Dinotoperla cherylae, Theischinger & Mynott, 2019

Theischinger, Gunther & Mynott, Julia H., 2019, A new species of Dinotoperla Tillyard, 1921 from the Shoalhaven Catchment, New South Wales, Australia (Plecoptera: Gripopterygidae), Zootaxa 4550 (3), pp. 423-427 : 424-427

Dinotoperla cherylae sp. nov.

( Figs. 2–5 , 8–10 )

A rather small Dinotoperla species, the male with a rather inconspicuous colour pattern on the head and thorax, and the terminalia similar to D. uniformis and D. evansi Kimmins , 1 951 but paraprocts slenderer and epiproct not bowed and with distinct gap between the apical and subapical tooth.

Holotype. ♂, Australia, New South Wales, Shoalhaven Catchment, Upper Kangaroo River , 34.672998 o S / 150.601391 o E, 14-Dec-2017), G. Theischinger & J. Martin, DcKaV; in Australian Museum; GenBank: MK 142266 .

Paratypes. 2 ♀♀, 3 larvae, same data as holotype ; 1 ♂, Kangaroo River @ Upper Kangaroo, 3-Oct-2017, collector unknown, DcKV; GenBank accession number: MK 142265 . 1 ♂, New South Wales, Shoalhaven Catchment , Sugarloaf Creek off Misty Mountain Rd, 35.56305 o S / 150.00996 o E, 1-Oct-2017), Z. Billingham & G. Theischinger; all in Australian Museum ; 2 larvae, Gloucester River at Gloucester Tops campground, 32.0582 o S / 151.6841 o E, 20-Nov-2012, J. Mynott & D. Black; in Australian National Insect Collection ANIC 0 8 0 0 1805 (JMH1462, GenBank: KY078101 ) and ANIC 0 8 0 0 1806 (JMH1658, GenBank: KY078116 ) .

Etymology. The specific epithet is the genitive of the Latinized name Cheryl, representing a dedication to Cheryl Tang who brought this species to the attention of the senior author.

Description of the holotype. Measurements (mm). Body 5.0; forewing 7.2; antennae 7.0.

Head. Dorsally and antennae largely greyish brown, otherwise yellowish grey.

Thorax. Dorsally and laterally largely greyish brown, ventrally yellowish grey to greyish brown; pronotum anteriorly and medially, prescutum of meso- and metanotum and a thin mid-line of mesonotum dull to greyish yellow. Legs largely greyish yellow to pale yellowish brown, apical portion of femora, and basal portion of tibiae markedly darker, up to brownish black.

Wings. Faintly suffused with pale greyish; squarish darker blotches around most cross-veins, particularly in apical half of forewing.

Abdomen. Very pale greyish brown. Terminalia with central sclerite of tergite X short with tip rounded, sclerotized, not produced into a membranous cone; epiproct simple, rather straight, with distinct gap between the more acutely pointed larger apical and a shorter, less acutely pointed subapical tooth; paraprocts with base wide and lobe narrow, largely almost parallel sided; cerci 10–11 segmented, the basal segment almost twice as long as wide, the next two segments shorter than wide and the remaining segments slightly longer than wide to up to four times as long as wide.

Variability. The paratype males closely agree with the holotype. Their forewings measure between 7.0 and 7.5 mm.

Description of female. Head, thorax, wing and abdomen. Much as in male. Terminalia with subgenital plate (of immature specimens) evenly rounded; paraproct lobe narrowly trapezoidal with rounded tip; posterior margin of segment X widely and evenly rounded.

Measurements (mm). Body 4.0–5.0; forewing 8.4–8.6.

Larva. The larva is described in detail and keyed out in Mynott et al. (2017), only key characters are given as follows:

From mainland eastern Australia; wingpads developed or developing; pronotum with hind corners not produced; meso- and metanotum without tubercles or mid-dorsal hump; dense and obvious fringe of setae not on all margins of pronotum; hind margin of tergite X with fringe of obvious long robust setae; tergite surfaces and/or hind margins with scattered or medially restricted long robust setae; dorsal colour light brown to pale; tergite X with pale patches near off-centre hind margin.

Figs. 8–10 show larval details of a mature female larva from the type locality

Affinities and diagnosis. Dinotoperla cherylae ( Figs. 1–4 ), D. evansi Kimmins, 1951 ( Fig. 5 ), known only from southeastern South Australia and D. uniformis ( Fig. 6 ), ranging from southeastern Queensland across eastern New South Wales to Victoria, are the only three Dinotoperla species known that do not have the male central sclerite of tergite X produced into a membranous cone. The male of D. cherylae can be distinguished from both above similar congeners by the markedly slimmer lobe of the paraprocts and by the rather straight epiproct with distinct gap between the more acutely pointed larger apical and the shorter, less acutely pointed subapical tooth versus a strongly bowed epiproct with apical and subapical tooth very close to each other in both D. uniformis and D. evansi .

Habitat and distribution. The available material of D. cherylae was collected from the bank of boulder dominated riffles in eastern New South Wales, where the species is now known between latitudes 30 o S and 35.6 o S. At the type locality D. cherylae was found to coexist with D. dolichoprocta Theischinger, 1982 .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Neighbour-joining tree of COI5’ fragment using Tamura-Nei model of evolution, pairwise deletion, homogeneous lineage and 2000 bootstrap pseudoreplicates. Values below 75 are not shown on tree.

FIGURES 2–7. Dinotoperla spp., ♂: (2–5) D. cherylae sp. nov.: (2) habitus (hind wings shrivelled); (3, 4) terminalia, lateral, two different specimens; (5) tip of abdomen, dorsal; (6, 7) terminalia, lateral, from Theischinger & Cardale (1987): (6) D. evansi Kimmins; (7) D. uniformis Kimmins.

FIGURES 8–10. Dinotoperla cherylae sp. nov., mature female larva.