Fusoleon New, 1985

Machado, Renato Jose Pires & Oswald, John David, 2020, Morphological phylogeny and taxonomic revision of the former antlion subtribe Periclystina (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae: Dendroleontinae), Zootaxa 4796 (1), pp. 1-322 : 61

Fusoleon New, 1985

Type species. Fusoleon stigmatus New, 1985 , by original designation. Nomenclatural gender: masculine.

Diagnosis. Profemur swollen, much wider than tibia; protibial spurs strongly arched and reaching apex of T4; tibial spurs of same length on all legs; female ventromedial plate present.

Description. Head: Vertex not strongly raised. Ocular setae present. Antennae clubbed and elongate; flagellomeres almost as long as wide at base, apical ones much wider than long. Palpimacula opening oval-shaped, located medially. Thorax: Pronotum about as long as wide. Miller’s organ absent. Wings: rather narrow, with tip acute; Banksian lines absent. Forewing CuA fork located slightly beyond RP origin; three presectoral crossveins; some distal subcostal veinlets forked. Hind wing MP fork located slightly beyond RP origin; one or two presectoral crossvein. Male pilula axillaris present. Legs: Proleg short and stout, especially the swollen femur, much broader than remaining segments; femoral sense hair as long as femur; tibia slightly longer than tarsi; tibial spurs strongly arched and reaching T4 apex; sense hair as long as femur. Tibial spurs of same length in all legs. T5 about as long as T1–T4 combined. Pretarsal claws much shorter than T5 length. Male Terminalia: Ectoproct posterior margin rounded; gonarcus simple, thin, and arched. Female Terminalia: Ectoproct and lateral gonapophyses set with cavisetae; posterior gonapophyses short; anterior gonapophyses absent; 9 th tergite without membranous digitiform process; Ventral membrane ventromedial plate setose; pregenital plate small.

Distribution ( Fig. 19 ). Australia: NSW*, NT, WA. Known from sparse records across mainland Australia.

Included species (1 sp.). Fusoleon stigmatus .

Biology. Unknown.

Etymology. Fuso - (from Latin fusus, poured or cast, here in the sense of ‘fused’) + - leon (from Greek leon, lion; a traditional antlion genus-group name ending), in allusion to the midventral plate of the female terminalic complex (interpreted as the fused anterior gonapophyses) of its type species.

Comments. Fusoleon was recovered as paraphyletic by Machado et al. (2019), but the specimen treated as “ Fusoleon sp.” by the authors is here placed in the new genus Latileon gen. nov., making Fusoleon monophyletic. Fusoleon as recognized here contains only one species, F. stigmatus . The genus shares with Latileon the swollen profemur and the elongate and strongly arched tibial spurs. Latileon species, which appear to be smaller, paler, versions of Fusoleon , lack the ventromedial plate in the female terminalia. Fusoleon appears to be phylogenetically closer to Anomaloplectron (see Machado et al. 2019) than to Latileon , and the shape of the proleg seems to be the primary similarity between the first two genera. However, Anomaloplectron can be distinguished by the different lengths of its tibial spurs and its elongate female posterior gonapophyses.

Figures

FIGURE 19. Distribution of Franzenia, Fusoleon and Latileon species.