Periclystus Gerstaecker, 1888

Machado, Renato Jose Pires & Oswald, John David, 2020, Morphological phylogeny and taxonomic revision of the former antlion subtribe Periclystina (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae: Dendroleontinae), Zootaxa 4796 (1), pp. 1-322 : 270

Periclystus Gerstaecker, 1888

Type species. Periclystus laceratus Gerstaecker, 1888 , by subsequent designation ( Esben-Petersen 1915). Banks (1941) incorrectly cited P. callipeplus as the type species. Nomenclatural gender: masculine.

Diagnosis. Thorax lustrous; wings broad, with numerous dark marks, tips falcate; forewing posterior area width almost 2x prefork area width; male paramere bifurcate apically; female posterior gonapophysis long, broad, with many cavisetae apically.

Description. Head: Vertex strongly raised. Ocular setae absent. Antennae clubbed and elongate; flagellomeres almost as long as wide at base, apical ones slightly wider than long, all segments set with short black setae. Palpimacula opening oval-shaped, located medially. Thorax: lustrous, not covered with microtrichia. Miller’s Organ absent. Wings: broad, with tip falcate. Membrane hyaline but with numerous dark marks, mainly at tip. Anterior Banksian line present in both wings, posterior absent. Forewing with four or five presectoral crossveins; subcostal veinlets simple; posterior area almost twice wider than prefork area. Hind wing MP fork located near RP origin; one presectoral crossvein. Male pilula axillaris present. Legs: Femur elongate,> 2.5x length of coxa. Tibial spurs extending to T2 apex. Pretarsal claws slightly shorter than half of T5 length. Sense hair absent. Male Terminalia: Gonarcus broad and arched; mediuncus large and fused with gonarcus; paramere broad with tip acute and furcated. Female Terminalia: Ectoproct and lateral gonapophyses without cavisetae; posterior gonapophyses broad, long with many cavisetae at apex; anterior gonapophyses as a small lobe covered with long setae; 9 th tergite with a broad membranous digitiform process; pregenital plate small.

Distribution ( Fig. 142 ). Australia: NSW, NT, QLD, SA, VIC, WA. Papua New Guinea: Central (province). Widespread across mainland Australia; one record from southeastern Papua New Guinea.

Included species (4 spp.). Periclystus aureolatus , P. circuiter , P. laceratus , P. vicinus .

Biology. Unknown.

Etymology. Probably Peri- (from Greek peri, near or around) + -clystus (from Greek klyster, syringe), in reference to the slender (unclubbed or weakly clubbed) antennae of its originally included species.

Comments. Periclystus contains four very distinctive species that are easily distinguished from all other antlions in the Periclystus genus group, primarily on the basis of their glossy body surfaces and long, boldly marked, falcate wings. Phylogenetically, Periclystus is monophyletic and sister to Riekoleon ( Fig. 4 ).

Figures

FIGURE 4. Strict consensus tree of morphology-based parsimony analysis of species belonging to the former subtribe Periclystina (ingroup, names in black), and outgroups (names in red). Former Glenoleon species are shown on blue branches, former Austrogymnocnemia species on green branches. Numbers above branches are Bremer support values; numbers below branches are bootstrap values (shown where>50%).

FIGURE 142. Distribution of Periclystus species.