Epitenodera brevelytra ( Giglio-Tos, 1912 )

Schwarz, Christian J., Pohl, Marius & Frank, Erik T., 2023, A preliminary checklist of the praying mantids of Comoé National Park, Ivory Coast (Insecta: Mantodea), Zootaxa 5373 (1), pp. 1-64 : 51

Epitenodera brevelytra ( Giglio-Tos, 1912)

Figs. 174–175

Tenodera herbacea var. brevelytra Giglio-Tos, 1912: 52–53 .

Type locality. Sakjé , Cameroon .

Distribution. Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon ( Giglio-Tos 1912; Gillon & Roy 1968; Roy 2022).

Records. CSC: ♀, old camp, 24.X.2000, leg. juv. C. J. Schwarz.

Remarks. This species had been treated as Epitenodera brevipennis by Gillon & Roy (1968). The genus was recently revised by Roy (2022), who assigned the Lamto specimens recorded by Gillon & Roy (1968) to E. brevelytra . Our specimen fits the original description ( Saussure 1871b), the type housed in the MFN, and the redescription given by Roy (2022). This species differs from the putatively sympatric E. brevipennis by: smaller body size with an overall stouter body shape; the shorter pronotum (P/p 4.45–4.9 in males and 4.0–4.3 in females, as compared to 5.0–5.7 and 4.1–5.0 in E. brevipennis , respectively); comparatively longer tegmina in females, exceeding the supraanal plate in E. brevelytra while reaching the fifth tergite in E. brevipennis ; the costal field lacking the blackish stripe and the white costal stripe present in E. brevipennis ; and male genitalia ( Roy 2022). The second species of this genus recorded at Lamto, Epitenodera nimbana Roy, 1963 ( Gillon & Roy 1968), is distinguished from E. brevelytra by larger body size (up to 90 mm), a black spot on the anterior femora, wings exceeding the tip of abdomen in females, and different male genitalia ( Gillon & Roy 1968: Fig. 32 ; Roy 2022).

Figures

FIGURES 174–175. Epitenodera brevelytra (Giglio-Tos, 1912). Female. 174. Dorsal view. 175. Ventral view.

FIGURES 30–35. Amorphoscelis pulchra Bolívar, 1908. 30–31, 34. Female. 32–33, 35. Male from Ghana. 30, 32. Dorsal view. 31, 33, 35. Ventral view. 34. Anterior view of head. 35. Genitalia.