Psyllipsocus angustipennis Lienhard, 2014

Lienhard, Charles & Ferreira, Rodrigo L., 2014, New species of Psyllipsocus from Brazilian caves (Psocodea: ‘ Psocoptera’: Psyllipsocidae), Revue suisse de Zoologie 121 (2), pp. 211-246 : 239-242

Psyllipsocus angustipennis Lienhard n. spec. Figs 16, 17AB

HOLOTYPE: ISLA; 3 (slide-mounted); BRAZIL ( MG), Itacarambi , Gruta Bonita cave, 19.iii.2003, leg. R. L. Ferreira.

PARATYPES: ISLA and MHNG, slide-mounted or in alcohol ; BRAZIL, leg. R. L. Ferreira, from the following municipalities. – 13, Itacarambi ( MG), Gruta Bonita cave , 19.iii.2003 (type locality). – 1♀ allotype and 1♀ lacking abdomen (value of IO /D same as for allotype, clearly higher than in male, thus this specimen considered as a female), Januária/ Itacarambi ( MG), Gruta Preguiça cave, 26.vii.2003 .

NON- TYPES: ISLA and MHNG, slide-mounted and some parts in alcohol; 23 , BRAZIL ( MT), Apiacás , Parque Nacional do Juruena , Casa de pedra do Navalha cave, 9.ix.2011, leg. R. L. Ferreira (see discussion below) .

DESCRIPTION: General colouration whitish to light brown, with some red-brown hypodermal pigment, especially around antennal base, laterally on postclypeus and as a longitudinal band laterally on thorax. Compound eyes black. Forewing with characteristic colour pattern (Fig. 16A), membrane hyaline (slightly tinged with brown in the FIG. 16

Psyllipsocus angustipennis Lienhard n. spec., female allotype (A, F-J) and female paratype (B-E) from Gruta Preguiça. (A) Forewing. (B) Hindwing. (C) Lacinial tip. (D) P2-P4 of maxillary palp. (E) P2-chaetotaxy. (F) Epiproct and right paraproct. (G) Subgenital plate and right ovipositor valvulae (the latter slightly deformed by slide mounting). (H) Left v 3 in normal position. (I) Part of spermathecal duct and basal part of spermathecal sac with feather-like sclerite. (J) Spermapore plate.

non-type males). Legs whitish, with a brown ventral patch subapically on femora and two brown transversal bands on tibiae (tibiae light brown and lacking transversal bands in the non-type males).

Both sexes macropterous. Forewing (Fig. 16A): Rs and M fused for a length; distal closed cell longer than marginal length of pterostigma but shorter than basal closed cell (bcc/dcc ≈ 1.3); first portion of pterostigmal R1 slightly longer than R1-Rs crossvein (about equal in length in the non-type males); AP relatively low. Hindwing (Fig. 16B): Basal portion of Rs not differentiated or very short, so R1 originating from R-M fusion or very slightly basally to it. Three ocelli present. Pilosity of frons and vertex almost uniform. Antennal flagellomeres with almost even surface, in basal half of antenna maximal length of flagellar hairs at most 2x greatest width of their flagellomeres. Pedicel lacking microspades organ. Maxillary palp as in Fig. 16D, P4 regularly rounded on internal side, P2 lacking stout sensillum (Fig. 16E). Lacinial tip as in Fig. 16C. Pretarsal claws simple, symmetrical, with a small preapical denticle; hind legs with well-developed coxal organ. Clunium, epiproct and paraproct simple in both sexes (Fig. 16F); the latter with a very long anal spine and a setal organ consisting of a short fine seta and a longer, somewhat thicker seta; paraproctal sensorium with 6 fine trichobothria on basal florets and one normal seta.

Hypandrium and phallosome as in Fig. 17A (holotype) and 17B (non-type); phallic cradle not clearly recognizable; phallosome compact, on each side with a group of 3 internal sense-pores (one pore of the holotype bearing a minute sense peg) and a slender anteriorly directed lateral lobe; basal struts short and posteriorly fused to median part of the phallosome, their anterior ends forming a pair of slender latero-basal extensions of the compact phallosome sclerite; posterior lobes of phallosome delimiting a median incision, these lobes broadly rounded in the holotype, somewhat slenderer and delimiting a clearly V-shaped incision in the two non-types.

Female genitalia (Fig. 16G-J): Subgenital plate simple, with some long fine setae on posterior margin; median axis of v1 and v2 well-sclerotized; spermapore plate as in Fig. 16J, weakly sclerotized; spermatheca thin-walled and elongate (slightly damaged by slide-mounting), lacking sclerotizations except for a weakly sclerotized slender rod near opening of duct (Fig. 16I) (similar in shape to the corresponding feather-like structure in P. proximus , see Fig. 17D). Several elongate and very fragile spermatophores observed in the spermatheca of the allotype, their shape not clearly recognizable, probably similar to the spermatophore shown in Fig. 17D for P. proximus .

MEASUREMENTS: Male holotype: BL = 1.3 mm; FW = 1540 µm; FWw = 480 µm; FW/FWw = 3.2; HW = 1270 µm; F = 250 µm; T = 520 µm; t1= 200 µm; t2 = 39 µm; t3 = 47 µm; IO/D = 0.9. – Female allotype: BL = 1.2 mm; FW = 1580 µm; FWw = 490 µm; FW/FWw = 3.2; hindwings and hindlegs damaged; IO/D = 1.25.

ETYMOLOGY: The specific epithet ( angustipennis , - is, - e) refers to the characteristic shape of the forewing (Latin: angustus – narrow; penna – wing).

DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT: The type material of P. angustipennis is known from two caves situated in the municipalities Januaria/Itacarambi ( MG). Two nontype males are also known from the very different Casa de pedra do Navalha cave ,

Apiacás (MT), which is situated about 1740 km from the type locality. P. angustipennis may be an euryecic species, or even a complex of more than one species (see discussion below). The huge distributional gap observed may be interpreted as a sampling artefact, since much of the area between was not sampled. All specimens were found on old bat guano piles.

DISCUSSION: P. angustipennis is very similar to P. proximus (see below); within the genus these species are characterized by their narrow forewings (FW/FWw> 3; this index ≤ 3 in Psyllipsocus species with normal wing shape) and the very distinctive structure of the phallosome. The two males from Apiacás are here considered as nontypes of P. angustipennis . They belong to a population that is geographically very distant from the typical population of P. angustipennis (see above) but close to the typical population of P. proximus from Apuí municipality (distance between the two localities in Apiacás and Apuí municipalities: 92 km). The male genitalia of these nontypes are somewhat intermediate between the types of the two species (see Fig. 17AB and F). However, the phallosome of P. proximus is characterized by a deeper V-shaped incision due to the presence of a pair of long and slender posterior prominences and by a pair of broad-based basal struts bearing a slender angulate anterior end. Though there is no doubt that the three populations are very closely related, we decided to assign provisionally the males from Apiacás to P. angustipennis and to consider the Apuí population as belonging to a species of its own. In addition to the above mentioned phallosome characters P. proximus differs also from P. angustipennis by its somewhat more extensive forewing pattern. In all specimens of P. angustipennis and P. proximus examined, compound eyes are clearly larger in relation to width of head capsule (IO/D 0.9-1.25) than in all other species treated in this study, which have values of IO/D varying between 1.3 and 2.0.

In P. angustipennis several spermatophores could be observed in the spermatheca of the allotype, this indicates that the species is polyandrous.