Speleoberotha Machado & Martins & Aspöck & Tavares & Aspöck 2022, GEN. NOV.

SPELEOBEROTHA GEN. NOV.

Zoobank registration: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: A60A28A2-C57B-4BD7-A040-B2519BF4ABE9.

E t y m o l o g y: S p e l e o (f r o m G r e e k σ Π ηλαίων, spelaion = cave) and Berotha, type genus of Berothidae, a common suffix for genera in this group of animals.

Type species: Speleoberotha palomae sp. nov.

Autapomorphies: Antennae longer than body; Sc and RA not fused apically; male gonocoxites 9 as an unpaired bow.

Description

Head with frons elongated; antennae moniliform and longer than body length. Pronotum wider than long, with one transversal furrow. Legs cursorial. Wings with membrane mostly hyaline but with dark markings surrounding the major forks and crossveins; margins beaded; Sc and RA not fused apically; RP with two or three major forks. Forewing with humeral recurrent vein; subcostal veinlets forked. Hindwing with CuP extremely reduced. Abdomen with ninth tergite separated from the ectoproct. Male genital sclerites without bristles; gonocoxites and gonostyli 10 (mediuncus) fused and forming an elongate and acute structure; gonocoxites 11 and 9 (gonarcus and parameres, respectively) are two unpaired bows fused basally. Female genitalia with tiny curved sclerites representing gonapophyses 9; gonocoxites 8 and gonapophyses 8 absent, and spermatheca elongated and coiled.

Remarks

The two species included in the new genus seem to be cave dwelling, because both species were collected in or nearby caves and rock overhangs, probably living around the sheltered cave entrance area, not deep into it. This is the first record of any Berothidae living in this type of habitat. In some of the dissected specimens of both species presented here, the abdomen is full of pollen (Fig. 2A,B), indicating an herbivorous diet. Pollen feeding has been reported before for different species of Berothidae, such as Berothimerobius reticulatus Monserrat & Deretsky, 1999, Nyrma kervillea Navás, 1933 (Monserrat, 2006), the Cyrenoberothinae C. penai as reported by MacLeod & Adams (1967), and Manselliberotha, as verified here by the dissection of a few specimens. This feeding behaviour suggests that the adults of the new genus can fly outside the caves to feed on nearby plants from the Atlantic Forest biome (Fig. 2C) and return to the safety of the cave entrances.

The unpaired male gonocoxites 9 seems to be an autapomorphy of Speleoberotha in Mantispoidea. Among the superfamily, this particular genital piece is generally constituted by a pair of rods that are associated basally with the gonocoxites 11 (gonarcus) (Aspöck & Aspöck, 2008) and are generally important for species determination, particularly in Symphrasinae (ArdilaCamacho et al., 2021). In the new genus, these two rods are fused, forming a bow similar to gonocoxite 11, representing a unique characteristic of Speleoberotha.

The long and acute structure in the male terminalia (formerly mediuncus) is interpreted here as the fusion of the unpaired gonocoxites and gonostyli 10. This interpretation follows Ardila-Camacho et al. (2021), who demonstrated that in Mantispoidea the structure traditionally called the mediuncus is formed by the gonocoxite and the gonostyli and that these are sometimes clearly distinguishable, as in Symphrasinae, or fused, as in Cyrenoberotha and Manselliberotha. In Speleoberotha, this elongated structure shows a small central hollow that is considered here as the fusion point between the gonocoxites and the gonostyli.

Distribution (Fig. 3B, C): Brazil (Ceará, Pernambuco, Minas Gerais).