Brueelia semiscalaris Gustafsson & Zou & Oslejskova & Najer & Sychra 2019, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Gustafsson, Daniel R.
name: Zou, Fasheng
name: Oslejskova, Lucie
name: Najer, Tomas
name: Sychra, Oldřich
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Phthiraptera
Philopteridae
Brueelia
Brueelia semiscalaris

description: Brueelia semiscalaris sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: FB13FA53-0431-4E3B-9050-04D1BDEA14C5
Figs 9–15, 39–40
Type host
Granatina granatina (Linnaeus, 1766) – violet-eared waxbill (Estrildidae).
Type locality
Mahalapye, Botswana.
Diagnosis
Brueelia semiscalaris sp. nov. belongs to the “African pied Brueelia ” group (see above), but is the palest described member of this group. Within this group, B. semiscalaris sp. nov. is most similar to B. aguilarae Gustafsson & Bush, 2017, with which it shares the following characters: head relatively slender (Fig. 11), with flattened frons and only slightly convex lateral margins of the preantennal area; mesosome with nearly parallel lateral margins and somewhat angular postero-lateral corners (Fig. 13); aps absent on male tergopleurite IV (Fig. 9); tps absent on male tergopleurites V–VI (Fig. 9); ps present on female abdominal segment IV (Fig. 10).
Brueelia semiscalaris sp. nov. can be separated from B. aguilarae by the following characters: tps present on male tergopleurite VII in B. semiscalaris sp. nov. (Fig. 9), but absent in B. aguilarae; parameres broad and roughly oval in B. semiscalaris sp. nov. (Fig. 14), but slender and elongated in B. aguilarae; proximal mesosome with convex lateral margins in B. aguilarae, but with concave lateral margins in B. semiscalaris sp. nov. (Fig. 13); gonopore about as long as wide and penile arms reaching beyond distal margin of mesosome in B. semiscalaris sp. nov. (Fig. 13), but gonopore very short and penile arms not reaching posterior margin of mesosome in B. aguilarae; female subgenital plate with central translucent, T-shaped fenestra in B. aguilarae, but with arched central dark pigmentation in B. semiscalaris sp. nov. (Figs 15, 39); vulval margin with flattened median section in B. semiscalaris sp. nov. (Fig. 15), but with median point in B. aguilarae.
Etymology
The specific epithet is derived from the Latin ʻ semi ʼ for ʻpartial, incompleteʼ and ʻ scalaris ʼ for ʻladderʼ, referring to the pigmentation pattern of the abdomen.
Type material
Holotype BOTSWANA • ♂; Bechuanaland (= Botswana), Mahalapye; 21 Dec. 1955; British Museum; NHML 1956-561.
Paratype
BOTSWANA • ♀; same data as for holotype.
Description
Head rounded trapezoidal (Fig. 11), lateral margins of preantennal area slightly convex proximally and slightly concave distally, frons concave. Marginal carina moderate, deeply displaced and much widened at osculum, with almost even median margin. Ventral anterior plate large, with deeply concave anterior margin. Head chaetotaxy and pigmentation patterns as in Fig. 11. Preantennal nodi elongated. Preocular nodi much larger than postocular nodi. Marginal temporal carina moderate in width, with undulating median margin. Gular plate slender, lanceolate. Thoracic and abdominal segments and pigmentation patterns as in Figs 9–10, 39–40.
Male
Antennae folded ventrally in single examined male and cannot be illustrated accurately. Seemingly similar to female antennae (Fig. 11 a–b) in shape and proportions, but paler. Thoracic and abdominal chaetotaxy as in Fig. 9; aps present on tergopleurite V; tps present on tergopleurite VII. Proximal basal plate almost entirely translucent, exact extent hard to ascertain; here illustrated tentatively (Fig. 12); slender with concave lateral margins. Proximal mesosome rounded trapezoidal, rather broad (Fig. 13). Mesosomal lobes with nearly parallel lateral margins and somewhat angular postero-lateral corners; rugose area extensive at distal end. Gonopore arched, about as wide as long. Penile arms long, reaching beyond distal margin of mesosome. Parameres broadly oval, not much elongated distally, with pst1–2 as in Fig. 14. Measurements (n = 1): TL = 1.51; HL = 0.35; HW = 0.28; PRW = 0.18; PTW = 0.28; AW = 0.38.
Female
Thoracic and abdominal chaetotaxy as in Fig. 10; ps present on abdominal segment IV. Subgenital plate rounded triangular, with broad connection to cross piece and unique pigmentation pattern (Fig. 15). Vulval margin flattened, median section somewhat concave, with 6–7 short, slender vms and 7–8 short, thorn-like vss on each side; 3 short, slender vos on each side of subgenital plate; distal 1 vos just anterior to vss. Measurements (n = 1): TL = 1.91; HL = 0.40; HW = 0.31; PRW = 0.20; PTW = 0.32; AW = 0.46.
description: Published as part of Gustafsson, Daniel R., Zou, Fasheng, Oslejskova, Lucie, Najer, Tomas & Sychra, Oldřich, 2019, Four new species of Brueelia Kéler, 1936 (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera) from African hosts, with a redescription of Nirmus bicurvatus Piaget, 1880, pp. 1-48 in European Journal of Taxonomy 507 on pages 13-16, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2019.507, http://zenodo.org/record/2612931