Neocolochelyna Malaise 1937
Creators: name: Niu, Gengyun
name: Wei, Meicai
name: Shinohara, Akihiko
name: Naito, Tikahiko
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Tenthredinidae
Neocolochelyna

description: Neocolochelyna Malaise, 1937
Neocolochelyna Malaise, 1937: 47; Abe & Smith, 1991: 55; Lacourt, 1997: 389 [pt.]; Wei & Nie, 1998: 27 [pt.]; Wei, 2002: 254; Saini et al, 2006: 589 [pt.]; Saini, 2007: 53; Taeger et al., 2010: 566. Type species: Colochela montana Konow, 1898, by original designation.
Curvatapenis Wei, 2002: Wei et al., 2006: 523; Taeger et al., 2010: 549. Type species: Curvatapenis testaceous Wei, 2002, by original designation. Treated here as a subgenus.
Description. Body large to medium sized; black with brown maculae; wings hyaline with yellowish tinge, usually with infuscate shade in anterior part. Head and thorax strongly punctured, abdominal tergites strongly microsculptured. Clypeus less than two times as broad as long, anterior margin truncate to subtruncate (Figs 3 b, 3e, 3h, 4b, 4e, 4h, 5b, 5e, 5h); labrum small; mandibles short and stout, subsymmetrically tridentate, apical dent hardly bent (Figs 11 j–r); palpi distinctly reduced (Figs 3 a–c); malar space 0.6–1.0 times as long as diameter of median ocellus; eyes small or medium sized, inner margins weakly convex, distinctly convergent downwards, distance between them at level of lateral corner of clypeus about 1.1–1.4 times as long as longest axis of eye; distance between antennal sockets broader than distance between antennal socket and inner margin of eye (Figs 3 b, 3e, 3h, 4b, 4e, 4h, 5b, 5e, 5h); frons small, not depressed, frontal wall indistinct; postorbit round, occipital carina absent or present in lower half; postocellar area broader than long; inner orbit hardly oblique; supra-antennal tubercle absent; antenna short and stout, about as long as thorax, antennomere 2 slightly longer than broad, antennomere 3 longer than following 2 antennomeres together (Figs 11 a–i); anterior lobe of pronotum short, about 2 times as long as diameter of lateral ocellus, marginal carina absent; ventral margins of propleuron narrowly and roundly meeting; mesoscutellar appendage very short; anterior marginal carina of mesepisternum strongly elevated; distance between cenchri about 1.3–1.9 times as broad as a cenchrus; metapostnotum strongly oblique, divided into two narrow triangular plates by protruding middle corner of first abdominal tergite (Figs 6 a–i); dorsal apical lobe of metepimeron narrow elliptical with a short but distinct middle petiole. Hind coxa not strongly enlarged; apex of inner tibial spur of fore leg shallowly incised or distinctly bifurcate (Figs 7 j–r); hind tibia slightly longer than hind tarsus, hind tibial spur as long as apical width of tibia and less than 0.3 times of metabasitarsus; metabasitarsus distinctly compressed laterally, longer than following 3 tarsomeres combined but shorter than following 4 tarsomeres combined, tarsal pulvillus small; claw small, not robust, without basal lobe, inner tooth longer or shorter than outer tooth (Figs 7 a–i). Fore wing narrow and long, cell 2Rs 0.75–1.2 times as long as 1R1+1Rs, anal cell without cross vein; crossvein cu-a meeting cell 1M at about basal 0.15, vein 2A+3A remote from vein 1A at basal 0.25 with distance between them about 3–5 times as broad as width of vein 1A at that point; hind wing with cell Rs and M closed, hind anal cell with a short petiole (Figs 1 d, 1g –i). Setae on sheath short and almost straight, sheath in dorsal view tapering toward apex. Lancet soft, not distinctly sclerotized (Figs 8 a–d), serrulae almost flat with many fine subbasal teeth, annular spines sparse (Figs 9 a–h). Penis valve weakly sclerotized, with long or short dorsal hook (Figs 10a, c, e, g, i); harpes much longer than broad, apical margin broadly roundish (Figs 10b, d, f, h, j).
Distribution. Eastern Asia (China, N. India, Japan).
Host plant. Actinidia arguta Plauch of Actinidiaceae (known only for N. itoi: Okutani 1956; Yasumatsu 1957; Togashi 1995; Shikata & Itakura 2009).
Remarks. Niu & Wei (2015) provided a key to separate Neocolochelyna and its relatives. Neocolochelyna can be easily recognized by the peculiar black and brown body color, the distinctly reduced palpi of mouthparts, the tridentate mandibles, the short antenna, the anal cell of forewing without cross vein, the upper hind orbit round without occipital carina, the long and soft lancet with many fine subbasal teeth, and the penis valve with a dorsal apical hook.
Comparing the type species of Neocolochelyna and Curvatapenis, the two genus -group taxa can be separated clearly by several characters (see the key below). Here Curvatapenis is treated as a subgenus of the former because: A. Curvatapenis and Neocolochelyna share several important characters, such as the subsymmetrically tridentate mandibles, the reduced palpi of mouthparts, the short and stout antenna, the characteristic body color, the small claw, the soft lancet and peculiar penis valve; B. Among the 6 genera of Siobla group, i.e. Colochelyna, Colochela, Neocolochelyna, Curvatapenis, Corymbas, Neocorymbas (Sioblini of Takeuchi, 1952; Siobla + Neocolochelyni of Wei & Nie, 1998), Neocolochelyna and Curvatapenis are a pair of closely related taxa. Another similar pair of genera in the group is the pair of Corymbas and Neocorymbas. It is better to treat Curvatapenis and Neocorymbas as a subgenus of Neocolochelyna and Corymbas respectively, not only for understanding the evolution and differentiation within the Siobla group (this will be discussed in detail in a separate paper), but also for the practice of classification: both of them have only a few species at present and besides, it seems that they are possibly in the early stage of generic differentiation as shown by the characters differentiation. The generic status and species of Corymbas and Neocorymbas will be discussed and revised in a separate paper in near future.
Actinidia is a genus of plants native to temperate eastern Asia, occurring throughout most of China, Korea and Japan, and extending north to southeast Siberia and south into Indochina (Wu et al. 2003). About 100 species and varieties have been found in China.
Based on the previous collecting records, the adults of Neocolochelyna appear from late April to early June in mountains of central and west China, where collecting of sawflies have been made mainly from early June to early August. More species of the genus will probably be found in the future if sawfly collecting activity there shifts to an earlier season.
description: Published as part of Niu, Gengyun, Wei, Meicai, Shinohara, Akihiko & Naito, Tikahiko, 2016, Revision of Neocolochelyna Malaise (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae), pp. 432-456 in Zootaxa 4127 (3) on pages 433-434, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4127.3.2, http://zenodo.org/record/264340