Neoperla annulatispina Mo, Li & Wang 2021, sp. nov.

• Main Authors: Mo, Raorao, Wang, Ying, Wang, Guoquan, Li, Weihai, Murányi, Dávid
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2021
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Arthropoda; Insecta; Plecoptera; Perlidae; Neoperla; Neoperla annulatispina; Arctic; Canada; Churchill
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5531148; https://zenodo.org/record/5531148

Neoperla annulatispina Mo, Li & Wang, sp. nov. (Figs. 1–2) Adult habitus (Fig. 1). Body color generally dark brown, abdomen pale. Head pale, with a prominent dark brown rectangular ocellar patch, and a smaller, semicircular spot interrupted by M-line; palpi brown; antennae generally brown, basal part paler; biocellate, the distance between ocelli ca. 2.0 X as wide as the diameter of the ocellus; head slightly wider than pronotum. Pronotum dark brown and rectangular, with scattered, dark rugosities and a pair of pale lateral areas; corners rounded. Wings brownish and transparent, veins dark brown; legs dark brown, basal two third of femora pale (Fig. 1e); cerci pale. Male (Figs. 1b–1d, 2a–2e). Forewing length 11.0– 12.4 mm (N=3). Tergum 6 with a posteromedial patch of sensilla basiconica. Tergum 7 with an anteromedian pair of sclerotized, upraised, nipple-shaped processes and a distal rectangular process on posterior margin covered with sensilla basiconica. Tergum 8 with a recurved triangular process, fringed with small distal spines. Tergum 9 with two paramedial patches of long hairs. Hemitergal processes of tergum 10 upcurved, finger-like. Aedeagus mostly membranous, falciform (Figs. 2a–2e). Aedeagal tube mostly straight, only dorsal surface sclerotized (Figs. 2a, 2c–2d). Aedeagal sac slightly longer than tube and curved ventrally, forming a right angle to tube; dorsolateral surface with 2–3 irregular rows of small spines; subapical portion with a complete ring of small spines; apical surface densely covered with tiny spinules; apical portion with a H-shaped, dark uneverted flagella (Figs. 2a–2e). Female (Figs. 2f– 2g). Forewing length 13.0– 14.5 mm (N=2). Habitus generally similar to male except dark brown marking on head is more extensive. Sternum 8 lightly sclerotized; the posteromedial margin slightly produced forming a small quadrate sclerotized subgenital plate. Eggs . Available females were void of matured eggs. Type Material . Holotype: male (HIST), China: Guangdong Province, Shaoguan City, Chebaling National Nature Reserve, Xiba, N 24°43’48”, E 114°15’36’’, 360 m, 2016.V.1, light trap, Luo, Liu, Xun & Zhao. Paratypes: 1 male and 1 female (CAU), 1 male and 1 female (HIST), same locality and date as holotype. Etymology . The specific name refers to the ringed section of small spines of aedeagus. Latin “annulatus” means ringed and “spina” means spine. Distribution . China: Guangdong, Chebaling National Nature Reserve (Fig. 15). The exact habitat is unknown. Remarks . The new species is a member of the Neoperla montivaga species group (Zwick 1983). The new species shares similar head pattern, terminalia and aedeagus with N. nigromarginata Li & Zhang, 2014 known from Henan Province of Central China. However, the new species can be separated from the latter by the following features: the paired lateral pale area of pronotum is smaller; aedeagal sac only with 2–3 irregular rows of small spines in dorsolateral surface; subapical spinous ring is complete; paired apical flagella is linked by a short sclerotized band. In N. nigromarginata , the paired lateral pale area of pronotum is bigger, comprising about 50% of the total surface; aedeagal sac with 2–3 irregular rows of small spines in dorsal surface and a large lateral patch of small spines, without subapical spinous ring or the ring is not complete; paired apical flagella are not connected. In addition, subgenital plate of female sternum 8 of N. nigromarginata has a small median notch at posterior margin, while the subgenital plate of the new species lacks a median notch. The COI sequence of Neoperla annulatispina Mo, Li & Wang, sp. nov. and N. nigromarginata had a consistent length of 659 bp, and both biased toward A and T nucleotides ( N. annulatispina : 26.0% A, 21.3 C, 18.6% G and 34.1% T; N. nigromarginata : 26.3% A, 21.7 C, 18.1% G and 34.0% T). The genetic distances were calculated for the 16 sequenced specimens (Table 2). In our study, pairwise distances of the two Neoperla species were 2.0–2.8%; with an average of 2.3%, slightly higher than 2% threshold considered for a rough differentiation between intraspecific and interspecific distances (Hebert et al . 2003; Zhou et al . 2009). The minimum and average interspecific sequence divergences of the two species are higher than the maximum intraspecific sequence divergences (0.6–1.1%) without overlap (Table 2). In the Neighbor-joining (NJ) tree (Fig. 3), male and female specimens of N. annulatispina are grouped in the same clade, separated from the clade of male and females of N. nigromarginata . The combination of morphology and molecular data suggest that N. annulatispina is a new species to science. : Published as part of Mo, Raorao, Wang, Ying, Wang, Guoquan, Li, Weihai & Murányi, Dávid, 2021, Two new species and three new provincial records of Neoperla (Plecoptera: Perlidae) from Nanling Mountains, China, pp. 195-214 in Zootaxa 5040 (2) on page 197, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5040.2.2, http://zenodo.org/record/5531145 : {"references": ["Zwick, P. (1983) The Neoperla of Sumatra and Java (Indonesia) (Plecoptera: Perlidae). Spixiana, 6, 167 - 204.", "Li, W. H. & Zhang, S. Q. (2014) Two new species of Neoperla (Plecoptera: Perlidae) from Dabie Mountains of China. ZooKeys, 438, 45 - 55. https: // doi. org / 10.3897 / zookeys. 438.8230", "Hebert, P. D. N., Ratnasingham, S. & Dewaard, J. R. (2003) Barcoding animal life: cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 divergences among closely related species. 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