Megaloprepus latipennis Selys, 1860

Feindt, Wiebke & Hadrys, Heike, 2022, The damselfly genus Megaloprepus (Odonata: Pseudostigmatidae): Revalidation and delimitation of species-level taxa including the description of one new species, Zootaxa 5115 (4), pp. 487-510 : 493-495

Megaloprepus latipennis Selys, 1860

( Figures 3 , 6 , 7 , 8 )

Megaloprepus Race latipennis Selys 1860: 14 (description and diagnostic characters); Selys 1886: 7 (revocation of M. latipennis and inclusion into M. caerulatus ).

Megaloprepus caerulatus latipennis Ris 1916: 64 , 69 (discussion on existence); Heckman 2008: 201–203 (key to the genus); Fincke et al. 2018 (considering subspecies status).

Specimens examined. (14 specimens: 1 male lectotype, 13 paralectotypes).

Lectotype: 1♂, Mexico, Veracruz, M. Sallé (RBINS: E. Selys Longchamps).

Paralectotypes: Mexico: 5♂♂ 4♀♀ (RBINS: E. Selys Longchamps) ; 1♀ Veracruz (RBINS: E. Selys Longchamps) .— Guatemala: 3♂♂ (RBINS: E. Selys Longchamps) .

Other material examined (63 specimens): Mexico: 2♂♂ (RBINS) ; 6♂♂ 6♀♀, leg. Don Genin (RBINS) ; Veracruz, Medellín: 1♂, N 18°34’46.36” W 95°6’23.70”, 341 m, viii. 1967 ( IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1784) ; Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, Tropical Biology Station Los Tuxtlas: 2♂♂, N 18°35’09.60” W 95°04’38.40”, 199 m, iii. 2012, leg. W. Feindt ; 8♂♂ 3♀♀, N 18°34’ –18°36’ W 95°04’ –95°09’, 150–700 m, vii. 1985, leg. A. Figueroa ( IBUNAM: CNIN:OD1781), ix. 1979, leg. J. Bueno ( IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1780), vii. 1968, leg. H. González and A. Imada ( IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1785), vii. 1985, leg. P. Sinaca ( IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1792), vii. 1988, leg. R. García ( IBUNAM: CNIN:OD1797), vii. 1975, leg. H.P. Ruiz ( IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1799), vii.–viii. 1975, leg. E. González ( IBUNAM: CNIN:OD1793, IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1795, IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1798), ix. 1979, leg. E. González ( IBUNAM: CNIN:OD1796), v. 1981, leg. E. González ( IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1789) ; 9♂♂ 9♀♀, N 18°34’ –18°36’ W 95°04’ – 95°09’, 150–700 m, 1985–1986, leg. E. Ramírez, R. Cedillo, C. Mayorga, V. Melendez, R. Mendoza, S. Sinaca, P. Sinaca,A. Ibarra ( RBLT) ; Municipio de San Andrés , Volcán San Martín Tuxtla: 1♀, N 18°33’5.02” W 95°11’30.22”, 1249 m, viii. 1980, leg. P. Guzmán ( IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1788) ; Arroyo Claro: 2♂♂, N 18°33’21.71 W 95°8’6.90”, 920 m, viii. 1978, leg. E. González ( IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1786) and N 18°35’26.12” W 95°5’25.68”, 150 m, viii. 1979, leg. E. González ( IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1787) ; Cerro Simaxtla Catemaco: 1♀, N 18°34’40.51” W 95°4’52.39”, 455 m, vi. 1965 ( IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1779) ; Dos Amantes: 1♂, N 18°28’54.06” W 95°4’33.70”, 730 m, vii. 1966, leg. R.W. Cruden ( IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1778) ; 2♂♂, N 18°29’11.06” W 95°4’42.04”, 694 m, ix. 1969 and N 18°28’50.69” W 95°4’29.06”, 770 m, xi. 1969, leg. R.G. Wind (YPM: ENT 150638) ; Jalapa de Díaz Oax. Río Uluapan : 1♂, N 18°3’45.64” W 96°31’19.88”, 130 m, x. 2010, leg. A. Ibarra ( IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1794) ; Oaxaca, Chiltepec: 1♀, N 17°55’12.68” W 96°9’15.23”, 264 m, v. 1980, leg. P. Guzmán ( IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1782) ; 2♀♀, N 17°55’95.60” W 96°9’28.81, 290 m, v. and x. 1969, leg. R.G. Wind (YPM: ENT 150639, ENT 150638) ; Oaxaca (a 5 km de San Mateo Yella, a 8 km de Valle Nacional): 1♂, N 17°44’12.16” W 96°17’26.69”, 376 m, v. 1981, leg. H. Velazco ( IBUNAM:CNIN:OD1783) ; Tezoyuca: 3♂♂, vi. and xi. 2005, leg. W.L. Tower (AMNH) .— Guatemala: Suchitepéquez, Río Bravo : 1♀, N 14°24’52.1” W 91°18’33.4”, vii 2012, leg. J. Monzón; Cobán, National Park Laguna Lachuá: 1♀, N 15°56’49.7” W 90°39’46.5”, ii 2012, leg. W. Feindt.

Note. The lectotype was chosen from the Selys collection (RBINS) according to his description from 1860. One male specimen from Veracruz, Mexico, was identified as being collected by M. Sallé, who Selys mentioned as collector in his first Synopsis des Agrionines for the M. latipennis specimens from Mexico, and was designated as lectotype .

Description of the lectotype. Head. Labium dark yellow, becoming dark brown at anterior margin. Mandible base yellow turning into black towards anterior margin. Gena yellow. Labrum, anteclypeus, postclypeus and frons black. Antennae black with a dark yellow ring around their base. Vertex and rear of head black.

Thorax ( Fig. 3 ). Prothorax black.Anterior lobe with yellow markings at both ends and a larger, semicircular central mark. Median lobe with round yellow spots in transition to propleuron. Posterior lobe with yellow spots at both ends, yellow triangle in center, the sides of which are strongly concave, forming almost a stripe. Both lobes rounded, posterior lobe additionally slightly arched upwards. Propleuron slightly convex with C-shaped dorsally directed green spot nearly covering half, distal margins yellow (as in Fig. 3a, b ). Pterothorax black with a narrow yellow antehumeral stripe beginning at approximately 25% of pterothorax length, growing slightly wider towards wing base; lateral ends of mesostigmal plates somewhat pointed and tips yellow; membranous area between prothorax posterior lobe and mesostigmal plates with large yellow mark; second yellow stripe covering metepisternum also includes lower ventral proportion of mesepimeron and metastigma at its lowermost border, slender, decreases in width towards wing bases between FW and HW; metepimerum yellow. Venter yellow with pruinescence continuing to coxae. Coxae yellow with small, light brown rounded marking. Remaining internal and dorsal side of legs black, inner surface of femora green, external side of tibiae yellow. Tarsi, spines and claws black. Two rows of spines on femora and tibiae centrally directed.

Wings ( Fig. 6 ). Wings stalked, long and broad, with wingtips smoothly rounded, slightly stretched posteriad (width/length ratio FW 0.24, HW 0.24); mostly hyaline except a gleaming metallic blue band (width at costa FW 12.2, HW 12.1; ratio width of blue stripe/wing length FW 0.14, HW 0.14) crossing last third of all four wings. Additional small, slight milky-white spots at wingtips: one between metallic blue band and pseudostigma at the anterior wing margin and one distal of metallic blue band at posterior wing margin; venation black here. Pseudostigma dark blue, in HW five cells long. Area basal of CuA broad, CuA forks five and six times in FW and HW, secondary branching is common. MP bifurcates 19 cells in FW and 19 cells in HW apart from wing margin. No sexual dimorphism in wing coloration.

Abdomen. Abdomen slender and elongate, black with a glossy metallic blue as ground color. S1–4 with additional light green coloration with a variety of small yellow and bluish influences as follows: in S1 and S2 entire lateral terga covered; in S3 and S4 ventral parts of tergites colored, 75–80% of total length in S3 and approximately 25% in S4.

Genital ligula ( Fig. 7 ). Second segment with very prominent inner fold that contains sclerotized hair-like structures on both sides. Lateral lamina of distal s2 starts at lateral ends of inner fold, widely framing distal part of s2 and forming apical lobe. Filamentous whip-like distal segment with ventrally directed process close to base. Process with sharp quadrate shape.

Caudal appendages ( Fig. 8 ). Appendages brown, small. Cercus biramous, both ends acute in lateral view, dorsal branch slightly hairy directed dorso-distal, inner branches point parallel aligned to ventral and hidden between paraproct bases. Paraproct longer than cercus, slightly hairy, triangular in lateral view with a steep acuminate dark brown-black tip directed dorso-distal; smallest side of triangle slightly concave. Paraprocts in lateral view pear-like with A and B smoothly convex, D = 51.7% of L – L’ length.

Measurements. AL 98.9; FWL 89.1; HWL 86.9.

Variation in paralectotypes. Antehumeral stripe sometimes very thin and straight. Black labrum of few males green-bluish in the transition to the anteclypeus. Pseudostigma in FW five cells long (four cells in two cases and six cells in three cases), in HW predominantly four cells long but also five cells. CuA forks between three and six times, MP bifurcates between 11–20 cells in FW and 12–19 cells in HW apart from wing margin (N = 17). Paraprocts always pear-like, but in one case B nearly straight (N = 10). Female pseudostigma covers 7–8 cells in FW and 5–9 cells in HW (N = 14), organized in two rows.

Measurements. ♂ AL 74.3–98.4, mean: 87.1±7.1, FWL 61.3–93.0, mean: 76.9±7.3 (N = 30). ♀ AL 67–87.8, mean: 79.7±6.0, FWL 61.9–74.7, mean: 68.8±4.0 (N = 14). Wings: ♂ width/length ratio FW 0.25±0.01, HW 0.25±0.01 (N = 17); blue band width at the costa FW 12.5±1.6, HW 13.0±1.4 (N = 17); ratio width of blue band/ wing length FW 0.17±0.02, HW 0.18±0.01 (N = 17).

Additional coloration in life: Eyes bicolored: dorsal half dark green almost turning black, ventrally light green. Ocelli dark yellow to light brown. Slight greenish coloration on the metepimerum, coxae and inner surface of femora.

Range. Megaloprepus latipennis occurs in the southern, tropical parts of Mexico, in particular in the Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve (Veracruz), Chiapas and Oaxaca, the northern parts of Guatemala such as the National Park Laguna Lachua (Coban, Alta Verapaz, close to Chiapas in Mexico) and the western Guatemala such as the Río Bravo region .

Figures

FIGURE 3. Megaloprepus latipennis color patterns: (a) lateral view of prothorax, pterothorax including mesostigmal plates, wing base and coxa; (b) dorsal view of prothorax. al: prothorax anterior lobe. pl: prothorax posterior lobe. mp: mesostigmal plates. cx1–3: coxae.

FIGURE 6. Left hindwings of the four Megaloprepus species. The metallic blue wing band proximal of the pseudostigma was integrated to visualize its variation, whereas the additional matte white band of M. caerulatus could not be pictured (but see Fig. 9). The scale bar indicates 1 cm.

FIGURE 7. Ventral and lateral views of the genital ligula of the four Megaloprepus species. M. caerulatus, M. latipennis and M. brevistigma show significant differences in the inner process of the third segment (s3), M. diaboli sp. nov. constitutes an intermediate position. The scale bar indicates 100 μm.

FIGURE 8. Lateral views of the male caudal appendices. The scale bar indicates 0.1 cm.