Apertochrysa Tjeder 1966
Creators: name: Hassan, Muhammad Asghar
name: Liu, Xingyue
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Neuroptera
Chrysopidae
Apertochrysa

description: Genus Apertochrysa Tjeder, 1966
Diagnosis
The genus Apertochrysa can be distinguished from other chrysopid genera in Pakistan by the following characters: antennal scape with lateral markings present (occasionally absent); forewing with elongated fifth and six cells beneath Rs (Figs 3C–D); basal inner gradates in both fore- and hindwing not arise from pseudomedia (Psm); outer gradate always arise from pseudomedia (Figs 17A–B); tibial spurs ratio in each legs are 0-1-1 (Figs 3H–J); legs with basal dilation of pretarsal claw present (occasionally absent); sternum 8 and 9 fused, rounded posteriorly (Fig. 19A); male genitalia with or without tignum, but the entoprocessus and gonapsis are always present (Figs 19C, E); gonapsis with distinctive shapes (see Breitkreuz et al. 2021a), and a pair of lateral wings, which are connected to a single anteriorly-directed rod; female with variable shapes, wider than long (Fig. 19M) or longer than wide (Fig. 23F).
Notes
The genus Apertochrysa currently includes 183 species worldwide and is one of the largest genera within the family (Duelli et al. 2017; Breitkreuz et al. 2021a). The taxonomic history of this genus is presented by Dong et al. (2004), Duelli et al. (2017), and Breitkreuz et al. (2021a). Here we record eight species of Apertochrysa from Pakistan. Among them, five species could not be identified to species, and the other two species are newly transferred to this genus. Among the undetermined female Apertochrysa species, A. sp. 2 has the subgenitale wider than long, while it is longer than wide in A. sp. 4 and A. sp. 5. All of these species, which are solely described based on females, require additional specimens to investigate the male genitalia; however, at present, these species differ in body coloration and shape of pretarsal claws. The known ranges of all these species is in in the northern portion of the country.
Key to Apertochrysa species from Pakistan
1 Pretarsal claws with basal dilation present (Fig. 15D)........................................................ 2
– Pretarsal claws with basal dilation absent (Fig. 18E)......................................................... 4
2 Frons with a transverse dark marking below antennal torulus; scape and pedicel distinctly dark brown in dorsal view (Dobosz et al. 2016: figs 2–3); widespread species.................................................. A. venosa (Rambur)
– Frons without dark marking below antennal torulus; scape and pedicel entirely yellow (Figs 15B–C) or narrowly dark brown at dorsolateral margins (Tjeder 1963: fig. 17); endemic to Pakistan ............................................... 3
3 Scape and pedicel entirely yellow (Figs 15B–C); gonapsis butterfly-shaped, lateral wings broad, median stem long, digitiform (Figs 16C–D)................................................................................... A. sp. 1
– Scape and pedicel with dark brown stripes; gonapsis rounded in frontal view, slightly wider medianly, lateral wings and median stem narrow, nearly equal in length (Tjeder 1963: fig. 10)................................... A. murreensis (Tjeder)
4 Pretarsal claws feebly curved (Fig. 20D)...................................................................5
– Pretarsal claws strongly curved (Fig. 18E)................................................................. 7
5 Head pale brown without large spots; thorax dorsally pale brown............................ A. vartianorum (Hölzel)
– Head yellow, vertex with two median longitudinal dark stripes (Fig. 20E) or four pink spots (Fig. 22D); thorax yellow, with dark brown markings or laterally with dark brown............................................................... 6
6 Vertex with two median longitudinal dark stripes (Fig. 20E); frons brownish with a narrow median yellow spot (Fig. 20A)................................................................................................ A. sp. 3
– Vertex with four dark pink spots (Fig. 22D); frons yellow with a crescentic pink stripe above tentorial pits (Fig. 22A).................................................................................................... A. sp. 4
7 Vertex with four red spots (Fig. 18C); female subgenitale wider than long (Fig. 19M)........................ … A. sp. 2
– Vertex with four dark pink spots (Fig. 25C); female subgenitale longer than wide (Fig. 26F).................... A. sp. 5
description: Published as part of Hassan, Muhammad Asghar & Liu, Xingyue, 2022, The green lacewings of Pakistan (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae): a faunal review with new records of genera and species, pp. 1-83 in Zootaxa 5180 (1) on pages 21-22, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5180.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7040828