Pseudoharpax francoisi Bolívar, 1908

Schwarz, Christian J., Pohl, Marius & Frank, Erik T., 2023, A preliminary checklist of the praying mantids of Comoé National Park, Ivory Coast (Insecta: Mantodea), Zootaxa 5373 (1), pp. 1-64 : 33

Pseudoharpax francoisi Bolívar, 1908

Figs. 105–106, 108

Pseudoharpax francoisi Bolívar, 1908: 470–471 .

Type locality. Bouaké , Ivory Coast .

Distribution. Guinea, Ivory Coast ( Beier 1968; Bolívar 1908a).

Records. CSC: ♁, new station, 03.IV.–12.V.2017, M. Pohl leg.

Remarks. The type location of the female holotype (MNCN, Cat. No. 1631) is given as “Bonaké” in Bolívar (1908a). La Greca (1954b) erroneously believed the type, which he had not seen, to have originated in “ Spanish Guinea ” (today Equatorial Guinea). West African Pseudoharpax specimens have been mostly referred to P. virescens virescens ( Audinet-Serville, 1838) in faunistic studies ( Beier 1968; Chopard 1940a; Gillon & Roy 1968; Prost & Roy 1986; Ragge & Roy 1967; Roy 1962a, 1964b, 1965a, 1967, 1968b, 1969, 1970b, 1971a, b, 1975, 1978; Roy & Leston 1975). However, there are morphological and genital differences between different populations across West Africa, which will be dealt with in an upcoming revision of the genus (M. Stiewe, pers. com.). The male encountered in the Comoé NP shares with the female of P. francoisi Bolívar, 1908 the black markings on head and pronotum ( Fig. 105 ). These markings have also been noted by Beier (1968) on some Guinean specimens, but he attributed this to intraspecific variability of P. virescens . We regard P. francoisi as valid, since both sexes show different pronotal and head proportions than specimens attributed to P. virescens . In addition, the black markings, or lack thereof, respectively, are a stable character. Two different Pseudoharpax species from West Africa ( Gambia and Ghana, respectively) lacking black markings when wild-caught never exhibited such markings even after several generations of captive breeding under many different conditions (pers. obs.).

Figures

FIGURES 103–108. Galinthiadidae.103–104, 107. Congoharpax aberrans La Greca, 1954. Male. 105–106, 108. Pseudoharpax francoisi Bolívar, 1908. Male. 103, 105. Dorsal view. 104, 106. Ventral view. 107–108. Anterior view of head.