Navasoleon leptocerus
Creators: name: Stange, Lionel A.
name: Miller, Robert B.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Neuroptera
Myrmeleontidae
Navasoleon
Navasoleon leptocerus

description: Navasoleon leptocerus (Navás)
Figures 5, 14, 23, 35, 37, 42, 57, 58
Gymnocnemia leptocera Navás 1915: 125, figure 4 (vertex, pronotum, base).
Type locality. Catamarca, Argentina.
Taxonomy. Stange 1967: 58 (in Navasoleon).
Holotype female. Length 14 mm; forewing length 22 mm, width 5 mm; hindwing length 21 mm; width 4 mm; wing span 47 mm. Coloration: Face (Fig. 5) nearly all pale with small dorso-ventral stripe below antennae at middle; mouthparts mostly pale brown except distal palpomeres; antenna mostly pale brown with some brown laterally; vertex (Fig. 14) pale with anterior row with 3 fairly large separated reddish brown areas; middle row with large submedial spot; pronotum pale with broad submedian stripes and brown at margins; pterothorax mostly pale brown with brown sublaterally on prescutum and mesonotum; mesoscutellum pale brown with large brown spot laterally and at middle; metanotum nearly all pale brown; pteropleura (Fig. 23) with complex mixture of pale to brown areas; wings (Fig. 42) without brown spots; coxae pale except forecoxa with small brown area basally; femora and tibiae pale brown with numerous dark brown spots at setal bases, hind tibia with small subapical brown stripe; abdomen mostly pale brown with some brown at base of some tergites and along some sternites. Chaetotaxy: Face with many small white setae; antennal flagellomeres with short setae, shorter than flagellomere diameter; pronotum with all setae shorter than those on clypeus, located mostly at margins and submedially; forefemoral sense hair about equal to that midfemur and about 1.2 times as long as femoral diameter; legs with no setae longer than femur diameter; ventral setae on distal tarsomere of foreleg longer than middle diameter of tarsomere, apically hooked; ventral setae on other legs as long as middle diameter of tarsomere, not hooked; abdomen with inconspicuous setae except on terminalia. Structure: Distal palpomere slender with palpimacula near middle; antenna (Fig. 37) filamentous, with about 41 flagellomeres, flagellomere III longer than wide; pronotum little wider than long; foreleg tarsomere 3 longer than 4, tarsomere 2 shorter than distal tarsomere which is slightly bent subapically; forewing slightly longer than hindwing; abdomen shorter than wings. Female terminalia (Fig. 57, 58): Posterior gonapophysis about 4 times longer than medium diameter, weakly swollen, narrower apically; gonapophyseal plate short and broad about 5 times wider than median diameter, most setae shorter than gonapophyseal width; lateral gonapophyses transverse, fused, about 4 times wider than long with many well developed pale scraping setae; ventral margin of ectoproct with fine setae only; pregenital plate small, transverse, consisting mostly of median tubercle; spermatheca (Fig. 58) elongate with anterior one-third a broad tube tapering posteriorly into a thin, long, coiled tube.
Distribution. Argentina.
Collection times. November to March.
Material studied. Holotype female and 5 females.
ARGENTINA. Catamarca: Andagalá, 15.XI.1972, J. Neff (1f, FSCA); 6 km. north Belen, 1240 m, 19.XII.1971, L. Stange (2f, FSCA); 15.XI.1969, L.Stange (1f, FSCA). La Rioja: Anguinan (Chilecito), 1-15. III.1969, L. Stange (1f, FSCA); Chuquis, 1500 m., 6.XII.2003, L. Stange (1f, FSCA); Malligasta, 1000 m., 14.XII.2003, at light, P. Fidalgo and L. Stange (1f, FSCA); Santa Vera Cruz, 21.XI.2004, blacklight, L. Stange (1 without tip of abdomen, FSCA).
Discussion. This argentine species has unmarked wings and short setae especially those on the legs which are shorter than the femur diameter. The spermatheca is unusual in being elongate with most of the posterior part narrow and coiled (Fig. 58).
description: Published as part of Stange, Lionel A. & Miller, Robert B., 2018, A revision of the genus Navasoleon Banks (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae: Nemoleontini), pp. 1-25 in Insecta Mundi 619 on pages 10-11, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3699409