Ungla laufferi Navas 1922
Creators: name: Tauber, Catherine A.
name: Flint, Oliver S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Neuroptera
Chrysopidae
Ungla
Ungla laufferi

description: Ungla laufferi (Navás, 1922)
Chrysopa laufferi Navás, 1921 [1922]: 260 [MNHN, Holotype].
Ceraeochrysa laufferi (Navás). First combination in Ceraeochrysa by Brooks & Barnard (1990: 269). Removed from Ceraeochrysa by Legrand et al. (2008: 149); combination reinstated by Freitas et al. (2009: 556). Ungla laufferi (Navás). First combination in Ungla by Legrand et al. (2008: 149). Combination reversed by Freitas et al. (2009: 556). Here: Combination reinstated.
Chrysopa aroguesina Navás 1928 [1929]: 32 [MNHN, Lectotype] [= Ceraeochrysa aroguesina (Navás 1929) (first combination in Ceraeochrysa by Brooks & Barnard 1990: 268]. Junior subjective synonym of U. laufferi by Legrand et al. (2008: 115) and by Freitas et al. (2009: 556, as Ceraeochrysa laufferi).
Background: Navás originally described this species as Chrysopa laufferi (Navás 1921: 260); subsequently, it was transferred to Ceraeochrysa (Brooks & Barnard 1990: 269), and then to Ungla (Legrand et al. 2008: 149). Freitas et al. (2009: 556) disagreed with the transfer to Ungla and stated that their stance was based on the fact that the abdomen is absent from the original type (MNHN) and thus diagnostic genitalic features are unavailable for evaluation. They returned the species to Ceraeochrysa.
Types: The types of Chrysopa laufferi and Chrysopa aroguesina (both examined, CAT) express very similar external characteristics (shape and venation of the wings, facial and head markings, body coloration). Indeed, Legrand et al. (2008) and Freitas et al. (2009) agree on the identification of C. aroguesina as a junior synonym of C. laufferi. Thus, the C. aroguesina type (a female, MNHN) provides access to genitalic characters that are missing from the C. laufferi type.
The C. aroguesina type has a small, pillbox-like spermatheca that opens to the bursa copulatrix via the vellum and a short bursal duct and that has a shallow invagination (Figs. 2, 3). These features are typical of Ungla females (see Brooks & Barnard 1990). In contrast, the spermathecae of all known Ceraeochrysa females are larger, tubular, and U-shaped; they open directly to the bursa via an elongate slit and they have a deep invagination [Adams (1982: 70, 75); also see illustrations in Adams & Penny (1985) and Freitas et al. (2009)].
In addition, several external features of the C. aroguesina and C. laufferi types are more like Ungla than Ceraeochrysa. For example, on the forewings of the C. laufferi type the basal inner gradates do not contact the Pseudomedius; this character state is variable, but it is frequently found in Ungla, not Ceraeochrysa (Brooks & Barnard, 1990). And, the vertex of the head of the C. aroguesina and C. laufferi types bears a pair of longitudinal, reddish marks that, although short, are more typical of Ungla than Ceraeochrysa.
Conclusion: We consider Ungla laufferi (Navás) to be the valid name for the species.
description: Published as part of Tauber, Catherine A. & Flint, Oliver S., 2010, Resolution of some taxonomic and nomenclatural issues in a recent revision of Ceraeochrysa (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae), pp. 55-67 in Zootaxa 2565 on pages 57-58, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.294309