Catestiasula moultoni Giglio-Tos 1915
Creators: name: Schwarz, Christian J.
name: Shcherbakov, Evgeny
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Mantodea
Hymenopodidae
Catestiasula
Catestiasula moultoni

description: Catestiasula moultoni Giglio-Tos, 1915
(Figs 8, 17–18, 22, 51, 60)
Catestiasula moultoni Giglio-Tos 1915: 101.
Catestiasula moultoni Giglio-Tos, 1915. In: Giglio-Tos 1927: 547.
Hestiasula moultoni (Giglio-Tos, 1915). In: Beier 1934: 17; Ehrmann 2002: 171; Otte & Spearman 2005: 78.
Material. 1 ♂, Malaysia, Borneo, Sarawak, Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary, Sarawak Forestry Department Research Station, at station lights, N 01˚38’43.58”–E 112˚16’41.98”, 15.–27.VI.2008, O. Konopik leg. (CS; pinned); 1 damaged ♀, Brunei, Borneo, Ulu Temburong National Park, Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre, II.2013, O. Konopik leg. (CS; pinned); 3 ♂♂, Malaysia, Borneo, Sabah, Keningau distr., Trus Madi Forest Reserve, 1150 m, 28.III–10.IV.2011, P. Udovichenko leg. (ES; pinned); 1 ♂, same place, Borneo Jungle Girl camp, N 05°26’35” –E 116°27’5”, 1250 m, II.2014, A. Klimenko leg. (ES; pinned); 20 ♂♂, same place, 22.–27.V.2014, E. Shcherbakov leg. (ES; ethanol); 3 ♂♂, Malaysia, Borneo, Sabah, Pensiangan distr., Pensiangan env., N 04°34.948’ –E 116°19.935’, 516 m, 27.V–2.VI.2014, E. Shcherbakov leg. (ES, ethanol); 1 ♂, Malaysia, Borneo, Sabah, Danum Valley, N 45°57’ –E 117°47’, 220 m, primary forest, canopy 40 m, lux, 22.III.2003, M. Helmkampf leg. (genitalia preparation Schwarz No. 189) (CS; pinned).
Distribution. N Borneo (Giglio-Tos 1915, 1927, Helmkampf et al. 2007, Schwarz & Konopik 2014).
Measurements in mm. Male: body length 16.3–18.6; head width 3.2–3.3; pronotum length 2.5–2.6; pronotum width 2.3–2.4; metazona 1.2; fore coxa length 4.3–4.4; fore femur length 5.4–5.6; fore femur width 2.9–3.0; fore tibia length 3.4–3.6; hind femur length 3.9–4.2; fore wing length 15.0–16.7; fore wing width 4.2–4.4; hind wing length 14.2–14.6.
Female: fore femur length 6.8; fore femur width 3.7; meso femur length 4.1; meso tibia length 3.7; hind femur length 4.9; hind tibia length 5.3; fore wing length 18.2; fore wing width 4.8; costal field width 0.9.
Among a collection of mantodeans from Brunei submitted to CS for study was a damaged female attributable to this species. Despite its bad condition, it is useful to give a description of the specimen in order to complete the generic and specific diagnosis (see also Werner 1933).
Description of female. Specimen lacks head, pronotum and forelegs except one right femur, and the right tegmen.
Fore femur (Fig. 18) with 14 antero-ventral spines; spination formula iIiIiIiIiIiiiI. Posterior side with some tubercles on non-dilated part of femur. Postero-ventral margin very slightly serrulated between postero-ventral spines, with small pit between proximal first and second postero-ventral spines to accommodate distal-most postero-ventral spine of fore tibia.
Mid and hind legs with a ventral carina, hind femora additionally with a small proximal lobe. Hind metatarsus slightly shorter than remaining segments combined.
Wings longer than abdomen, iridescent, slightly infumate, with opaque veins. Costal field of tegmen narrow (less than one third of tegmen width), with irregular cross-veins. Stigma indistinct.
Abdomen simple, fusiform, without lobes. Cerci short, pilose, last segment conical.
Coloration. Main color dark brown. Distal part of fore coxa blackish, dorsal apical lobe light brown. Trochanter blackish. Posterior side of fore femur brown, dilated part with two irregular light markings, one at base, the second in distal third. Ventral part of fore femur black anteriorly, with a whitish patch traversing the clawgroove. Dilated part blackish ventrally, becoming somewhat lighter towards posterior margin, with two irregular yellowish markings at the same positions as seen on posterior side. Postero-ventral spines brown with dark apex, antero-ventral and discoidal spines blackish.
Mid and hind legs whitish, strongly mottled with dark, mottling pattern creating three indistinct annulations on femora and tibiae. Tarsomeres slightly darkened distally.
Costal field, and area between subcostal and cubital vein in proximal part of tegmen opaque reddish-brown, remaining parts of tegmen perfectly hyaline, albeit slightly infumate, with reddish veins. Hindwings hyaline, slightly infumate, more so towards apex, area between costal and radial veins blackish opaque, discoidal area with blackish veins, anal area with blackish main and reddish cross-veins. All hyaline parts strongly iridescent.
Abdomen shiny black dorsally, brownish ventrally.
Remarks. Giglio-Tos (1915) created the genus Catestiasula for two species: Pachymantis nitida, designated as type species, and his newly described C. moultoni. In the original description and in his subsequent monograph on Mantodea (Giglio-Tos 1927) he distinguished the two species based on the color of forewing main veins, which are allegedly blackish in C. nitida and reddish in C. moultoni, and the color of the mid and hind tarsomeres, which are supposed to be simply brownish (“testaceous”) in moultoni but with black apex in nitida. The wings of nitida were characterized as being more infumate than in moultoni. At the same time he mentioned nothing about the coloration of fore femora.
The types of C. moultoni, collected around Kuching, could not be located in the Sarawak Museum of Natural History, Kuching, where they had presumably been deposited (Ehrmann 2002).
The characters used by Giglio-Tos (1915, 1 927), i. e. the color of the veins and of the tarsi, are of little use in distinguishing between the species of this genus. The male specimens tentatively identified as C. nitida have three maculations on the fore femur, which may vary in their extent but seem to be always present. C. nitida is more robust and slightly larger than C. moultoni, with longer wings and more robust genitalia.
Both sexes of C. moultoni have forewing veins of various hues, mostly dark red to reddish-brown, and mid and hind tarsomeres with dark apices. Most of them have the antero-ventral side of the fore femur uniformly black, with only a small white spot in the claw groove (Fig. 17), but several specimens, including the female (Fig. 18), also have two very weakly expressed, more distal spots, of the same shape and position as in C. nitida. Despite this, truly intermediate specimens do not seem to exist, pointing to the validity of both C. nitida and C. moultoni.
The situation is further complicated by the existence of continental specimens without spots on the fore femur. Hestiasula seminigra Zhang, 1992, from China undoubtedly belongs to Catestiasula, being very similar to both SE Asian species in all respects. Accordingly, we transfer it here to this genus as Catestiasula seminigra (Zhang, 1992) n. comb.. This species is particularly close to or even identical with C. moultoni. Specimens probably representing the latter species are also known from Saraburi, S Thailand (SMNK), and Selangor, Malay Peninsula (Fig. 52). There is also an unidentified Catestiasula specimen from Kerala, India in the SMNK, extending the distribution of the genus to the Indian subcontinent. Its genitalia are depicted in Fig. 47. A revision of the whole complex with examination of additional material from various locations throughout the range is highly desirable to determine the true diversity of this genus.
description: Published as part of Schwarz, Christian J. & Shcherbakov, Evgeny, 2017, Revision of Hestiasulini Giglio-Tos, 1915 stat. rev. (Insecta: Mantodea: Hymenopodidae) of Borneo, with description of new taxa and comments on the taxonomy of the tribe, pp. 243-274 in Zootaxa 4291 (2) on pages 251-253, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4291.2.2, http://zenodo.org/record/829531