Phanoperla peniculus Kawai, 1968

Mason, Denise & Stark, Bill P., 2015, Notes On The Genus Phanoperla Banks From Sri Lanka And India (Plecoptera: Perlidae), Illiesia 11 (4), pp. 29-40 : 34-36

Phanoperla peniculus Kawai

( Figs. 13-20 )

Phanoperla peniculus Kawai 1968:115 .

Holotype ♂ (Limnologische Flussstation, Max-Planck-Instituts für Limnologie), Hogenakal Fall , Cauvery River, Madras, India

Phanoperla peniculus: Zwick, 1982a:106 . Redescription

Material examined. INDIA: Karnataka, Agumbe Ghats , 13 ° 29.386’N, 75 ° 04.537’E, 9 October 2004, light trap, G. Svenson, 33♂, 24♀ ( BYUC) . Same site, 11 October 2004, canopy light trap, G. Svenson, 24♂, 11♀ ( BYUC) . Same site, 10-11 May 2004, canopy light trap, G. Svenson, 1♂ ( BYUC) .

Adult habitus. General color pale with pale brown markings; color white in alcohol. Head with a small brown area between ocelli, a small, median, curved, brown marking is present on the anterior frons and lappets and antennae are pale brown ( Fig. 19 ). Pronotum with anterior, posterior and median sutures dark brown; disc with a narrow brown band along median suture and additional irregular brown markings on most of disc. Femora pale yellow-brown; tibiae pale brown. Wing membrane transparent; veins brown except C and Sc pale.

Putative Female. Forewing length 8-9 mm. Subgenital plate bilobed with U-shaped notch between lateral lobes ( Fig. 20 ). Sternum 8 relatively hairy; posterior margin and subgenital plate lobes with long setae; area anterior to subgenital plate bearing a thick patch of shorter setae. Sternum 9 with sparse setation; minute hairs present in a dense patch between projecting subgenital plate lobes.

Egg. Outline oval. Length ca. 300-310 μm, equatorial width ca. 250-265 μm ( Fig. 13 ). Collar short, ca. 12 μ long and ca. 72 μm wide ( Fig. 18 ). Anchor medusa-like with short tentacle-like processes in clusters around the margins ( Figs. 14, 17 ); hexagonal imprints visible in membrane of anchor Fig. 17 ), but globular bodies absent (perhaps removed during ultrasonic cleaning). Chorion covered throughout with large, ca. 8-9 μm diameter pores ( Figs. 13, 15 ), arranged in curved rows of ca. 15-16 pores between collar and base of lid; pores slightly smaller near collar and on lid. Micropyles not observed.

Comments. In addition to the holotype, Kawai’s (1968) type series of this species includes a male and female paratype from the type locality and a paratype male from Chiengmai Province, Thailand. Zwick (1982a) discovered the aedeagus was missing for the paratype from India, and that the Thai specimen represents an entirely different species, P. simplex Zwick 1982a . Zwick (1982a) also reported another male specimen from Bhadravati, Mysore, India, and stated Jewett’s (1975) records of this species from Assam, Thailand and Malaysia were in error. In the light trap material provided by the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum, Brigham Young University, this is the only Phanoperla species represented among more than 50 male specimens collected in the Agumbe Ghats of southern India. A single species is also represented among the female specimens in these samples and we consider it the probable true female for this species. Adult males and females correspond in the obscure color pattern available, in size, and the large sample size comprised of only one type of male and one type of female. Although these data are inconclusive they do support the association.

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Figures

Figs. 13-18. Putative Phanoperla peniculus egg. 13. Lateral aspect. 14. Collar end. 15. Equatorial chorionic detail. 16. Lid. 17. Anchor, oblique apical aspect. 18. Collar, lateral aspect.

Figs. 19-21. Phanoperla adult structures. 19. P. peniculus head and pronotum. 20. Putative P. peniculus female abdominal sterna 8-9. 21. P. testacea male abdominal sterna 7-9 showing ventral brush on sternum 7.