Megaloprepus diaboli Feindt & Hadrys, 2022

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 : 491-493

Megaloprepus diaboli Feindt & Hadrys sp. nov.

( Figures 2 , 6 , 7 , 8 )

Specimens examined. (56 specimens: 1 male holotype, 55 paratypes).

Holotype. 1♂, Costa Rica, Peninsula de Osa , Corcovado National Park, N 8°28’55.62” W 83°35’13.92”, 60 m, xii. 2011, leg. W. Feindt.

Paratypes. Costa Rica, Peninsula de Osa, Corcovado National Park : 5♂♂ 5♀♀, N 8°28’53.52” W 83°35’15.72”, 43 – 84 m, xii. 2011 and iv. 2012, leg. W. Feindt ; 1♂, N 8°30’5.06” W 83°35’23.36”, 50 m, iv. 1995, leg. L.D. Gomez (INBio) ; 1♂ 1♀, N 8°33’18.68” W 83°29’41.96”, 50–345 m, iii. 1996, leg. L. Angulo (INBio: INBIOCRI002540295); Laguna Corcovado : 2♂♂, N 8°28’48.62” W 83°35’28.64”, 1 – 100 m, xii. 1977, leg. D.H. Janzen (INBio: INBIOCRI001701902, INBIOCRI001701903) ; Sierpe : 1♀, N 8°40’44.75” W 83°34’00.17”, 200 – 300 m, v. 1988, leg. A. Solis (INBio: INBIOCRI001008793) ; Rancho Quemado : 1♂, N 8°40’44.75” W 83°34’00.17”, 200 m, x. 1993, leg. A. Gutiérrez (INBio: INB0004284807) .— Honduras, Atlantida Province, Pico Bonito National Park, Rio Cangrejal : 1♂, N 15°42’0” W 86°47’0’’, 490 m, ix. 2012, leg. R. Lehman (BIM) ; Atlantida Province, La Ceiba, C.U.R.L.A ( Centro Universitario Regional del Litoral Atlántico ) forest camp: 2♂♂ 3♀♀, N 15°42’45.71” W 86°51’1.66”, 248 m, 1994 – 1996, leg. R. Lehman (BIM) .— Guatemala, Izabal, Morales : 1♀, N 15°30’57.80” W 88°52’15.87”, 366 m, ix. 2010, leg. J. Monzón. — Panama: 9♂♂ 2♀♀ (RBINS: E. Selys Longchamps) ; Chiriqui: 9♂♂ 2♀♀ (RBINS: E. Selys Longchamps).— Central America : 7♂♂ 2♀♀, leg. Weicht (RBINS: E. Selys Longchamps).

Note. The holotype was deposited in the Odonata collection of the National Museum of Costa Rica and paratypes will be placed at the AMNH in New York.

Etymology. This species was named after the common name for damselflies in Latin America: ‘ Caballitos del Diablo ’. It was given in the hope to raise attention for Odonates and their highly endangered habitats in the Neotropics to support their conservation.

Description of the holotype. Head. Labium yellow becoming dark brown at the most anterior margin. Mandible base yellow to greenish turning into black towards anterior margin. Gena greenish yellow. Labrum, anteclypeus, postclypeus and frons shining black. Antennae black with a yellow ring around their base. Vertex and rear of the head black, ocelli dark yellow to brown-amber. Eyes in life bicolored, dorsally dark green turning almost black and ventrally green forming a line with the gena.

Thorax ( Fig. 2 ). Prothorax black. Anterior lobe contains additional small greenish yellow oval markings at both lateral ends, and a considerably larger oval central mark. Posterior lobe on both ends with yellow stripes and centrally a very small greenish yellow isosceles triangle with both sides of the triangle concave. Both anterior and posterior lobes smoothly rounded. Propleuron slightly convex with round to oval green coloration nearly covering it completely, distal margins broadly covered in light yellow spots ( Fig. 2a, b ). Pterothorax black. Yellow antehumeral stripe covering almost whole length of pterothorax, interrupted at distal-dorsal end of mesinfraepisternum; membranous area between posterior lobe of prothorax and mesostigmal plates with large greenish yellow mark appearing as extension of antehumeral stripe; lateral ends of mesostigmal plates somewhat pointed and with dark yellow spots; yellow stripe covering metepisternum also includes lower ventral proportion of mesepimeron and metastigma at its lowermost border, decreases in width towards wing bases between FW and HW; metepimerum yellow with a smaller green stripe. Venter yellow with pruinescence continuing through coxae. Coxae yellow-green with small dark brown markings. Remaining internal and dorsal side of legs black but inner surface of femora green; external side of tibiae dark yellow. Tarsi, spines and claws entirely black. Two rows of spines on femora and tibiae, centrally directed.

Wings ( Fig. 6 ) stalked, long and broad, with smoothly rounded wingtips (width/length ratio FW 0.23, HW 0.22); mostly hyaline except a gleaming metallic blue band (width at costa FW 14.7, HW 14.6; ratio width of blue stripe/wing length FW 0.18, HW 0.18) crossing last third of all four wings. Additional small, matte milky-white, rounded spots at wingtips, one between blue band and pseudostigma at anterior wing margin, other distal of blue band at posterior wing margin; venation black here. Pseudostigma dark blue and extends seven and six cells in FW and HW. Area basal of CuA broad, CuA forks five times, and secondary branching common. MP bifurcates 17 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 glossy metallic blue as ground color. Abdominal segments S1 – 4 with additional light green coloration and a variety of small yellow and light bluish spots as follows: in S1 and S2 entire lateral terga covered; in S3 and S4 ventral parts of tergites colored greenish-yellow, expanding in width to distal parts of segments.

Genital ligula ( Fig. 7 ). Second segment with very prominent inner fold, which 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 thickened proximally and contains ventrally directed process close to base. Process of quadrate shape but with rounded edges.

Caudal appendages ( Fig. 8 ) small. Cercus haired, black, 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, light brown or yellow-brown, triangular in lateral view with steeply, acuminate dark brown-black tip directed dorso-distal. Paraprocts in lateral view roughly triangular with A convex and B straight, D = 76% of L – L’ length.

Measurements. AL 92.8; FWL 81.2; HWL 80.6.

Variation in paratypes. Green coloration of mandible base can be more bluish green. Green coloration of propleuron always nearly rounded but size varies slightly. Greenish yellow central mark on posterior lobe of prothorax sometimes barely visible. Pseudostigma extends between four and seven cells in FW and HW. CuA forks between four and six times, MP bifurcates between 11 – 18 cells in FW and 11 – 20 cells in HW apart from wing margin (N = 10). Paraprocts always triangular, but A sometimes only smoothly convex (N = 8). Females as males except white dots at wingtips much more pronounced and brighter than in males. In addition, secondary wing veins in this area white, and antehumeral stripe nearly complete.

Measurements. ♂ AL 73–99.5, mean: 87.3±7.7, FWL 59–94.4, mean: 76.2±9.2 (N = 16). ♀ AL 66-89.5, mean: 80.1±7.0, FWL 56.5–79.3, mean: 69.1±6.8 (N = 12). Wings: ♂ width/length ratio FW 0.23±0.02, HW 0.23±0.02 (N = 10); blue band width at the costa FW 15.0±3.6, HW 14.1±3.3 (N = 10); ratio width of blue band/wing length FW 0.19±0.04, HW 0.19±0.04 (N = 10).

Range. Observed distributional range is old-growth rainforests of the Peninsula de Osa, the southern West Coast of Costa Rica, at the Atlantic Coast of Honduras, Atlántida Province (e.g. Pico Bonito National Park) and the Atlantic Coast of Guatemala between Morales and Puerto Barrios.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Megaloprepus diaboli sp. nov. 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.