Heteropodagrion croizati Pérez-Gutiérrez & Montes-Fontalvo, 2011, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Pérez-Gutiérrez, León A.
name: Montes-Fontalvo, Jenilee M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Odonata
Megapodagrionidae
Heteropodagrion
Heteropodagrion croizati

description: Heteropodagrion croizati sp. nov.
Figures 1, 2a–k
Etymology. The species is named in honor of León Croizat, the father of panbiogeography.
Specimens examined. Holotype ɗ, COLOMBIA, Putumayo Dept., Mocoa, PNN [National Park] Churumbelos (1° 09´40.93´´ N 76° 39´49.13´´ W) alt. 1000m, 28 i 2010, L. A. Pérez & J. M. Montes (UARC). Paratype 3, same data (MIZA). Allotype Ψ, COLOMBIA: Putumayo, Mocoa, PNN Churumbelos alt. 1000m, 28 i 2010, L. A. Pérez (UARC).
Male holotype. Head (Fig. 2a): labrum white with distal margin black, anteclypeus white, postclypeus shining black, genae brown, mandibles caramel, frons shining black with two prominent lobes separated by a dark midline. Vertex black, postocular spots absent, occiput brown, shallow. Occipital margin with a sparse row of long hairs.
Prothorax (Fig. 2b): in dorsal view brown with pale sides, anterior lobe with anterior margin smooth. In lateral view propleuron dark with prominent lobes. Pterothorax: (Fig. 2c) largely brown with metepisternum and metepimeron pale. Mesostigmal plate without hairs. Middorsal carina brown. Mesepisternum with a complete narrow yellow antehumeral stripe. Mesinfraepisternum brown, becoming darker next to mesothoracic suture and reddish towards mesocoxa. Mesepimeron entirely brown. Metinfraepisternum pale. Metepisternum pale with a wide dark brown stripe on metapleural suture. Metepimeron largely pale, in ventral view venter of thorax completely yellow.
Legs: pro-, meso- and metacoxa reddish, metafemur (4.2mm) with inner row of 10 setiform spines, increasing in length toward tibia. Tibiae reddish externally, armed with 9 long setiform spurs. Tarsal claw with subapical tooth, inner tooth approximately half length of outer tooth.
Wings: hyaline, venation black, Pt magenta, slightly larger in Hw, covering more than two cells, proximal side oblique, petiolation reaching level of arculus. Two supplementary sectors between IR2- RP 3 and between RP 2- IR2.
Fw (27.2mm): (Fig. 2d): two complete Ax, 21 Px, IR2 arising little after subnodus, RP 2 arising between seventh and eighth Px, RP 3–4 arising little before subnodus; CUP close to first complete Ax. CUA arising close to second Ax; MA arising little after second Ax; IR1 arising close to ninth or tenth Px.
Hw (27mm) (Fig. 2e) two complete Ax, 19 Px, RP 2 arising between fifth and sixth Px, RP 3–4 arising before subnodus, IR2 arising a little after subnodus; IR1 arising at eighth Px.
Abdomen (35 mm, including appendages): abdominal segments largely brown, with basal pale ring in all segments. Dorsally, posterior margin of S10 medially recessed (Fig. 2f), cerci brown, in dorsal view slightly curved inwards, with rounded and slightly flattened tips, external margin armed with small spines, distal region with an excavation, in lateral view directed medio-ventrally and wide at base (Fig. 2f); paraprocts elongate, surpassing length of cercus, wide at base, with dorsal margin sclerotized and prominent, and with slender and rounded tips. In lateral view directed upwards (Fig. 2g).
Genital ligula: inner fold well developed; shaft sclerotized along middle region, armed with 10–15 short and thin spurs; apical segment membranous, tip slightly concave with bilobulate long trumpet-shaped extensions, surpassing middle region of ligula in lateral view (Fig. 2h, i).
Female allotype. Coloration and wing venation as in male. IR1 arising at eighth Px in FW, at seventh Px in HW. Gonapophyses in dorsal view with distinctive, pale, scarcely sclerotized region between end of S7 and anterior margin of S8; in lateral view tip of ovipositor not surpassing cercus, armed with minute spines ventrally (Fig. 2j, k); vulvar spine absent.
Variation. Male paratype as holotype but metafemur (3.8 mm) with inner row of 12 setiform spines, Fw with 23 Px, Hw with 17 Px.
Diagnosis. H. croizati can be distinguished from the other known species of the genus by the extremely long male paraprocts (Fig. 2f, g) and male genital ligula distally bilobulate, trumpet-shaped, and with laterally expanding distal lobes (Fig. 2. i, j). Other characters to diagnose this species are found in the wing venation; in Fw of H. sanquinipes and H. superbum there are two long supplementary sectors between RP 2 and IR2, while H. croizati has just one very short sector there.
A large series of Heteropodagrion identified as H. superbum (25 ɗ, 4 Ψ) from Risaralda Deparment. Tatamá, PNN [National Park] alt. 2000m, 15 vii 2010, Colombia, showed only a slight degree of curvature of the male cerci. However, Garrison et al. (2010) indicated that species resolution needs to be solved by studying intraspecific variability and species limits. They suggested that H. sanguinipes and H. superbum might be synonymous, as the differences they observed between type material of H. sanguinipes and H. superbum are encompassed within the range of variability in color, size, and especially cercal morphology of examined material of Heteropodagrion from various parts of Ecuador, Colombia, and Panama (R. W. Garrison, pers. comm. 2010).
Females of the genera Heteropodagrion, Dimeragrion, and Mesagrion share a membranous region dorsally between posterior margin of S7 and anterior border of S8 (Garrison et al., 2010); females of Heteropodagrion and Mesagrion are easy to differentiate by the characters of wing venation and the absence of notches on the prothoracic anterior lobe of Heteropodagrion. Abdominal color pattern of females of H. croizati is distinctive and separates it at once from its congeners: in Mesagrion there are distal yellow spots, more intense in immature females, which are absent in females of Heteropodagrion; in H. sanguinipes / superbum all abdominal segments have basal and distal dark rings, whereas in H. croizati all abdominal segments have a proximal pale ring only.
description: Published as part of Pérez-Gutiérrez, León A. & Montes-Fontalvo, Jenilee M., 2011, Heteropodagrion croizati sp. nov. (Odonata: Megapodagrionidae) with a key to the known species of the genus, pp. 63-68 in Zootaxa 2810 on pages 63-68, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.277128