; 3°23′ S, 70°6′ W; 9–30 Jul. 2000; D. Chota leg.; IAVH • 1 ♀; Parque Nacionales Naturales Amacayacu Matamata; 3°23′1″ S, 70°6′1″ W; 300 m a.s.l.; 14–21 Aug. 2000; A. Parente leg.; IAVH • 1 ♀; Parque Nacionales Naturales Amacayacu Matamata; 3°23′ S, 70°6′ W; 150 m a.s.l.; 19 Nov. 2001; D. Chota leg.; IAVH • 1 ♂; same data as for preceding; 17 SEP. 2001; IAVH • 1 ♀; same data as for preceding; 17 Sep.–1 Oct. 2001; Malaise trap; DEBU • 1 ♀; same data as for preceding; IAVH • 1 ♀; Amazonas, Amacayau National Park, Sector Matamata; 150 m a.s.l.; 11–24 Apr. 2000; A. Felix leg.; Malaise trap; DEBU • 1 ♂ (damaged); PNN Amacayacu Matamata; 17 Sep. 2001; D. Chota leg.; CO1 specimen MYCRO276-16; DEBU • 1 ♂ (badly damaged, one leg remaining); Prov. Leticia, Amazonas; 185 m a.s.l.; 19–26 Feb. 1972; D. Ward and A. Forsyth leg.; CNCI.

Description

LENGTH. 12–13 mm.

COLOUR (Fig. 23A–C, E–F). Body mostly black. Frontal vitta velvety black, frontal plate and face reddish brown, top of head heavily golden microtrichose behind, between and just beside and in front of inner verticals, epicephalon and paracephalon otherwise shiny black or dark brown; clypeus dull orange and entirely microsetulose, palpus yellow distally. Notum silvery microsetulose with narrow dark central and dorsolateral vittae, postpronotum and notopleuron silvery. Fore tarsus white; fore tibia and femur dark brown; mid tarsus and tibia brown; mid femur brown with medial and basal white rings subequal to width of femur (ring near midpoint sometimes weak or incomplete). Hind femur brown with basal and medial white rings 2× width of femur; hind tibia and hind tarsus brown. Wing with faint brown V-shaped discal band, indistinct apical infuscation and an indistinct infuscated spot in basal third. Abdominal T1–2 silvery microsetulose except for a narrow dark median strip on T1 and posterior half of T2; anterolateral margins of T3 silvery microsetulose. Pleuron with a broad dark band on anterior half of P1 and most of P2, a narrow band on the posterior part of P3 and increasingly extensive dorsal dark portions of P4–5 with P4 dark on dorsal half and P5 entirely dark.

HEAD. Frontal vitta strongly convex anterior to ocelli, 0.6× frontal width at maximum, abruptly tapered to a point anteriorly; postocellar frontal vitta almost level, broad and almost parallel sided until an abrupt taper to a rounded point between postocellars. Two strong fronto-orbital bristles, outer vertical bristle present.

THORAX. Prosternum bare centrally, microsetulose anteriorly. Cervical sclerite simple, posterior part almost flat, slightly depressed at middle. Postpronotum entirely microsetulose, with a few scattered fine setulae. Scapular setae absent. Two notopleural bristles, anterior weakest. Katepisternum with one main row of dark bristles. Dorsocentral bristle present.

FEMALE TERMINALIA (Fig. 23D, G). Oviscape broad and short, expanded basally and half as wide as long, bare distally and along dorsal strip. Three spermathecae on two ducts with smaller single duct arising from side of primary duct at its origin at the apex of a narrow extension of the bursa, primary duct twice as long and thick as single duct and ending in a distinct swelling followed by a short constriction at base of the two thick, prominently tuberculate spermathecal stems that are very little differentiated from the spermathecae. Single spermatheca much smaller, on a short stem separated from single duct apex by a distinct threadlike constriction.

MALE TERMINALIA (Fig. 23A, H–I). Genital fork with four arms: one pair long and thin, one pair short and thick; inner face of arms with dense, short spines extending entire length of arm; base of fork between arms deeply grooved. Basiphallus small but prominent, similar in width to basal distiphallus, projecting posteriorly as a narrow rounded lobe. Distiphallus relatively short, with basal distiphallus slightly shorter than epandrium and twice as long and thick as distal distiphallus, distal distiphallus ringed by weak striae and with a slightly expanded and funnel-like apex. Postgonite small, distal part broadly rounded, mitt-like and entirely spinulose, anterodistal surface finely spinulose. Phallic bulb distinct and similar in width to the basal distiphallus, with proximal chamber elongate and distal chamber short and cap like. Hypandrium with a long, broadly tongue-like anterior bridge.

Remarks

Males of this species have a highly distinctive, prominently branched male genital fork, each arm with an elongate, curved distal part arising at an acute angle to a short, blunt inner basal part. Females have a relatively short, basally expanded oviscape. Ptilosphen gentilis has a similarly elaborate genital fork but with a long, tapered and toothed inner basal arm; these species are otherwise dissimilar and not likely to be confused with one another. Ptilosphen crassus Marshall sp. nov. resembles Pt. ramosus Marshall sp. nov. in most external characters, but males of Pt. crassus have a different genital fork with a single pair of short, broad, scooped arms and females have a relatively long, slender oviscape. Most specimens of Pt. ramosus have at least a partial white band near the middle of the mid femur, and most specimens of Pt. crassus have the middle part of the femur uniformly brown, but there are a few exceptions so the species cannot be reliably separated on femoral pigmentation alone. The internal female genitalia of Pt. crassus and Pt. ramosus appear to be identical and pleural banding patterns are also the same. Both sequenced specimens of Pt. ramosus yielded only short sequences which were not included in the CO1 analyses here but, unsurprisingly, they do come out as closest to Pt. crassus in CO1 neighbour-joining trees in queries to the BOLD database.

Compiled from data in Table 1.

(Table 1).