Shelfordina oxystyla Rentz, Field, Su 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Rentz, David Cf
name: Field, Ashley Raymond
name: Su, You Ning
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Blattodea
Ectobiidae
Shelfordina
Shelfordina oxystyla

description: Shelfordina oxystyla Rentz, Field, Su, sp. nov.
Figures 1A–D; 2A–E; 3A–E
Type material. Holotype male, Daintree Nat Park, Cape Tribulation Section, Survey Site 4675, 6-8 m, QLD. 13 December 2023. A. Field collector. Collected as nymph, matured in laboratory 29 January 2023. On epiphytic Phlegmariurus dalhousieanus growing from host Platycerium hillii in riparian mesophyll rainforest. ANIC database #9-006306”. Allotype female. Same data as for holotype.
Etymology. The species is named with reference to the sharp, antler-like accessory styles of the male subgenital plate.
Differential Diagnosis Shelfordina oxystyla sp. nov. can be easily distinguished from all other species in the genus by the following combination of characters: both sexes with distinctive colour patterns and markings on the antennae and cerci; males with distinctive genitalia including subgenital plate and concealed portions. Males with unique accessory styles on subgenital plate with minute true styles and elaborate, distinctive concealed genitalia.
Description. As for the generic description with the following additions. Overall colour light brown, not distinctive (Figs 1A, B). Head dark brown dorsally with several thin light brown stripes (Fig. 2B), the median stripe extending to slightly beyond antennal bases; frons brown, with or without 2 large faint spots (Fig. 2A). Antennae with scape and pedicel uniformly straw brown; basal ⅓ to ½ of flagellum similarly coloured, the distal portion darkened somewhat. Pronotum with disk with faint nearly indistinct markings, the lateral portion colourless, translucent (Figs 1A, B; 2B). Legs: Fore femur straw brown, with fore and middle tibiae with 3 dark brown spots dorsally, hind tibia with at least 3 dark spots and several much lighter brown marks at bases of spines. Coxae each with two prominent dark brown to black spots at base. Fore tibia type A 2 spinal pattern (Fig. 2C); claws not modified, arolium prominent. Thorax plain light brown, without markings. Tegmina and wings: Tegmen uniformly brown, without markings except for a short stripe at base; wing similarly coloured, highly translucent, except for prominent thickened, darkened diagonal subcostal veins (Figs 2E; 3A), these thickened apically; apical triangle rather indistinct, cut by a single vein. Abdomen dorsally with the lateral tergites rather distinctly marked (Figs 1B, C), male subgenital plate internally sparsely setose (Fig. 3E); styles faintly visible at base of accessory styles; accessory styles massive, antler-like, not bilaterally symmetrical. Other portions of genitalia complex (Figs 3B–D). Cercus black at base and tip; middle 3–4 segments white (Figs 3C, D).
Female slightly more robust than male (Fig. 1B). Tegmina and wings slightly surpassing apex of abdomen. Abdomen dorsally unmarked, except laterally, ventral surface laterally much darker; subgenital plate black except median portion light brown (Fig. 3C)
Measurements (in mm). Holotype male followed by allotype female in parentheses (). Length body 11.2 (11.1), pronotum length 2.2 (2.8), width 3.2 (3.5), tegmen 10.1(9.0), opened wing 9.0 (8.0).
Distribution. Known from one locality in the Cape Tribulation section of Daintree National Park, Qld, Australia.
Remarks While making observations of rainforest canopy epiphytes (11–16 December 2024), one of us (ARF) observed multiple nymphs of S. oxystyla feeding at night on spores and sporangia of Phlegmariurus dalhousieanus (Lycopodiaceae), the Critically Endangered Blue Tassel. In daylight these nymphs were observed to have hidden in the root nest of the Blue Tassel’s host epiphyte Platycerium hillii (Polypodiaceae) the Elkhorn. Two of the nymphs were collected on the night of the 13 th December 2024 using a fine paint brush to flick them from among the sporophylls into plastic tubes. Examined under LED torchlight, a fine dusting of the bright yellow spores of P. dalhousieanus was evident on the legs of the S. oxystyla nymphs. These two individuals were cultured by the first author to provide the type material. Combined with the observations made by Lepschi (1989) (see below under S. orchidae) of fern and lycopod spores in the gut of Shelfordina, these additional observations implicate Shelfordina spp. in the potential spread of spore bearing lycophytes and ferns. Spores of Phlegmariurus have hitherto been considered as wind dispersed only (Field 2011). For host specific species such as Australian Phlegmariurus dalhousieanus, wind dispersal seems an extremely unlikely vector to disperse spores to the inside of a new host Platycerium hillii nest (see Field 2011). Direct dispersal by cockroaches may be an important means by which spores are transferred directly into a new host and may also partly explain the extremely clumped distributions of sporelings (Field 2011) found in other non-host specific Phlegmariurus species.
description: Published as part of Rentz, David Cf, Field, Ashley Raymond & Su, You Ning, 2024, New species of the genus Shelfordina Hebard with taxonomic and ecological notes and a key to the known Australian species (Blattodea: Ectobiidae: Pseudophyllodromiinae), pp. 110-122 in Zootaxa 5529 (1) on pages 114-117, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5529.1.5, http://zenodo.org/record/14022107