Suwallia jihuae Chen, 2019

Chen, Zhi-Teng, 2019, Review of the genus Suwallia (Plecoptera: Chloroperlidae) from China with description of Suwallia jihuae sp. nov. from Sichuan Province, Zootaxa 4603 (3), pp. 583-588 : 583-584

Suwallia jihuae Chen , sp. nov.

Figs. 2–3 .

Adult habitus ( Fig. 2 ). Triocellate. Body generally pale, with brown patterns. Head with a brown oval stigma

covering the ocelli and the anterior of head. Compound eyes dark, ocelli with dark margins. Antenna brown, with at least 16 segments. Pronotum rugose and dark brown; meso- and metanota with dark U-shaped marks. Wings hyaline, fringed with short hairs; veins brown; Rs of forewing forked; anal field of hindwing small and folded with three veins. Femur pale, tibia and tarsus dark brown. Tergum 1 to anterior of tergum 9 with a longitudinal median stripe. Cercus seven-segmented, covered with long bristles.

Male ( Figs. 2–3 ). Body length ca. 7.5 mm; forewings length ca. 7.5 mm, hindwings length ca. 6.5 mm. Tergum 10 divided, median portion with an invaginated dark sclerite, shape of the sclerite resembling the letter “H” from caudal view. Hemitergal processes strongly sclerotized, finger-shaped and curved forward. Epiproct reduced to two small membranous lobes. Posterior of sternum 9 extended backwards, forming an expanded subgenital plate. Aedeagus not everted.

Female. Unknown.

Type material. Holotype: male, China: Sichuan Province, Mianyang City, Pingwu County, Wanglang National Nature Reserve , Changbaigou River , 2464 m, 32.9264 N, 104.1359 E, 19 August 2016, leg. Chang-Hai Sun & Ji- Hua Xu ( ICJUST).

Etymology. The species is named for Dr. Ji-Hua Xu (NJAU), who collected and generously donated the specimen.

Remarks. Suwallia jihuae is most similar to S. wolongshana sharing comparable body color but can be distinguished in the male by the strongly sclerotized hemitergal processes, the dark pigmented tibia, and by the H-shaped median sclerite on tergum 10, a character unknown in other Suwallia species. The male of S. wolongshana has unsclerotized hemitergal processes, two longitudinal sclerotized bands on median portion of tergum 10 (see figs. 2, 3, 7 in Chen & Du 2015), and pale tibiae. The aedeagus of S. jihuae was not everted since only the holotype was available for study and eversion of the aedeagus is often problematic. However, the visible external characters, such as the color pattern combined with the sclerite of tergum 10 can easily distinguish S. jihuae from congeners known from East Asia.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Suwallia jihuae, sp. nov., holotype, male habitus. A. dorsal view; B. ventral view. Scale bars = 1.0 mm.

FIGURE 3. Suwallia jihuae, sp. nov., holotype, male terminalia. A. dorsal view; B. caudal view; C. drawings of caudal view. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.