Rhopalopsole vespertilio Du 2017, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Du, Yu-Zhou
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Plecoptera
Leuctridae
Rhopalopsole
Rhopalopsole vespertilio

description: Rhopalopsole vespertilio Chen & Du, sp. nov.
Figs. 1–14.
Male. Body length 6.5–7.0 mm. ForeWings length 6.0– 6.3 mm, hindWings length 4.5–5.0 mm. Head dark broWn With pale ocelli, compound eyes dark; antennae and mouthparts light broWn. Pronotum broWn, surface With broWn rugosities, corners obtuse. Wings subhyaline, veins broWn. Legs and abdomen broWn (Figs. 1, 9).
Terminalia. Tergum 9 mostly sclerotized and distinctly Wider than long, With shalloW anterior indentation, posterior margin With a pair of eye-shaped dark sclerites. Sternum 9 basally With flabelliform vesicle bearing dense hairs, apically With semielliptical subgenital plate. Tergum 10 With darkly sclerotized, bat-shaped central plate; transverse bars sub-trapezoidal, narroWed medially and margined posteriorly; lateral projections With strongly sclerotized anterior margin, broad basally, abruptly constricted at half-length, and gradually tapering to an upturned sharp spine (Figs. 2–4, 6). Cercus hairy and upcurved, Without apical spine. Epiproct small and forming an upcurved hook, arising from a membranous and hairy cushion (Figs. 3–4, 7–8). Subanal lobe sclerotized and upturned, slightly narroWed at base and rounded apically (Figs. 5–6).
Female. Body length 8.0– 8.5 mm. ForeWings length 7.5–8.0 mm, hindWings length 6.3–6.5 mm. General color much paler than male (Figs. 10, 13). Subgenital plate on sternum 7 broad and produced into a rounded sclerotized extension medially With a semicircle notch. Sternum 8 concaved posteromedially, With a pair of bent sclerites on posterolateral margin (Fig. 11). Abdominal tip rounded and membranous from dorsal vieW (Fig. 12).
Type material. Holotype: male, China: Jiangsu Province, Liyang City, WaWushan Forest Farm, 65m, 31°39.52'N, 119°17.65'E, 30 March, 2016, leg. Zhi-Teng Chen, Qing-Bo Huo. Paratypes: 3 males and 4 females, same data as holotype (Insect Collection of Yangzhou University, Jiangsu Province, China).
Etymology. The Latin name of the species refers to the bat-like shaped central plate of tergum 10.
Diagnosis and Remarks. The neW species is a member of the R. magnicerca species group as proposed by Sivec et al. (2008). This species is characterized by the bat-like shaped central plate of tergum 10, by the medially narroWed subtrapezoidal transverse bars, and by the upcurved hook formed by the small epiproct. The neW species is most similar to R. longispina Yang & Yang, 1991 of the R. magnicerca species group. HoWever, in R. longispina, shape of the tergum 10 central plate differs from that of R. vespertilio; the subanal lobe is parallel-sided instead of narroWed basally and rounded apically as in R. vespertilio; the paired sclerites on posterior margin of tergum 9 are contiguous (Figs. 3, 5, and figs. 51–52 in Li & Yang 2012). In addition, the female of R. longispina has much narroWer subgenital plate With a triangular notch; the pattern of abdominal segments is also distinct from the neW species (Fig. 11, and figs. 43–44 in Li & Yang 2012). Currently, at least seven species of the R. magnicerca species group ae knoWn from China (Qian & Du 2013).
description: Published as part of Du, Yu-Zhou, 2017, Description of the first new species of Leuctridae (Plecoptera) from Jiangsu Province of China, pp. 185-193 in Zootaxa 4319 (1) on pages 185-188, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4319.1.11, http://zenodo.org/record/888573