Anacroneuria pichincha Stark & Kondratieff, 2012

Stark, Bill P., Kondratieff, Boris C. & Gill, Brian, 2012, New Species And Records Of Anacroneuria (Plecoptera: Perlidae) From Ecuador And Paraguay, Illiesia 8 (6), pp. 78-93 : 87-88

Anacroneuria pichincha Stark & Kondratieff sp. n.

( Figs. 24-28 )

Material examined. Holotype ♂, Ecuador, Pichincha, Santo Domingo de Los Colorados , 500 m, 3-8 April 1971, B. Malkin ( CASC).

Adult habitus. General color yellow-brown patterned with dark brown. Head with a quadrangular area covering ocellar area forward to about mid-frons; pigmented area with a slight anteromedian notch ( Fig. 24 ); lappets pale brown, antennae brown. Pronotum dark over much of disk but pale along median suture, anterolateral margins and bearing a few small, pale rugosities. Femora pale brown except for narrow, dark knee band; tibiae pale except for small dark bands at base and near apex. Wing membrane dark amber with darker veins; R-vein particularly dark in basal half.

Male. Forewing length 10.5 mm. Apical section of aedeagus indistinctly trilobed with narrow median lobe projecting well beyond lateral, somewhat bulging shoulders ( Figs. 26, 28 ); entire apical area covered by large ventral membranous lobes; shoulders with short dorsal ridges extending inwards toward bases of median, finger-like lobe. Body of aedeagus constricted near apical third, but with low lateral bulges projecting over bases of hooks; tips of hooks narrowly truncate. Lateral lobes of aedeagal apex project away from aedeagal body in ear-like fashion ( Fig. 27 ). Abdominal sternum 9 bears a thimble shaped hammer ( Fig. 25 ).

Female. Unknown.

Larva. Unknown.

Etymology. The species name, used as a noun in apposition, is based on the type locality.

Diagnosis. Aedeagal morphology places this species near A. curiosa Stark 1998 , a Mesoamerican species, and A. cosnipata Stark & Sivec 1998 , a species known from several Peruvian sites. The latter species bears a broad, dorsomedian, mesa-like structure on the aedeagus, and the median lobe on the aedeagal apex is wider than in the new species (see Stark & Sivec 1998, Figs. 53-55). Neither of these related species has the aedeagus strongly constricted proximal to the apical section, neither have the hooks blunt at the tips and neither shares the distinctive color pattern of A. pichincha .

Figures

Figs. 24-28. Anacroneuria pichincha male structures. 24. Head and pronotum. 25. Abdominal sternum 9. 26. Aedeagus, ventral. 27. Aedeagus, lateral. 28. Aedeagus, dorsal.