Acisoma attenboroughi Mens, Schütte, Stokvis & Dijkstra, 2016, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Mens, Lotte P.
name: Schütte, Kai
name: Stokvis, Frank R.
name: Dijkstra, Klaas-Douwe B.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Odonata
Libellulidae
Acisoma
Acisoma attenboroughi

description: Acisoma attenboroughi sp. nov. —Attenborough’s Pintail
(Figs. 4 E, 5A–C, 5F–G, 6E–F, 7D, 8D, 10D, 11)
Type material. Holotype (Fig. 11): male, Andasibe, lake Toamasina, 12-xii-2006, K. Schütte (ZMUH).
Other material. Madagascar: 1 male, Ankarafantsika National Park, Ampijoroa, 06-iii-2001, G. Garcia (RMNH); 1 male, Tananarive, 21-iii-1985, F. Keiser (RMNH); 1 male, locality unknown, 1993, J.M. Elouard (MNHN); 1 male, Madagascar, Coll. Martin (MNHN); 7 males, Andasibe, lake Toamasina, 12-xii-2006, K. Schütte (ZMUH); 5 males, Andasibe, river Toamasina, 12-xii-2006, K. Schütte (ZMUH); 7 males, Fort-Dauphin, Amboavola, 28-xi-2006, K. Schütte (ZMUH); 1 male, Fort-Dauphin, Tsimelahy, 1.5km de accueil, 01-x-2006, K. Schütte (ZMUH); 1 male, Fort-Dauphin, Enato, 26-x-2006, K. Schütte (ZMUH); 1 male, Fianarantsoa, Ranomafana, ValBio field station next to river, 01-xi-2006, K. Schütte (ZMUH); 3 males, Tolongoina, coffee plantation, 10-xi-2006, K. Schütte (ZMUH); 1 male, Tolongoina, tavy in forest, 04-xi-2006, K. Schütte (ZMUH).
Etymology. The new species honours Sir David Attenborough on his 90th birthday. His documentaries inspired entire generations to love and conserve nature (Dijkstra 2016).
Male diagnosis. Confined to Madagascar, where easily identified by the characters typical of the group lumped formerly under A. panorpoides: (a) extensively white labrum, labium, thorax and underside of S3–7; (b) 1 cell in Fw triangle; (c) fairly long Fw Pt, about 11–14% as long as Hw; (d) abdomen that narrows abruptly on S 5 in lateral view, with S6–10 slender (Fig. 7 D); (e) fragmented and frayed white markings on S2–5 and large white lateral spots on S7 (Fig. 7 D); and (f) broad and triangular lobe of hamule (Fig. 8 D). Unique in the genus by the (1) dorso-central black spot on the mesepisternum that is shifted toward and fused with the black humeral stripe (Fig. 6 E–F); and (2) S4 typically with all black ventral carina but partly white ventro-apical carina, although the latter is all black in about 10% of cases (Fig. 7 D). The shape and general appearance is intermediate between A. panorpoides from Asia and A. inflatum from Africa, with a (3) stout abdomen, with S6 about 1.5x to 2x as long as high, and a fairly distinct ‘step’ between the ventral borders of S5 and S6 (Fig. 7 D). Differs from A. panorpoides by the (4) wide black band across the antefrons, which is 40–80% as wide as the labrum is high (Fig. 4 E); (5) large black spot on the labrum attached to its base (Fig. 4 E); and (6) always incomplete distal Ax in Fw; and from A. inflatum by the (7) sublateral black marking concentrated on apical side of S4 (Fig. 7 D); and (8) more slender hook of the hamule (Fig. 8 D).
Range and ecology. Widespread across Madagascar, including the interior, at weedy ponds such as abandoned rice fields. Found down to the coast in the east (Toamasina, Tolagnaro) and west (Mahajanga) but not in the littoral forests where A. ascalaphoides occurs (Fig. 9 A).
description: Published as part of Mens, Lotte P., Schütte, Kai, Stokvis, Frank R. & Dijkstra, Klaas-Douwe B., 2016, Six, not two, species of Acisoma pintail dragonfly (Odonata: Libellulidae), pp. 153-172 in Zootaxa 4109 (2) on pages 163-166, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4109.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/271419