Allocnemis vicki Dijkstra &amp; Schutte, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Dijkstra, Klaas-Douwe B.
name: Kipping, Jens
name: Mézière, Nicolas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Odonata
Platycnemididae
Allocnemis
Allocnemis vicki

description: <i>Allocnemis vicki</i> Dijkstra &amp; Schütte sp. nov. – Blue-shouldered Yellowwing (Type Photo 7, Photo 13, Fig. 4) Taxonomy Reported as <i>Chlorocnemis pauli</i> (Longfield, 1936) by Gambles (1975), but Dijkstra et al. (2014) sunk that genus in <i>Allocnemis</i> Selys, 1863. Indeed belongs to the <i>pauli</i> -group of <i>Allocnemis</i> (see below), which also includes <i>A. interrupta</i> (Legrand, 1984) and <i>A. wittei</i> (Fraser, 1955), and possibly <i>A.eisentrauti</i> (Pinhey, 1974), although it is morphologically and genetically distinctive. Material studied <b>Holotype</b> <b>&amp;male;</b> <b>.</b> Cameroon, Northwest Province, 12 km SW of Bamenda, Baba II, small stream in montane forest, 1800–1900 m a.s.l. (5.85°N10.10°E), 29-v-2008, leg. K.-D.B. Dijkstra &amp;K. Schütte, RMNH. <b>Further material.</b> CAMEROON (Northwest Province): 7&amp;male; (RMNH.INS.229129, RMNH.INS.500115), 2&amp;female; (one in copula with holotype), as holotype, RMNH. CAMEROON (Southwest Province): 1&amp;male;, Kodmin, Serungwe River (4.9989°N9.7011°E), 06-iv-2003, leg. &amp; coll. G.S. Vick. <b>Genetics</b> Two unique haplotypes (n = 2) fall within the variation of five (n = 8) of <i>A. pauli</i> from Angola, Gabon and Uganda; the two together nearest to <i>A.interrupta</i> and <i>A. wittei</i>. Male morphological diagnosis Fairly large damselfly (Hw 22.0–23.0 mm; n =5) that belongs to the <i>pauli</i> - group by the combination of (a) the blue-marked head and thorax; (b) the anteriorly blue femora and tibiae; and (c) the orange abdomen tip, which as in its sister-species <i>A. pauli</i> covers the entire dorsum of the cerci and S9–10, with a dorso-apical spot on S8, although the latter can be absent in <i>A. pauli</i> (Fig. 4). Differs by (1) the narrowly black-bordered blue rather than wholly black labrum, although <i>A. pauli</i> rarely has a blue central spot; (2) the almost completely blue mesepisterna, rather than with ante-humeral stripes that are about half as wide as mesepisternum; and (3) the paraprocts that extend as far as the tips of the cerci, rather than somewhat beyond (Fig. 4). Etymology Named in honour of Graham S. Vick who made significant contributions to the knowledge of central African Odonata with his Cameroon Dragonfly Project (masculine singular genitive noun). Range and ecology Found to be common at a tiny stream overgrown by herbs in the forest remnant of Baba II near Bamenda (Photo 13). Also collected at Kodmin in the Bakossi Mountains and from the Obudu Plateau in Nigeria (Gambles 1975). Thus appears to be endemic to forest streamlets in the highlands of southwestern Cameroon and bordering Nigeria between 1 500 and 1 900 m a.s.l., a range and habitat almost identical to that of <i>Africocypha centripunctata</i>.
description: Published as part of <i>Dijkstra, Klaas-Douwe B., Kipping, Jens &amp; Mézière, Nicolas, 2015, Sixty new dragonfly and damselfly species from Africa (Odonata), pp. 447-678 in Odonatologica 44 (4)</i> on page 482, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.35388