Megagonoleon cardaleae (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 : 201-204

Megagonoleon cardaleae (New, 1985) , new combination

( Figs. 99–101 )

http://zoobank.org/NomenclaturalActs/ C851207A-ED69-40F6-A138-E12ECA85B5AC

Austrogymnocnemia cardaleae New, 1985:22 (OD); New 1996:68 (cat); Stange 2004:98 (cat); Oswald 2018 (cat).

Diagnosis. Both wings with an apical longitudinal line; frons mostly pale, with dark marks; tibial spurs absent; female lateral gonapophysis about same size as ectoproct; female posterior gonapophysis without cavisetae; male paramere curved medially in lateral view.

Description. Lengths: forewing: 21–22 mm; hind wing: 19–20 mm.

Head ( Figs. 99 a–b): Labrum pale, set with a line of elongate setae. Clypeus pale, with few long and short black setae. Frons mostly pale except for a circling dark brown mark around each antennal base; covered by short black setae. Gena pale. Vertex raised; in anterior view pale with two short transverse dark marks laterally and a small central dark mark; in dorsal view mostly pale with two central perpendicular dark lines and two irregular dark marks posterolaterally; covered with short black setae and few pale setae posteriorly, sometimes the pale setae are more numerous. Ocular setae very short and black. Antennae clubbed; elongate,> 3x length of pronotum; distance between width; all segments dark brown with distal margin pale, except for few subapical flagellomeres with anterior surface entirely pale; torular membrane pale; flagellomeres almost as long as wide at base, apical ones much wider than long; all segments set with short black setae. Mandibles pale, with tip black. Palpi, maxillary and labial pale; covered with short black setae, apical labial palpomere fusiform, palpimacula opening oval-shaped, located medially.

Thorax ( Fig. 99b ): Pronotum as long as wide; posterior margin as wide as anterior; subapical furrow present; mostly pale with dark brown areas as follows: a longitudinal medial line “Y” shaped, two lateral longitudinal lines extending until furrow, two curved marks around midline at posterior margin, two small rounded marks at furrow; covered with pale setae. Mesonotum with prescutum mostly dark brown with two rounded pale spots; scutum mostly dark brown with irregular two large pale marks enclosing a small longitudinal dark line; scutellum mostly pale with a broad longitudinal medial dark brown line; all segments set with short pale setae. Metanotum mostly dark brown except for two rounded large pale areas at scutum around midline and posterior margin of scutellum; set with short pale setae. Pterothoracic pleura dark brown; covered with white setae; Miller’s organ present.

Wings ( Fig. 99c ): Rather narrow with tip acute; anterior Banksian line present in both wings, posterior absent; veins mostly pale, but some veins intercalated with brown spots, beset with short black setae. Male pilula axillaris present. Forewing membrane mostly hyaline with a longitudinal line surrounding the gradate crossveins at apical area; and some small brown shades at vein forks near posterior margin; pterostigma white; CuA fork located at RP origin; three presectoral crossveins; subcostal veinlets simple; posterior area about as wide as of prefork area. Hind wing membrane mostly hyaline except for a longitudinal line at apical area surrounding gradate veins (shorter than forewing line); MP fork located near RP origin; subcostal veinlets simple; one presectoral crossvein.

Legs ( Figs. 99 a–b): All pairs of legs, femur elongate (about two times longer than coxa); tibia slightly shorter than femur, but slightly longer than tarsi; tibial spurs absent; T3 and T4 about the same size, T2 slightly longer than T3, T1 about twice longer than T2 and T5 longer than T1; claws slightly longer than half of T5 length; coxa set with white setae; all other segments set with short black setae, and scattered longer setae at femur and tibia. Proleg sense hair absent; tibia with antennal cleaning setae ventroapically; coxa predominantly pale with dark brown marks at external surface, all other segments light brown except for apex of tibia and T5 dark brown, and two brown rings at tibia. Mesoleg with femur and tibia slightly longer than proleg. Metaleg with femur and tibia slightly longer than mesoleg; colour pattern equal to other legs.

Abdomen: Mostly dark brown except by posterior margin of sclerites, pleura, and terminalia pale; covered with short white setae and some black setae at distal segments.

Male Terminalia ( Figs. 100 a–c): Ectoproct posterior margin rounded in lateral view; set with elongate black setae. 9 th sternite short, with posterior margin straight in ventral view; set with elongate black setae. Gonarcus arched, with anterior margin broad and rounded, and with a small lateral prolongation in posterior view. Mediuncus very broad, with tip rounded, and ventral margin concave. Paramere in lateral view, thin and curved; in posterior view rounded and medially concave.

Female Terminalia ( Figs. 100 d–e): Ectoproct posterior margin rounded, set with thin elongate setae and some cavisetae ventrally. Lateral gonapophyses rounded, about same size as ectoproct, beset with cavisetae. 7 th sternite elongate, with distal margin straight in ventral view; covered with short black setae. 9 th tergite with few thickened setae ventrally in lateral view; membranous digitiform process absent. Pregenital plate large, concave in lateral view, rounded with posterior margin curved in ventral view. Posterior gonapophyses thin, slender, covered with black setae. Anterior gonapophyses absent. Ventral membrane gonapophyseal plates present.

Distribution ( Fig. 101 ). Australia: NT*, WA. Known from sparse records in central and western Australia.

Adult activity period. Records for September and October.

Biology. Unknown, larva unknown.

Name-bearing type. Austrogymnocnemia cardaleae : Holotype (by original designation), female, ANIC, examined. Type locality: Australia, Western Australia, 15 km E of Millstream (station). From original description: “ Holotype, ♀, Western Australia, 15 km E. Millstream, 20.x.1970 J. C. Cardale ( ANIC)”. Condition: good.

Additional material examined (2♂, 1♀). AUSTRALIA: Northern Territory: Kings Canyon : 19.ix.2005, R. Miller & L. Stange (1♂, FSCA, 1♂, 1♀, TAMU) .

Comments. Megagonoleon cardaleae is closely related to M. sarahae ( Fig. 4 ); both possess similar body colour patterns and longitudinal lines on the fore- and hind wings. However, M. cardaleae has more setae on the pronotum and head, a different frons colour pattern, darker antennae, and a distinctive male paramere.

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 99. Megagonoleon cardaleae: a) head, anterior; b) head and thorax, dorsal; c) wings, dorsal.

FIGURE 100. Megagonoleon cardaleae: male: a) terminalia, lateral; b) genitalia, lateral; c) genitalia, posterior; female: d) terminalia, lateral; e) 7th sternite and pregenital plate, ventral. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.

FIGURE 101. Distribution of Megagonoleon species (part).