Sphaeropsocopsis myrtleae Lienhard & Ashmole, 1999

Lienhard, Charles & Philip Ashmole, N., 2011, The Psocoptera (Insecta: Psocodea) of St Helena and Ascension Island (South Atlantic) with a new record from South Africa, Revue suisse de Zoologie 118 (3), pp. 423-449 : 436-438

Sphaeropsocopsis myrtleae Lienhard & Ashmole, 1999 Fig. 6

Sphaeropsocopsis myrtleae Lienhard & Ashmole, 1999: 907 ; description of female from St

Helena.

HOLOTYPE: MHNG, ♀, St Helena , Rupert's Battery Cave, 13-17.iii.1995, leg. N. P. & M. J. Ashmole, modified pitfall trap (" boot trap ") (sample 680 SH).

NEW MATERIAL: MHNG, 13 1♀, and BMNH , 1♀, St Helena , Rupert's Battery Cave, ca 50m, 25.xi-10.xii.2003, leg. N. P. & M. J. Ashmole, modified pitfall trap (" boot trap ") (sample 1835) .

DESCRIPTION OF MALE: Body and appendages white to yellowish, head capsule very light brown, only sclerotized parts of mandibles dark brown. General morphology as in female (see Lienhard & Ashmole, 1999 and Discussion below) but almost apterous, only small lobes of rudimentary forewings postero-laterally on mesothorax (Fig. 6f), hindwings absent. Maxillary palps lacking (broken), both antennae damaged. Large lateral sense club on labial palp as in female (see Fig. 6d). Legs relatively long (index T/V = 1.5). Epiproct, paraprocts and hypandrium simple. Phallosome as shown in Fig. 6e. Measurements (3 MHNG 7626, µm): BL = 1220; V = 250; F+tr = 304; T = 385; t1= 130; t2 = 39; t3 = 56.

DISCUSSION: Based on two of the three females known at present, the figure of the head (Fig. 6b) could be completed (see Lienhard & Ashmole, 1999: fig. 1, lacking maxillary palps and some setae) and figures of the sensilla of labial and maxillary palps could be made (Fig. 6c, d). Initially, the absence of subdivision of mesonotum into lobes was the main reason to assign the species to the genus Sphaeropsocopsis FIG. 6

Sphaeropsocopsis myrtleae Lienhard & Ashmole : (a) Habitus of female, dorsal view, antennae incomplete (scale bar: 0.5 mm). (b) Head, frontal view (reconstruction based on two slightly damaged females; pilosity of antennae and maxillary palps not shown). (c) P4 of maxillary palp, female (pilosity not shown, except for subapical sensory field of thin-walled sensilla). (d) Labial palp, female (pilosity not shown, except for thin-walled sensilla). (e) Phallosome. (f) Dorsal view of mesothorax with forewing rudiments, male.

Badonnel and not to Badonnelia Pearman (see Lienhard & Ashmole, 1999; erroneously mentioned as "mesothoracic sternites " in the Discussion on p. 909). The presence of an elongate fusiform P4 now confirms this assignment (P4 subcylindrical in Badonnelia ; see Badonnel, 1963). The newly discovered male also confirms the initial generic assignment and allows a better understanding of the origin of this island endemic. The morphology of the phallosome of S. myrtleae is very similar to that of the African species S. reisi Badonnel , known from Angola (see Badonnel, 1971: fig. 2). However, in S. reisi both sexes have well-developed pigmentation and hemispherically prominent eyes of 9 ommatidia. The female of S. reisi has elytriform, vaulted forewings reaching the tip of the abdomen and slightly enveloping it laterally ( Badonnel, 1971); each forewing bears four longitudinal veins. This type of elytriform forewing is characteristic for the family Sphaeropsocidae ( Mockford, 2009) . In S. myrtleae the forewings are reduced to short narrow membranous flaps, bearing only two longitudinal veins (Fig. 6a). The cave-dwelling S. myrtleae is the only blind (anophthalmic) psocid species known at present. Even in forms with reduced compound eyes, as certain species of Liposcelis , at least two ommatidia are always present ( Lienhard, 1998), except for the troglobitic Speleopsocus chimanta Lienhard (Prionoglarididae), recently discovered in a Venezuelan cave, which has only one minute ommatidium on each side of the head ( Lienhard et al., 2010). The epigaeic African ancestor of S. myrtleae probably colonised St Helena by air and became adapted to subterranean life after reaching the island ( Lienhard & Ashmole, 1999; see also Biogeographical discussion, below).

CAECILIUSIDAE