Uroleucon nahuelhuapense Nieto Nafria & von Dohlen 2019
Creators: name: Durante, M. Pilar Mier
name: Ortego, Jaime
name: Von Dohlen, Carol D.
name: Nafría, Juan Manuel Nieto
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Aphidomorpha
Aphididae
Uroleucon
Uroleucon nahuelhuapense

description: Uroleucon nahuelhuapense Nieto Nafría & von Dohlen, 2019
Studied new material. ARGENTINA, Neuquén province, Los Lagos department, Santa María: km. 32 road 231 (40º 55’ S 71º 26’ W, 800 m a.s.l.) —species type locality—, on Adesmia boronioides, 10-January-2019, Ortego leg., 12 apterous viviparous females, 9 alate viviparous females, 19 oviparous females and 14 males, collections of the University of León (León, Spain) and The Natural History Museum (London, United Kingdom).
Apterous viviparous females. Figures 1 A–1C. Mounted specimens of the new material show varying pigmentation patterns; some are similar to those of the type-specimens, while others show more extensive or intense head, antennae, legs and siphunculi pigmentation (Figure 1). In quantitative characters the new specimens are similar to those of type-specimens, although they extend the ranges of several features (Table 2); it does not appear that greater or lesser measurements or quantities are correlated with greater or lesser pigmentation.
Alate viviparous females. Figure 2. Colour when alive bright emerald green, similar to apterous viviparae, with more-or-less dark brown head, antennae, most of legs and siphunculi. Body 2.88–3.88 mm long and pearshaped with long legs and antennae. In mounted specimens, abdomen pale in general with strong contrast to head and thorax, including antennae, rostrum and legs; these and the siphunculi are strongly pigmented, similar to those of the well-pigmented apterous viviparae. Alatae are also similar to apterae in many other qualitative characters (see Nieto Nafría et al. (2019) for apterous females) differing from them by having large and pigmented marginal sclerites on abdominal segments 1 to 4 that bear several setae, and small abdominal intersegmental muscular sclerites that are paler than the neighbouring segmental sclerites. Metric and meristic features in Table 2.
Oviparous females. Figures 3A and 3C. Similar overall in both alive and mounted specimens to apterous viviparous females, and also in body length and pigmentation variation. Differing in having a more pigmented subgenital plate with more setae, and a slightly swollen proximal part of the hind tibiae bearing most of the scent plates, which are diverse in size and form. Metric and meristic data are in Table 2.
Males. Figure 3B. Apterous. Brown-greenish when alive. They are also very similar to females, although slightly smaller, with shorter siphunculi and cauda; the cauda is more or less triangular. When mounted, pigmentation is also varied, although coxae, trochanters and cauda are darker than in females. In addition, setiferous sclerites on thoracic and abdominal segments are conspicuously larger and darker, marginal sclerites tend to coalesce between them, and there are dispersed ventral sclerites on abdominal segments 2 to 6 and a transverse band on segment 7. Quantitative features are in Table 2.
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Bionomics and geographical distribution. The new specimens do not change what is already known of the species with regard to its host plant, Adesmia boronioides, or geographical distribution, which is restricted to the eastern bank of Nahuel Huapi lake in the Argentinian province of Neuquén (Nieto Nafría et al. 2019).
Discussion. The observed differences in pigmentation between specimens of all morphs can be explained as intraspecific variability independent of geography or host plant. The variation affects specimens from the same location and on the same plants, which were collected at the same or similar time of year (the new specimens were collected in mid-January and the type specimens were collected in mid-December). The great similarities that the specimens of this species —viviparous and oviparous females and males— present generally, in many qualitative details and most quantitative features, are highly remarkable. The apterism of the males and the small swelling of hind tibiae in oviparous females can be related to a monoecious, non-host-alternating, life cycle. The brevity of the life cycle of the species is also very remarkable; sexuales are present in the first summer month in a locality of very moderate altitude, which undoubtedly hinders collection of this species in other locations and impedes the knowledge of its distribution.
description: Published as part of Durante, M. Pilar Mier, Ortego, Jaime, Von Dohlen, Carol D. & Nafría, Juan Manuel Nieto, 2020, A further contribution to the knowledge of Uroleucon species (Hemiptera, Aphididae) living on Adesmia (Fabaceae) in southern South America, with description of a new species from Chile, pp. 548-560 in Zootaxa 4748 (3) on pages 550-553, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4748.3.8, http://zenodo.org/record/3701139