Rhopalopsole wuzhishana Yang & Du 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Yang, Xiao
name: Du, Yu-Zhou
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Plecoptera
Leuctridae
Rhopalopsole
Rhopalopsole wuzhishana

description: Rhopalopsole wuzhishana Yang & Du sp. nov.
Materials
Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: sex: male; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: E653CA80-E5DA-503B-BE44-779E9CA53E10; Taxon: scientificName: Rhopalopsole wuzhishana; order: Plecoptera; family: Leuctridae; genus: Rhopalopsol; specificEpithet: wuzhishana; Location: island: Hainan; country: China; stateProvince: Hainan; municipality: wuzhishan; locality: shuimanxiang; verbatimLatitude: 18.907855 N; verbatimLongitude: 109.679361 E; Event: eventDate: 2024-01 - 8 T 15: 25 - 0800; Record Level: language: en
Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: sex: 1 male; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: 4E138CE4-282E-5450-BCBC-78DA4A1937C6; Taxon: scientificName: Rhopalopsole wuzhishana; order: Plecoptera; family: Leuctridae; genus: Rhopalopsol; specificEpithet: wuzhishana; Location: island: Hainan; country: China; stateProvince: Hainan; municipality: wuzhishan; locality: shuimanxiang; verbatimLatitude: 18.907855 N; verbatimLongitude: 109.679361 E; Event: eventDate: 2024-01 - 8 T 15: 25 - 0800; Record Level: language: en
Description
Body length 5.5-5.6 mm. Fore-wings length 5.8-6.0 mm, hind-wings length 4.1-4.3 mm. Head dark brown, wider than pronotum; ocelli pale brown; antennae and palpi light brown. Pronotum brown, quadrate, all angles rounded. Legs dark brown. Wings hyaline and veins light brown (Fig. 1).
Tergum 9 weakly sclerotised, with a wide, incised anterior margin that is more poorly sclerotised medially and continuing posteriorly to form a petal-like area with hairs. Sternum 9 basally long 1 x longer than width and with subcircular vesicle bearing dense hairs. Tergum 10 bearing a large central plate covered with a broad sensilla basiconica patch in the posterior half and somewhat less sclerotised in the anterior half. Transverse plates roughly oval with apically setae. Lateral projections of tergum 10 originating as a rounded base and extending upwards and backwards in a short plate, ending in a forked process, the lower point slightly larger. Epiproct oblate, size of the base to apex slowly increasing. Subanal lobes of medium size, flat and plate-like, expanding posteriorly, with well-defined ventral furrows. Cercus hairy and upcurved, with a small spine (Figs 2, 3).
Diagnosis
Rhopalopsole wuzhishana sp. nov. is a member of the R. vietnamica Sivec & Harper, 2008 west group as proposed by Sivec et al. (2008), with tergum 10 of the adult male possessing a central plate with lateral bars strongly sclerotised, lateral projections typically ending in a forked process, epiproct simple and thick and subanal lobes typical of this group. The new species is most similar to the Rhopalopsole hainana (Li and Yang 2010). The males share similarly-shaped subanal lobes and the shape of the lateral projections of tergum 10. In R. wuzhishana, the central plate of tergum 10 is larger. Tergum 9 is weakly sclerotised, with a wide, incised anterior margin that is more poorly sclerotised medially and continuing posteriorly to form a petal-like area with hairs. Sternum 9 basally teardrop-shaped and long 1 x longer than width and with subcircular vesicle bearing dense hairs. The epiproct is oblate, with a gradual increase in size from the base to the apex. However, in R. hainana, tergum 9 is weakly sclerotised, with a wide, incised anterior margin. In addition, the median anterior margin is more weakly sclerotised and extending posteriorly as a vase-like area with hairs orientated differently from those in lateral sections. The central plate of tergum 10 is smaller. Sternum 9 is basally rounded. Epiproct thick tip is narrow than R. wuzhishana sp. nov.
Etymology
This new species is named after the collection place.
Distribution
Hainan Province, China.
description: Published as part of Yang, Xiao & Du, Yu-Zhou, 2024, A new species of Rhopalopsole (Plecoptera, Leuctridae) from Hainan Province, China, pp. e 122999 in Biodiversity Data Journal 12 on page e122999, DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.12.e122999