Cryptophyllium parum (Liu, 1993) Cumming & Bank & Bresseel & Constant & Tirant & Dong & Sonet & Bradler, 2021

Cumming, Royce T., Bank, Sarah, Bresseel, Joachim, Constant, Je ́ ro ̂ me, Tirant, Stephane Le, Dong, Zhiwei, Sonet, Gontran & Bradler, Sven, 2021, Cryptophyllium, the hidden leaf insects - descriptions of a new leaf insect genus and thirteen species from the former celebicum species group (Phasmatodea, Phylliidae), ZooKeys 1018, pp. 1-179 : 1

Cryptophyllium parum (Liu, 1993) comb. nov. Figure 53

Material examined.

(1 ♀, 1 ♂): 1 ♂: "China: Hainan Island, Jianfengling Park: Tropical forest with saturated moisture at night, nymph found on 2m tall shrub: 13th July 2019 leg. Yingtong Wang." (Coll RC 19-156).

Photographic records: 1 ♀: “中国海南省乐东黎族自治县” (Ledong Li Autonomous County, Hainan Province, China) (iNaturalist user @chenhanlin) (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/34767801)

Remarks.

Cryptophyllium parum comb. nov. from Hainan Island, China is a little-known species with few records> to date (Fig. 53A ). Originally described from a male holotype only, we have since seen a few additional male records> and a few presumed female records> from photographs (Fig. 53E ). On Hainan island the only other presently known phylliid species is Phyllium (Pulchriphyllium) sinense Liu, 1990, therefore, the photographs of female Cryptophyllium gen. nov. we have seen from Hainan are likely the unknown Cryptophyllium parum comb. nov. female. We have not seen any additional records> of this species from the mainland which would represent a range expansion, instead we believe that this species is likely restricted to the island of Hainan. Interestingly, males of this small species with short to average length tegmina are molecularly sister species to Cryptophyllium oyae comb. nov. from the mainland, which is a rather large species with the longest tegmina presently known in the Cryptophyllium gen. nov. Females of both species also exhibit a striking size difference, with Cryptophyllium oyae comb. nov. rather large, and all records> we have seen of Cryptophyllium parum comb. nov. appearing to be rather small.

Differentiation.

The presumed females are morphologically similar to Cryptophyllium oyae comb. nov. and Cryptophyllium tibetense comb. nov. due to the prominent mesopleura which are broad and reach fully to the anterior margin of the prescutum and the overall boxy abdominal shape. Cryptophyllium parum comb. nov. can be differentiated from both by the serration of the mesopleura, as in Cryptophyllium parum comb. nov. the lateral margins only have granulation throughout the full length of even size, giving the lateral margins a rough textured appearance, vs. the other two species which have several prominent tubercles and smaller ones interspersed of differing sizes. In all the presumed female Cryptophyllium parum comb. nov. we have seen the profemoral exterior lobe shape was rather stable, nearly right angled, which is similar to certain forms of Cryptophyllium oyae comb. nov. which have rather variable exterior profemoral lobe shapes (see fig. 5 in Cumming and Le Tirant 2020 of the variable Cryptophyllium oyae comb. nov. lobes).

Males are most similar to Cryptophyllium bollensi sp. nov. due to the size, tegmina length, and wide profemoral exterior lobes with fine serration on the distal margin. These two species can be separated by the shape of the mesopleura as Cryptophyllium bollensi sp. nov. has mesopleura which are narrower on the anterior end and Cryptophyllium parum comb. nov. has broader mesopleura on the anterior end, much more similar to Cryptophyllium oyae comb. nov. mesopleura.

Distribution.

At present only known from a few localities on Hainan Island, China (Baisha Li Autonomous County and Ledong Li Autonomous County).

Figures

Figure 53. Cryptophyllium parum comb. nov. from Hainan A-D male which was used in our molecular analysis (Coll RC 19 - 156) from China: Hainan Island, leg. Yingtong Wang, photographs by RTC A habitus, dorsal B details of the head-thorax, dorsal C front leg details, dorsal D dorsolateral view E presumed female Cryptophyllium parum comb. nov. habitus, dorsal, from Ledong Li Autonomous County, Hainan Province, China, observed in December 2018 and uploaded to iNaturalist. com under the creative commons license (CC BY-NC 4.0) by user chenhanlin.