Chlidonoptera Karsch, 1892

Moulin, Nicolas, 2020, A cryptic new species of Chlidonoptera Karsch, 1892 from the south west protected zone of the Central African Republic (Insecta, Mantodea, Hymenopodidae), ZooKeys 917, pp. 63-83 : 63

Chlidonoptera Karsch, 1892

Chlidonoptera : Karsch 1892: 68; Karsch 1892: 150; Karsch 1894: 278; Saussure 1898: 789; Kirby 1904: 292; Giglio-Tos 1927: 563; Beier 1934: 26; Beier 1964: 939; Roy 1964: 764; Roy 1965: 595; Ragge and Roy 1967: 634; Beier 1968: 6; Roy 1975: 163; Roy and Leston 1975: 329; Ehrmann 2002: 95; Otte and Spearman 2005: 86; Svenson et al. 2016: 6; Schwarz and Roy 2019: 151.

Type species.

Chlidonoptera vexillum Karsch, 1892.

Taxonomic history.

Fred Karsch created the genus Chlidonoptera in 1892 (p. 68) for two females specimen collected by Dr. P. Preuss in Cameroon, at Buea, C. vexillum Karsch, 1892. Karsch (1892: 150) cited C. vexillum from the collections of Dr P. Preuss in Cameroon, with a relatively detailed description of female types from Buea. In a new list of Mantodea collected by Dr P. Preuss in Cameroon, Karsch (1894: 278) for a third time cited the two females from Buea, with an illustration of a female at the end of the document. H. de Saussure created the genus Bomistria in 1898 (pg. 202) for a male specimen from Gabon, B. lunata Saussure, 1898. In 1900, Y. Sjöstedt (pg. 20) gave measurements for females of C. vexillum and males of B. lunata , without putting them in synonymy. The genus was then misspelled, ' Clidonoptera .' W.F. Kirby (1904: 292) continued to conserve the two species, C. vexillum and Bomistria lunata , with also a misspelling in the Sjöstedt citation, ' Chlinidonoptera .' F. Werner (1908: 52), making the point between Chlidonoptera vexillum and Bomistria lunata with supporting illustrations. But, in 1915, Giglio-Tos clarified the situation: B. lunata of Saussure is the male of C. vexillum and as the female B. lunata of F. Werner would be a new genus with a new species, Anabomistria werneri Giglio-Tos, 1915. The location of A. werneri was listed only as ‘Africa’ ( Giglio-Tos 1927: 563). In his great synthesis work, Genera Insectorum, Beier (1934: 26) listed C. vexillum and A. werneri with a description of their morphological features. He stated that A. werneri is from East Africa. Then, in 1964 (p. 939), he confirmed the locality of these species in Hymenopodidae and Hymenopodinae . That same year, R. Roy (1964) synthesised data about Mantodea from the Ivory Coast forest, wherein a new species of Chlidonoptera was described, C. chopardi (p. 764); the male genitalia of which were compared with those of C. vexillum . At the same time, the author reconsidered the genus Anabomestria and logically placed A. werneri in the genus Chlidonoptera . M. Beier (1968: 6, fig. 6b) illustrated the right forewing of A. werneri 's female but the taxonomic change of genus made by Roy four years earlier was not taken into account. Later, Chlidonoptera lestoni was described ( Roy and Leston 1975: 329) from Ghana. In that same work, C. chopardi was also cited. A comparison of the posterior process (pda) of the ventral phallomere was illustrated for C. chopardi , C. lestoni , and C. vexillum . It was assumed that C. lestoni was close to C. vexillum but distinct; this was not like that which D. Leston wrote in 1968. F. Lombardo (1997: 80) completed the description of C. werneri with a male specimen collected from Tanzania. Finally, R. Ehrmann (2002: 96) summarised all that was known about Chlidonoptera and D. Otte & L. Spearman did the same in 2005 (p 86).