Afronurus furcatus NNU
Creators: name: Zhang, Wei
name: Lei, Zhi-Ming
name: Li, Wen-Juan
name: Zhou, Chang-Fa
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Ephemeroptera
Heptageniidae
Afronurus
Afronurus furcatus

description: Afronurus furcatus (Zhou & Zheng, 2003)
Figs 4B, D, 6B, 7A–C, 8–9, 12A, 13A–B
Cinygmina furcata Zhou & Zheng, 2003: 755, figs 1–6. Types: male and female adults, from Tian-Mu Mountain, Zhejiang Province, China.
Afronurus furcatus – Braasch & Jacobus 2011: 64.
Material examined
Holotype CHINA • ♂; Zhejiang Province, Lin-An city, Tian-Mu Mountain, San-Mu-Ping; 30°21′53.06″ N, 119°25′53.99″ E; alt. 780 m; 29 Jul. 1998; M.S. Zhao leg.; NNU.
Paratypes CHINA • 2 ♂♂, 4 ♀♀; same collection data as for holotype; NNU.
Additional material
CHINA • 7 ♂♂, 15 ♀♀, 5 nymphs; Zhejiang Province, Long-Quan city, Shuang-Xi village; 27°53′16.34″ N, 119°12′55.17″ E; alt. 1391 m; 3 Aug. 2020; Z.X. Ma and X.H.Y. Zheng leg.; NNU.
Description
Nymph (first description, Figs 7A–C, 8–9)
MEASUREMENTS. Body length 7.0–10.0 mm, caudal filaments 13.0–18.0 mm long.
COLORATION. Generally yellowish to brown.
HEAD. Head capsule subquadrate, anterior margin of head with 4 small pale dots and basal part of antennae with 2 pale dots; posterior margin of head slightly concave and with 4 pale dots between the compound eyes (Fig. 7A). Labrum 0.5× width of head, laterally tapering and slightly curved; anterior margin with shallow emargination; an additional row of short bristles on ventral anterior margin (Fig. 8A). Both mandibles covered with numerous setae on outer margins; prostheca with 6–8 fimbriate bristles (Fig. 8C– D, G–H); outer incisor of left mandible with serrated margin and one larger terminal denticle; inner incisor shorter than outer incisor and with 3 blunt denticles (Fig. 8C, G); outer incisor of right mandible serrated and with 2 apical terminal denticles; inner one divided into 2 sharp denticles (Fig. 8D, H). Hypopharynx: apex of superlinguae strongly curved and extended into round lobe-like structures, long hair-like setae up to the lower part of superlinguae; lingua bell-like, subequal to superlinguae in length and with tuft of setae at apex (Fig. 8B). Maxillae with scattered fimbriate setae on ventral surface (Figs 4D, 8F), row of 17–20 comb-shaped setae on crown of galea-lacinia, middle combs with 10–15 teeth, distal dentisetae branched, proximal dentisetae bifid (Fig. 4B); maxillary palpi with setae on outer margin and basal half of inner margin of first segment; segment II longer than the former one and outer margin with long setae, terminal segment with dense setal brush (Fig. 8F). Labium: glossae lobe rounded, inner margin slightly expanded, with tuft of long setae; paraglossae expanded greatly into palpable lobes, with dense setae and bristles on dorsal and free margins; labial palpi 2-segmented, ventral surface and free margin of second segment with setal brush, dorsal surface with scattered golden setae (Fig. 8E).
THORAX. Pronotum slightly expanded laterally, wider than head (Fig. 7A). Supracoxal spurs rounded. Femora of all legs with row of long setae on outer margins, dorsal surfaces with spatulate setae and inner margins with short bristles. Foretibia subequal in length to femur, outer margin with sparse hair-like setae near base, inner margin with row of bristles; foretarsi 0.4× as long as tibiae, outer and inner margins with tiny setae (Fig. 9A). Midleg similar to foreleg except tibia 0.91× of femur in length, outer margin with row of hair-like setae, dorsal surface with rows of hair-like setae and bristles; tarsi approximately ⅓ length of tibia (Fig. 9B). Hindleg tibia 0.8× of femur in length, outer margin and dorsal surface with rows of long setae and bristles, inner margin with row of bristles and very tiny setae (Fig. 9D); tarsi about ¼ length of tibia (Fig. 9C). Claws of all legs with 3–4 subapical denticles (Fig. 9E).
ABDOMEN. Abdominal terga I–VII yellowish to brown, with 3 pale dots medially and 2 pale dots laterally; terga VIII–IX with fused pale dot medially; tergum X dark brown, anterior margin with 3 light pale dots (Fig. 7B–C). Gill I banana-shaped, inner margin slightly curved (Fig. 9F); gills II–IV heart-like and with lamellae expanded laterally (Fig. 9G); gills V–VI oval, with additionally arrow-like accessory lobes (Fig. 9H); gill VII oval, with fine marginal setae, trachea clearly visible (Fig. 9I). Caudal filaments pale, with whorled spines on articulations (Fig. 7C, as in Fig. 1B).
Male imago
See Zhou & Zheng (2003: 755, figs 1–6, original description).
Egg
Oval, chorion mostly smooth and decorated with small KCTs at each pole, larger KCTs located equatorially (Fig. 6B).
Remarks
The male imago of A. furcatus is similar to the one of A. hunanensis due to color pattern of abdominal terga, plate-like titillators and bifurcated apices of penial lobes. However, they can be separated by the following characters: 1) the body color of A. furcatus is bright yellow when it is alive (Fig. 12A) while reddish brown in A. hunanensis (Fig. 12B); 2) A. furcatus has slightly divergent penial lobes, which are connected by a foliated structure (Fig. 13A–B), while penes of A. hunanensis are obviously divergent and with deeply cleft (Fig. 13C–D); 3) the plate-like titillators of A. hunanensis are smaller than in A. furcatus (Fig. 13A–D).
In the nymph, A. furcatus resembles A. drepanophyllus sp. nov., A. obliquistriatus and A. rubromaculatus because of marking patterns on head capsules. However, the following combination of characters can help to separate them: 1) head capsule of A. furcatus has one row (4 dots) of pale dots on anterior margin (Fig. 7A), while A. drepanophyllus sp. nov. has two rows (generally 2–5 dots) of pale dots on anterior margin (Fig. 1A), A. obliquistriatus and A. rubromaculatus have two rows (generally 8–9 dots) on anterior margins (Fig. 7G, J); 2) linguae and superlinguae are approximately the same length in A. furcatus, A. drepanophyllus sp. nov. and A. rubromaculatus (Fig. 2C, 8B); however, the lingua of A. obliquistriatus is much shorter than superlinguae (as in Fig. 10B); 3) number of comb-shaped setae on maxillae: 13–15 in A. drepanophyllus sp. nov. (middle combs with 9–13 teeth), 17–20 in A. furcatus (middle combs with 10–15 teeth), 11–13 in A. obliquistriatus (middle combs with 8–10 teeth) and 14–16 in A. rubromaculatus (middle combs with 10–12 teeth); 4) caudal filaments of A. furcatus are pale (Fig. 7C) whereas in A. drepanophyllus sp. nov. they are pale near the base and yellowish-brown in other parts (Fig. 1A); A. obliquistriatus and A. rubromaculatus have dark brown dots on articulation (Fig. 7I, L).
Distribution
China (Jiangxi, Zhejiang).
description: Published as part of Zhang, Wei, Lei, Zhi-Ming, Li, Wen-Juan & Zhou, Chang-Fa, 2021, A contribution to the genus Afronurus Lestage, 1924 in China (Ephemeroptera: Heptageniidae, Ecdyonurinae), pp. 94-116 in European Journal of Taxonomy 767 (1) on pages 100-106, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2021.767.1491, http://zenodo.org/record/5514875