Austrogymnocnemia Esben-Petersen, 1917

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 : 73-74

Austrogymnocnemia Esben-Petersen, 1917

Ceratoleon Esben-Petersen, 1917 , new synonym.

Type species. Austrogymnocnemia : Gymnocnemia bipunctata Esben-Petersen, 1915 , by original designation. Nomenclatural gender: feminine.

Ceratoleon : Ceratoleon brevicornis Esben-Petersen, 1917 , by original designation. Nomenclatural gender: masculine.

Diagnosis. Proleg, tibia/tarsus length ratio <1.6; male, gonarcus anterior margin thinner than posterior in lateral view; female ectoproct without cavisetae; female lateral gonapophyses smaller than ectoproct and with few cavisetae; female, membranous digitiform process present.

Description. Head: Vertex strongly raised. Ocular usually absent. Antennae clubbed and elongate; flagellomeres almost as long as wide at base, apical ones slightly wider than long (except A. brevicornis ). Palpimacula opening oval-shaped, located medially. Miller’s organ present. Anterior Banksian line present in both wings, posterior present in the forewing (except secula species group). Forewing prefork area wider than posterior area. Hind wing with one presectoral crossvein. Male pilula axillaris present. Legs: Protibia longer than protarsi. Male Terminalia: Ectoproct posterior margin rounded; gonarcus with anterior margin thinner than posterior margin; paramere present. Female Terminalia: Ectoproct posterior margin rounded; lateral gonapophyses small and set with few thickened setae; posterior gonapophyses elongate; 9 th tergite with a membranous digitiform process.

Distribution ( Figs. 30 , 35 , 42 , 51 , 60 , 69 ). Australia: ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC, WA; New Caledonia *; Solomon Islands *. Widely distributed across Australia, including Tasmania.

Included species (21 spp.; in 3 species groups). bipunctata group (6 spp.; monophyletic): Austrogymnocnemia arcuata , A. bipunctata , A. forcipata , A. maculata , A. pallida , A. pseudomaculata sp. nov.; meteorica group (11 spp.; paraphyletic): Austrogymnocnemia berthoudi , A. brevicornis , A. ceciliae sp. nov., A. conspersa , A. diehli sp. nov., A. dissoluta , A. falsa , A. interrupta , A. lineata , A. meteorica , A. mjobergi ; secula group (4 spp.; monophyletic): Austrogymnocnemia mulesi , A. parviprocta , A. secula , A. tatarnici sp. nov.

Etymology. Austro - (from Latin austrinus, southern) + gymnocnemia (from Gymnocnemia , an antlion genusgroup name), in reference to the southern hemisphere distributions [ Australia] and earlier generic placements of its originally included species.

Comments. Esben-Petersen (1917) created Austrogymnocnemia to accommodate the Australian species previously placed in Gymnocnemia (now Nemoleontinae: Megistopini, sensu Machado et al. 2019). In the original description, Esben-Petersen defined the genus based on the following characters: body stout, antennae clavate, abdomen shorter than wings, hind wing shorter than forewing, Banksian line present, legs short and strongly haired, tarsi almost as long as tibia, tarsomere 5 the longest, and tibial spurs absent. Esben-Petersen included five species in the genus: G. bipunctata (type species), G. interrupta , G. maculata , G. pentagramma and G. tipularia (the last currently placed in Froggattisca ). After this initial paper, almost nothing was published about the genus until the taxonomic revision of New (1985b), in which 14 new species of Austrogymnocnemia were described, bringing the total number to 18 at the beginning of this study.

New (1985b) noted that Austrogymnocnemia species were very diverse and that the genus would probably require future modification. This idea was corroborated by the phylogenomic analysis of Machado et al. (2019), who recovered the genus as polyphyletic, and is further confirmed here. Based on the new morphological phylogenetic analysis presented here ( Fig. 4 ), we redefine and restrict the genus to a monophyletic assemblage of 21 species, which are grouped into three informal species groups.

The secula species group—a clade sister to the meteorica + bipunctata groups—contains four species: three previously placed in Glenoleon ( A. mulesi , A. parviprocta , A. secula ) and one new species ( A. tatarnici sp. nov.). The group is characterized by relatively slender species in which the pronotum and femur are elongate; the wings are thin and without posterior Banksian lines; the male mediuncus is long and acute; and the parameres are generally reduced.

The bipunctata species group—a clade separated out of the paraphyletic meteorica group—contains five species that were previously placed in Austrogymnocnemia ( A. arcuata , A. bipunctata , A. forcipata , A. maculata , A. pallida ) and one new species ( A. pseudomaculata sp. nov.). This group, which contains the type species of the genus, is close to Esben-Petersen’s original concept of the genus. Its species are stout and lack tibial spurs; the female posterior gonapophyses are recurved apically; the anterior margin of the male gonarcus is thin and down curved; and the parameres each bear an apical hook.

The meteorica species group—a paraphyletic assemblage comprised of several linages basal to the bipunctata group—contains two species previously classified in Austrogymnocnemia ( A. interrupta and A. lineata ), five species formerly placed in Glenoleon ( A. berthoudi , A. conspersa , A. dissoluta , A. falsa , and A. meteorica ), two species earlier assigned to Ceratoleon ( A. brevicornis and A. mjobergi ), and two new species ( A. ceciliae sp. nov. and A. diehli sp. nov.).

Ceratoleon was described by Esben-Petersen (1917), who based its description on the highly modified species C. brevicornis . Esben-Petersen noted that Ceratoleon was recognizable based on wing venation and, particularly, its short, thick, antennal form. He subsequently described (1923) a second Ceratoleon species, C. mjobergi , which lacked the distinctive antennae of C. brevicornis , and he modified the characterization of the genus to exclude the antennal form character. The principal character phylogenetically linking these two distinctive species (as in our morphological analysis) is the biareolate costal area of the forewing. This character, however, appears to be very plastic within Myrmeleontidae , having arisen independently many times in different lineages (see also comments for Glenoleon ). Interestingly, the phylogenomic analysis of Machado et al. (2019) did not recover these two species as monophyletic; C. brevicornis was placed as sister to A. meteorica , while C. mjobergi was sister to the bipunctata species group. But, because the phylogenetic analyses of both Machado et al. (2019) and the present work deeply nest both C. brevicornis and C. mjobergi within the clade recognized here as Austrogymnocnemia , Ceratoleon is here synonymized with Austrogymnocnemia .

Biology. Stange (2004) states that the larva of one species is known and is characterized by two mandibular teeth. However, the larva is not associated with any species, and it might not belong to a species that falls within the new circumscription of Austrogymnocnemia presented here. Nothing more is known about the biology of the group.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Strict consensus tree of morphology-based parsimony analysis of species belonging to the former subtribe Periclystina (ingroup, names in black), and outgroups (names in red). Former Glenoleon species are shown on blue branches, former Austrogymnocnemia species on green branches. Numbers above branches are Bremer support values; numbers below branches are bootstrap values (shown where>50%).

FIGURE 30. Distribution of Austrogymnocnemia species (part).

FIGURE 35. Distribution of Austrogymnocnemia bipunctata.

FIGURE 42. Distribution of Austrogymnocnemia species (part).

FIGURE 51. Distribution of Austrogymnocnemia species (part).

FIGURE 60. Distribution of Austrogymnocnemia species (part).

FIGURE 69. Distribution of Austrogymnocnemia species (part).