Calhypnorna sp. A

Evangelista, Dominic A., Chan, Kimberly, Kaplan, Kayla L., Wilson, Megan M. & Ware, Jessica L., 2015, The Blattodeas. s. (Insecta, Dictyoptera) of the Guiana Shield, ZooKeys 475, pp. 37-87 : 55-59

Taxon classification Animalia Blattodea Ectobiidae

Calhypnorna sp. A

Authors of the description.

Evangelista, Wilson, & Ware.

Materials.

Juvenile Figure 15.

Voucher number: DECBA1802.

GenBank accession number: KF155118.

Collection locale. CEIBA Biological Station, Madewini, Guyana.

GPS: 6°29'N, 58°13'W.

Collection date: 15 - August - 2012.

Collectors. Dominic A. Evangelista and William R. Kuhn.

Specimen information.

This specimen is stored in ethanol and is deposited in the Center for Biodiversity at the University of Guyana.

Identification and differential diagnosis.

We identified this specimen as Calhypnorna based on the following comparisons. Our specimen is not lacking an interocular carina as in Hypnornoides ( Rehn 1917). Our specimen also has a definitively truncate posterior margin of the pronotum (Figure 15B), which differentiates it from Euhypnorna (Hebard 1921). Our specimen is lacking the hairs covering most of the body as in Hypnorna (1893) and most closely matches the illustration of Calhypnorna by Saussure & Zehntner (1893).

Description.

The specimen is a juvenile that is likely in its penultimate instar. Overall, the body shape is elongated for a typical cockroach, and even for a typical Pseudophyllodromiinae. A large portion of the head is visible from a dorsal perspective, and reaches anteriorly past the pronotum significantly. The black coloration on the pronotum is the same width as the width of the head where it meets with the pronotal margin (Figure 15B).

Antennae are hirsute to nearly plumose. The antennae are slightly clubbed basally with the widest point occurring at first segment of the flagellum. There are two major color regions of the antennae: a dark basal region and a light distal region. The dark basal region begins as slightly lighter than the remainder but becomes a dark black color by the end of the dark region. The 25th segment of the antennae is the final dark segment. The 26th antennal segment begins the light region of the antennae. The 26th or 27th and subsequent segments are nearly white, becoming more brownish orange after the 7th white segment (33 total). The total number of antennal segments on the specimen is 38 (left) and 44 (right).

The head is very large in relation to the remainder of the body, triangular, and wider than typical for a Pseudophyllodromiinae (Figure 15A). Inter-ocular space is sharply angled creating a carina that begins where the compound eye meets the antennae. The antennal pits are closer together than the eyes. Eyes are prominent and appear to bulge the head laterally. Facial grooves spanning from the posterior portion of the eye towards the mouthparts are prominent. Coloration on head is brown-orange overall with a slightly lighter, less brown, patch above and below the carina. Ocellar spots are either absent or not readily visible.

The pronotum is colored with a dark black region taking up the major two fifths of the medial area. The black area is opaque and reaches forward to the anterior margin but just stops short of completion in the posterior eighth of the segment. The black region is nearly rectangular, slightly rounded anteriorly and widened posteriorly (Figure 15B). Bordering the black region laterally and posteriorly are translucent regions colored brown-orange similar to the remainder of the body.

Meta- and meso-thoracic segments are both strongly lobed, presumably due to the developing wings within. Color is orange-brown overall with small amounts of black on the tips of the posterior pair of wing pads. Legs are light in color with a slight orange tinge overall. Dark regions are present on the medial side of the base of the fore-coxae.

The ventro-anterior margin of the fore-femur have five (right) or eight (left) large piliform spines basally followed by 27 (right) and 20 (left) shorter piliform spines, which are then each followed by one larger piliform spine and finally one large distal spine that is not piliform. Arolia are large and extend beyond the tips of the pretarsal claws on all legs. Claws are symmetrical and unspecialized.

Both the venter and dorsum of the abdomen is the same orange-brown color as the remainder of the body, but with a slightly redder tinge. Soft black color borders the abdomen laterally and posteriorly.

The dorsal abdomen is mostly glabrous. Hairs that are present are most dense laterally and on segments five and six. Ventral abdomen is glabrous as well, with fewer hairs than on the dorsal side and no regions with any dense pubescence. Supra-anal plate is unspecialized and broadly subtrapezoidal or triangular. Subgenital plate is broadly subtrapezoidal with the posterior margin being broader than that of the subgenital plate. The posterior margin of the subgenital plate is not perfectly uniform and conforms around two large styli. Styli are equal in length to the entire subgenital plate. Their width is equal to half of the length of the visible portion of the styli.

Genetic information and evolutionary placement.

Evangelista et al. (2014) recovers this sequence as being most closely related to a species reported as " Ectobiidae sp. 6" with 75% bootstrap support. This species is identified above as Chorisonuera inversa Hebard, 1926. Hebard hypothesized that these are closely related genera ( Hebard 1921a) and we can now say that genetic data supports this hypothesis. We cannot definitively say, however, that they are sister taxa because of incomplete phylogenetic sampling in this tree. Thus, we follow Hebard (1921a) and not Beccaloni (Beccaloni 2007) and consider this to be in the Psuedophylodromiinae.

Known geographical distribution of Calhypnorna.

Guyana (new record), Para Brazil, Bolivia and Panama.

Collection/ecological information.

This specimen was found crawling through a benab. The only individual of this species observed in the field was the one collected and described here. Given that our overall collecting effort was significant (>1000 individuals of Blattodea s.s.) and we only found a single individual of Calhypnorna sp. A, we consider this species to be quite rare.

Previous work ( Shelford 1912) has cited species of this genus as being beetle mimics. However, we observed no beetle model in the field that this species may have been mimicking. We did notice a similarity in body coloration of a wasp and Hemipteran sympatric with this conspicuously colored Blattodea (Figure 16).

Notes on historical records of this genus.

The genus Calhypnorna Saussure & Zehntner, 1893 was originally established as a subgenus of Hypnorna Stål, 1860. It was then given generic status by Kirby (1904). The genera Calhypnorna , Hypnorna , Hypnornoides Rehn, 1917 and Euhypnorna Hebard, 1921 are thought to be closely related (Hebard 1921). These are known from a number of regions (Para and Rio de Janiero Brazil, Bolivia and Panama) but there are no records from the Guiana Shield. Therefore, a new record of this species from the coastal rainforests of Guyana is geographically disjointed from all other records of these taxa. On this basis alone, we might distinguish this specimen as a new species. However, since our lone specimen is a juvenile, we have limited morphological basis for differentiating this from known taxa. We refrain from establishing this as new species until adult specimens can be found but we still give a synopsis of the biological traits of this specimen. This new record extends the potential range of Calhypnorna Saussure & Zehntner, 1893 and it has now been recorded from Para Brazil (south of Amazon), Bolivia, Panama, and Guyana (new record).