Disparomitus abyssinicus van der Weele 1909
Creators: name: Michel, Bruno
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Neuroptera
Ascalaphidae
Disparomitus
Disparomitus abyssinicus

description: Disparomitus abyssinicus van der Weele, 1909
(Figs 4–8, 84, 96–98)
Disparomitus abyssinicus van der Weele, 1909: 194, figs 144–148.
Van der Weele (1909) designated one male from Ethiopia and one female from East-Africa with no collection locality as type specimens without designating a holotype. Surprisingly, he labeled both specimens as Disparoposis abyssinica but the genus name Disparoposis, never published, is unavailable. The male specimen (Fig. 4) is designated here as lectotype of Disparomitus abyssinicus van der Weele, 1909. The female specimen (Fig. 23) is transferred to Disparomitus brevistigma (Esben-Petersen, 1931). Both specimens are in NHMUK.
Male diagnosis. Wing length (mm): forewing 33, hind wing 28. General colouration brown. First abdominal tergite and anterior surface of second abdominal tergite inclined backwards (Fig. 6). Second abdominal tergite slightly bulging dorsally with stout erect black spines (Figs 6, 7). Length of abdominal sternite III about 10 mm, relatively longer than in other species and five times as long as sternite II. In other species, sternite III is relatively shorter and about four times as long as sternite II.
Redescription of male. Head. Frons, gena, clypeus and labrum yellow. Vertex brownish. Thorax (Fig. 84). Pronotum dark brown on disc, paler laterally. Mesonotum: prescutum dark brown, lighter in colour laterally. Scutum dark brown dorsally with the lateral margins largely light brown. Scutellum with an anterior black arched mark, light brown on disc, posterior half bears only two small poorly delimited median dark spots. Metanotum: brown, darker on sides. Scutellum light brown, slightly darker anteriorly. Side of thorax (Fig. 5): anepisternum of mesothorax dark. Posterior margin of katepisternum of mesothorax bordered with brown. Anepimeron of metathorax with a thin transverse black line on upper half. Legs (Fig. 5), yellowish. Middle tibiae with a longitudinal brownish line on either side. In the posterior legs, these lines are connected dorsally by a large brownish band at both extremities and only the median part of dorsal surface of tibiae is light brown. Forewings. Costal, subcostal, median, cubital 2 and anal 1 veins light brown. Radial vein on the basal half, cubital 1 and anal 2 veins dark brown. Abdomen (Figs 6–8). First tergite of male inclined backwards. Dorsal surface brown. Posterior surface of first tergite lighter in colour. Tergites II, III and IV bordered laterally with black. From tergite III, anterior and posterior margins are bordered with black and each tergite has a dorsal longitudinal black line. Dorsal spines of tergites I and II stout and almost of the same length. Dorsal spines on tergite II are distributed over most of the discal area, which is slightly bulging. From tergite II to the anterior third of tergite IV the lateral surface, corresponding more or less to the black area, is covered with small stout spines. On tergite II the area with small spines extends to almost the stout dorsal spines. Ventral surface (Fig. 8) yellow with a broad median longitudinal black stripe, narrowing anteriorly and forked at its posterior end on sternite III. Abdominal sternite III 10 mm long, five times as long as sternite II. Ectoprocts brown along anterior margin. Male genitalia. Gonarcus-parameres complex as in figures 96–98. Gonarcus elongate, slightly developed above the parameres.
Female. Unknown.
Material examined (1 ♂). Lectotype ♂ (designated here), ETHIOPIA [Abyssinia], Zegi Tsana (probably a locality on the edge of the Lake Tana, 12.0265/37.3034), alt. 1786 m, v & vi 1902, Degen leg. (NHMUK 1902– 222) (Fig. 4).
Distribution. Known only from the type locality (Fig. 139).
description: Published as part of Michel, Bruno, 2019, Revision of the genus Disparomitus van der Weele, 1909 with descriptions of four new species (Neuroptera, Ascalaphidae), pp. 1-39 in Zootaxa 4551 (1) on pages 4-5, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4551.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/2622492