Allocnemis vicki Dijkstra & Schütte, 2015

Dijkstra, Klaas-Douwe B., Kipping, Jens & Mézière, Nicolas, 2015, Sixty new dragonfly and damselfly species from Africa (Odonata), Odonatologica 44 (4), pp. 447-678 : 482

Allocnemis vicki Dijkstra & Schütte sp. nov. –

Blue-shouldered Yellowwing

(Type Photo 7, Photo 13, Fig. 4)

Taxonomy

Reported as Chlorocnemis pauli (Longfield, 1936) by Gambles (1975), but Dijkstra et al. (2014) sunk that genus in Allocnemis Selys, 1863 . Indeed belongs to the pauli -group of Allocnemis (see below), which also includes A. interrupta (Legrand, 1984) and A. wittei (Fraser, 1955) , and possibly A.eisentrauti (Pinhey, 1974) , although it is morphologically and genetically distinctive.

Material studied

Holotype ♂. Cameroon, Northwest Province, 12 km SW of Bamenda, Baba II , small stream in montane forest, 1800–1900 m a.s.l. (5.85°N 10.10°E), 29-v-2008, leg. K.- D.B. Dijkstra & K. Schütte, RMNH .

Further material. CAMEROON (Northwest Province): 7♂ ( RMNH.INS.229129 , RMNH.INS.500115 ), 2♀ (one in copula with holotype), as holotype, RMNH . CAMEROON (Southwest Province): 1♂, Kodmin, Serungwe River (4.9989°N 9.7011°E), 06-iv-2003, leg. & coll. G.S. Vick.

Genetics Two unique haplotypes (n = 2) fall within the variation of five (n = 8) of A. pauli from Angola, Gabon and Uganda; the two together nearest to A.interrupta and A. wittei . Male morphological diagnosis

Fairly large damselfly (Hw 22.0–23.0 mm; n =5) that belongs to the pauli - group by the combination of (a) the blue-marked head and thorax; (b) the anteriorly blue femora and tibiae; and (c) the orange abdomen tip, which as in its sister-species A. pauli covers the entire dorsum of the cerci and S9–10, with a dorso-apical spot on S8, although the latter can be absent in A. pauli ( Fig. 4). Differs by (1) the narrowly black-bordered blue rather than wholly black labrum, although A. pauli rarely has a blue central spot; (2) the almost completely blue mesepisterna, rather than with ante-humeral stripes that are about half as wide as mesepisternum; and (3) the paraprocts that extend as far as the tips of the cerci, rather than somewhat beyond ( Fig. 4).

Etymology

Named in honour of Graham S. Vick who made significant contributions to the knowledge of central African Odonata with his Cameroon Dragonfly Project (masculine singular genitive noun).

Range and ecology

Found to be common at a tiny stream overgrown by herbs in the forest remnant of Baba II near Bamenda ( Photo 13). Also collected at Kodmin in the Bakossi Mountains and from the Obudu Plateau in Nigeria ( Gambles 1975). Thus appears to be endemic to forest streamlets in the highlands of southwestern Cameroon and bordering Nigeria between 1 500 and 1 900 m a.s.l., a range and habitat almost identical to that of Africocypha centripunctata .