Kaochiaoja sikkimensis Joshi & Blackman 2017, sp.n.
Creators: name: Joshi, Sunil
name: Blackman, R. L.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Aphididae
Kaochiaoja
Kaochiaoja sikkimensis

description: Kaochiaoja sikkimensis sp.n.
Figs 1, 2, 3 Table 1
Holotype. No. NBAIR /2014/Aph/39–1 apterous viviparous female, labelled: Holotype; Sikkim, India, 01.xi.2014, coll. Sunil Joshi, on Phyllostachys sp. [Division of Insect Systematics, National Bureau of Agricultural Insect resources, Bangalore, Karnataka]
Paratypes. No. NBAIR /2014/ Aph /39–8 apterous viviparous females and 5 alate viviparous females, labelled: paratypes; Sikkim, India, 01.xi.2014, coll. Sunil Joshi, on Phyllostachys sp. [Division of Insect Systematics, National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Bangalore, Karnataka, India, and Natural History Museum, London, UK].
Collection site: 27.3167° N, 88.6000° E.
Etymology. The species is named after its type locality Sikkim.
Biometric data. The measurements (in mm) of different body parts of apterous and alate viviparous females are presented in Table 1.
Apterous viviparous female. Colour alive: Head, mesothorax and intersegmental area of meso- and metathorax yellowish brown, pronotum, metanotum and dorsal abdomen shiny black (Figure 1). Antenna with first two segments pale brown and flagellar segments becoming darker gradually. Siphunculi dark in proximal and distal areas and pale in the middle. Cauda pale yellow. Immature stages pale yellow to greenish yellow.
Pigmentation of mounted specimens: Head pale except for marginal areas which are darker, first antennal segment darker but second and third segments pale, distal area of fourth and fifth segment dark, sixth segment dark but gradually becoming paler towards distal end, tip of the PT dark. Thorax dark except mesothoracic area, which is pale. Siphunculi dark on 20 % basal and 25 % distal part with middle 55 % area pale. Cauda pale. Abdomen completely dark except that area around bases of siphunculi, genital plate and area above anal plate paler (Figure 2 A). Legs pale except that distal parts of femora and proximal parts of tibiae are dark in hind legs. Tarsal segments dark on all legs.
Morphology: Body oval to spindle-shaped. Head densely spinulose dorsally and ventrally (Fig. 4A); frontal setae blunt, 0.015 mm, other dorsal setae very minute. Antennal tubercles steep-sided (Figure 2B) with one apical and two ventral setae. Antenna 1.25–1.29 times as long as body, first two antennal segments smooth with low imbrications but later segments more imbricated. Ant III without secondary rhinaria (Fig. 2C), longest hair on antennal segment III 0.005 mm, 0.2 to 0.25 times longer than width of the base of the antennal segment III; PT 5.4 to 5.9 times as long as basal part of the sixth segment (Fig. 2 F). Clypeus smooth, with two setae. Rostrum just reaching middle coxa; URS short, tapering, 0.67 to 0.75 times as long as second tarsal segment of the hind leg and with two secondary setae (Fig. 2D). Mesosternal furca sessile. Femora imbricated subapically, with short setae.
Tibiae smooth in fore and middle legs but imbricated subapically in case of hind legs, with short setae. Second tarsal segments with 2 dorsal and 1 ventral setae; 1 st tarsal chaetotaxy 3: 3: 3 (in six specimens out of nine) but in some specimens (three out of nine) 3:3:2. Pronotum dark sclerotic, mesonotum with a pair of brown sclerites pleurally, metanotum dark sclerotic and completely fused with abdominal tergum. Abdominal dorsum completely dark sclerotic except for pale membranous crescentic area anterior to siphunculus, without marginal tubercles; 2nd to 4th segment with paired marginal and spinal setae; pleural setae present in some specimens; 8th tergite with four setae. Genital plate oval and paler than abdominal dorsum, with 9 or 10 setae on hind margin and 2 or 3 setae anteriorly. SIPH slender, cylindrical, imbricated, 3.8 to 4.1 times longer than width at base (Figs 2E, 4C) and 2.75 to 3.00 times longer than cauda, with spinules scattered over entire surface but denser near apical portion, with distinct flange. Cauda pale, tongue-shaped, tapering apically, with 6 fine hairs (Figs 2G, 4E).
Alate viviparous female. Colour alive: Head, antenna and thorax completely dark brown to black; abdomen brown with irregular dark patch.
Colour of mounted specimen: Head and all appendages dark. Abdomen pale with dark brown irregular patch.
Morphology: Body elongate, approximately twice its maximum width (Fig. 3A); head dark, densely spinulose dorsally and ventrally (Fig. 4B), thorax and antenna dark, flagellum completely imbricated, segment III with 16 to 27 rhinaria spread almost over the entire length (Fig. 3C), segment IV with 1–11 rhinaria (Fig. 3F). URS hardly reaching mid coxa (Fig. 3D). Abdominal dorsum pale with marginal sclerites from abdominal segment 2 to 5 and an irregular U-shaped sclerotic area formed by large irregular patches on 3rd to 6th segments; segment 2 with a thin irregular lighter sclerite, 6th segment with dark post-siphuncular sclerites, 7th with a dark cross-band and 8th completely dark; abdominal venter spinulose. SIPH dark brown at base and becoming gradually lighter towards the distal end (Figs 3E, 4D), 0.24–0.26 times as long as body, 3.2 to 3.3 times as long as their basal width; legs with distal portions of femora dark, tibiae and tarsi completely dark. Cauda with 6–7 hairs (Figs 3G, 4F); forewing venation normal with media twice branched, radial sector curved, hind wing with two oblique veins.
Biology. The colonies of aphids were found feeding on upper and lower surface of leaves of Phyllostachys sp. (Poaceae). Leaves with dense colonies were seen to have turned yellowish indicating the damage caused by continuous sucking of the sap. The life cycle is unknown.
Taxonomic comments. Only one species of the genus Kaochiaoja Tao, viz., Kaochiaoja arthraxonis (Takahashi) was hitherto known, first described by Takahashi (1921) under the name Myzus arthraxoni. Tao (1963) erected the genus Kaochiaoja for this species. Later, Ghosh et al. 1970 described Micromyzus granotiae Ghosh, Ghosh and Raychaudhuri from India, and Miyazaki (1971) transferred Macrosiphum pollinae (Shinji) described from Japan to Kaochiaoja, with a redescription. Both these names have been synonymised with K. arthraxonis (Eastop and Blackman 2005; Remaudière and Remaudière 1997). Takahashi (1921) provided description of both apterous and alate viviparous females but Ghosh et al. 1970, and Miyazaki (1971) described only apterous viviparous females. Apterae from Arthraxon in Taiwan were described as shining dark brown with yellowish brown head (original description) while those described as Micromyzus granotiae (from Granotia sp.?) from West Bengal (Ghosh et al. 1970) also have a dusky head and are said to be dark brown in life with a coating of wax. However, apterae of Japanese populations on various Poaceae (e.g. Microstegium, Digitaria) are described as salmon pink to reddish brown in life, with a black head and dorsal abdominal patch (Miyazaki, 1971). The apterous viviparous females of the new species are shining black with dusky head and appendages, and the nymphs are light green with dark red eyes. No wax deposits were observed on dorsum or venter of apterous and alate viviparous females.
K. arthraxonis K. sikkimensis sp.n.
Takahashi (1921) did not describe an abdominal dorsal patch in the apterous viviparous female of K. arthraxonis, but stated that there was a very large patch between the siphunculi of the alate viviparous female. In all the Indian and Japanese apterae of K. arthraxonis examined, the abdominal dorsal patch was consistent in extent, reaching from the metanotum to the fourth abdominal segment, its borders ill-defined but leaving broad unpigmented areas laterally and anterior to the siphunculi, and with a medial division on the anterior abdominal segments broadening into a clear triangular window on segments 3 and 4 (fig. 5A). A distinctive feature of this dorsal sclerite is its rugose ornamentation, described by Miyazaki (1971) as “wart-like areolations” (fig. 5B). A separate sclerite extends behind the siphunculi across abdominal tergites 6 and 7. In K. sikkimensis the dorsal In other respects apterae of the new species are similar to K. arthraxonis, the only other detectable differences being in the pigmentation of the siphunculi and the shape and length of the cauda. The siphunculi of K. arthraxonis are mainly pale with only dusky base and apex, whereas those of the new species have more extensive and contrastingly darker basal and distal regions. The cauda of K. arthraxonis is relatively longer and tapers gradually from base to apex, whereas that of K. sikkimensis is finger-like, with sides that are parallel for most of length and only taper distally. Ratios involving the cauda (cauda/body length, cauda/ANT III, cauda/SIPH) are discriminatory between the two species (see Table 1).
The new species will run to Melanaphis bambusae in couplet number 5 of the key to aphids occurring on Phyllostachys spp. by Blackman and Eastop (1994) but can easily be separated from that species which has short and truncate siphunculi about equal in length to the cauda, whereas in K. sikkimensis the siphunculi are tubular and much longer than the cauda.
description: Published as part of Joshi, Sunil & Blackman, R. L., 2017, A new bamboo-feeding species of Kaochiaoja Tao (Hemiptera: Aphididae) from India, pp. 569-575 in Zootaxa 4363 (4) on pages 570-575, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4363.4.9, http://zenodo.org/record/1115127