Protonemura villosa Ham & Lee 1999

Murányi, Dávid & Park, Sun Jae, 2011, Contribution To The Fall Stonefly (Plecoptera) Fauna Of Korea, Illiesia 7 (6), pp. 70-85 : 72-75

Protonemura villosa Ham & Lee 1999

( Figs. 3-19 , 29 )

Protonemura villosa Ham & Lee 1999 — Ham & Lee 1999:122. (original description of the male and larva from Republic of Korea).

Material examined. REPUBLIC OF KOREA: Jeollanam Province, Gurye-gun, Jiri Mts., Mt. Nogodan , at Nogodan shelter, brook in bamboomixed deciduous forest, 1350m, N35°17.740’ E127°31.574’, 15.09.2010, leg. Tae Woo Kim, D á vid Mur á nyi: 2♂ 2♀ (one female used for drawings Figs. 9-11 ), 6 larvae (one matured female used for drawings Figs. 18-19 , another matured female used for SEMs Figs. 12-17 ) ; Jeollanam Province, Guryegun, Jiri Mts., Mt. Nogodan , beneath Nogodan shelter, rocky stream in deciduous forest, 1280m, N35°17.738’ E127°31.430’, 15.09.2010, leg. Hye Woo Byeon, Tae Woo Kim, D á vid Mur á nyi: 1♂ (used for drawings Figs. 3-8 ) .

Male terminalia ( Figs. 3-8 ). Hypoproct rounded, longer than wide, tip shorter than the vesicle. Vesicle three times as long as wide. Inner paraproctal lobe small. Median lobe with large, rounded base and long, dark blade-shaped expansion that is curving outward, membranous part hardly separated. Outer lobe strongly sclerotized in its curved basal half, apical part weakly sclerotized and globular at the apex; the lobe bears an outward directed spine at the end of the strongly sclerotized section, and 8-9 strong spines arranged in a row on the inner part of the apex. Terga VII-IX dark coloured in their anterior and posterior medial part, and bearing numerous black spines posteriorly; tergite IX emarginated posterio-medially. Tergite X with a strongly sclerotized, curved medial arch in the anterior margin, delimiting a medial membranous field reaching beyond the apical part of the epiproct; the tergite bears numerous black spines in two diverging longitudinal stripes, originating from the anterior arch. Epiproct stout, its sides nearly parallel in dorsal view, ending in an upcurved tip with a small, sometimes barely visible bifid terminal filament. Before the upcurved apex, a conspicuous hump present in the dorsal midline. Lateral sclerite thin, forming a U-shaped ring above the large and wide ventral sclerite. Ventral sclerite half as long as the epiproct, but nearly as wide as its length, sides parallel; apical end V-shaped, bulging and with numerous moderately long spines in the apical fourth of the sclerite. Sides of the sclerite upturned before the apical bulge. Cerci short, normal.

Female genitalia ( Figs. 9-11 ). Pregenital plate large but pale, rounded. Subgenital plate large slightly rounded and without indentation, brown coloured. Vaginal lobes large and rounded, extending nearly over all of the segment’ s width. Internal genital sclerites are forming a large plate beneath the origin of the vaginal lobes; this plate ends before the posterior end of pregenital plate. Besides this plate, an elongated, sclerotized ring can be seen below the spermatheca, and two pale, elongated and pointed plates at the genital opening.

Mature larva ( Figs. 12-19 ). Body relatively slender, body length 7.0– 8.5 mm. General colour brown, with dark brown pattern on head and thorax. Pilosity distinct. Head stout, brown with dark patches. The pronotum subtrapezoidal with distinct granules and rounded corners; slightly narrowing towards the posterior margin and its length is three fourth of its maximum width. Cervical gills simple, bald, and relatively long. Wing pads of typical length for macropterous species, meso- and metanotum with marmorated dark brown pattern. Legs typical of the genus, tibia slightly longer than femur; width of hind femur less than one third of its length. Abdomen relatively slender and uniformly brown coloured, integument light and matt, first 4 abdominal segments divided by pleura. Genital opening well visible on the mature female larva, and placed under the anterior half of sternite VIII; paraprocts not pointed. Terminalia of the mature male larva unknown. Cercus long, with more than 30 segments; segment sides nearly parallel, the width of segments 14–16 is half of their length.

Pilosity: Head with dense, stout bristles and thin hairs; eye bear small setae between the ocelli. Antennal segments with short pilosity. Pronotum with dense, stout and blunt bristles, and thin hairs. Margin of the pronotum bearing blunt bristles, the length of the longest less than 1/15 of the pronotum width. The bristles on the anterior corners of the meso- and metanotum are as long as the marginal bristles of the pronotum. The setae placed in lines on the wing pads are relatively long and acute. Legs with dense setation. All femora bear both short and long, acute bristles and thin hairs. Long bristles occur mostly on the outer surface; on hind femur they are placed in the apical half. Bristles not in a regular arrangement; the longest ones reach two fifths of the femur’s width on the first, one third on the hind leg. A bald median line is conspicuous on the dorsal surface of all femora and is covered with rounded scales. Tarsi relatively slender, covered with thin hairs and bristles; apical spikes of tibiae short. Tergal segments with blunt bristles and thin hairs, acute spines occur only in the row of the posterior margin. Paired spines on the posterior margin acute, moderately long; on tergite V they reach less than one third of the segment’s length. Distal margin with tiny triangular spikes around the row of bristles. Cercal segments with acute bristles, a few blunt ones occur only in the apical whorl. The apical whorl on segments 14-16 is a set of 13–15 strong, acute spikes mixed with short, blunt spikes and thin setae. Longest bristles reach half of the segment’s length on segments 14–16.

Affinities. In the original description, the male was compared to P. hotakana ( Uéno 1931) as its closest relative. However, the upturned apex of the epiproct clearly indicates that the species belongs to the P. towadensis group sensu Shimizu (1998), instead of the P. hotakana group sensu Shimizu (1998). The male differs from all the three other members of the group ( P. towadensis ( Kawai 1954) , P. kohnoae Shimizu 1997 and P. ermolenkoi Zhiltzova 1982 ) with the hump in the dorsal midline of the epiproct, wide ventral sclerite of the epiproct with spines arranged only in its apical fourth, and the long blade-shaped expansion of the median paraproct lobe. The subgenital plate of the female is distinctive lacking an anterior emargination. The shape of the subgenital plate has been shown to be variable in related groups ( Shimizu 1998). As no additional Far Eastern Protonemura larvae have been described, its distinctive characters cannot be discussed.

Notes. Protonemura villosa is the only species of the genus reported from Korea ( Stark 2010, Zwick 2010). During our tour we found young larvae of an additional species both in the Seorak and the Deokyu Mts.

Geographical distribution and ecology ( Fig. 29 ). The species was known only from the type material from Jeollanam Province, where the species was collected from May to October ( Ham & Lee 1999). Our specimens were found in the same province at two different sections of a forest stream. The upper section (type locality of Scopura jiri Jin & Bae 2005 ) has moderately fast flow and stony substrate mixed with sandy patches, while the lower section has fast flow and rocky-stony substrate with few sandy patches. Specimens were found in common with seven additional taxa ( Table 1 ).

Figures

Figs. 3-11. Terminalia of the adult of Protonemura villosa Ham & Lee 1999. 3: male terminalia, ventral view; 4: male terminalia, dorsal view; 5: male terminalia, lateral view; 6: male epiproct, lateral view; 7: male epiproct, dorsal view; 8: male paraproct, ventrolateral view; 9: female pregenital and subgenital plates, and vaginal lobes, ventral view; 10: female pregenital and subgenital plates, and vaginal lobes, lateral view; 11: female internal genital sclerites, dorsal view (scale a 0.5 mm (for Figs. 3-5, 9-10), scales b-c 0.1 mm (b for Figs. 6-8)).

Figs. 12-17. Larva of Protonemura villosa Ham & Lee 1999. 12: pronotum; 13: hind femur; 14: outer apical part of the femur; 15: 5th tergal segment; 16: basal segments of the cercus; 17: 15-16th segment of the cercus (scales 0.1 mm).

Figs. 18-19. Larva of Protonemura villosa Ham & Lee, 1999. 18: mature female, terminalia, ventral view; 19: left gills, ventral view (scale 0.5 mm).

Figs. 27-29. Type locality of Nemoura aquila Murányi and the distribution of the Korean endemics included in this paper. 27: type locality: Seorak Mts., Hangae-ryeong Pass; 28: substrate of the type locality brook; 29: known occurrences of Protonemura villosa Ham & Lee 1999 (■), Despaxia asiatica Zwick 2010 and N. aquila Murányi (○), and D. asiatica (●) (dark grey areas are above 500 m).