Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2022 | 14(7): 21462–21466
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8026.14.7.21462-21466
#8026 | Received 21 May 2022 | Final received
23 June 2022 | Finally accepted 01 July 2022
Illustrated description of the
mantis Mesopteryx platycephala
(Mantodea: Mantidae)
collected from West Bengal, India
Gauri Sathaye
1, Sachin Ranade 2 & Hemant Ghate
3
1 9A/12 Paschimanagari,
S No. 21 Kothrud, Pune, Maharashtra 411029, India.
2 Vulture Conservation Breeding Center, Rani, Kamrup, Assam
781131, India.
3 Post-Graduate Research Centre,
Department of Zoology, Modern College of Arts, Science & Commerce (Autonomous),
Shivajinagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411 005, India.
1 grsathaye@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 sachinranade@yahoo.com, 3 hemantghate@gmail.com
Abstract:
The mantis, Mesopteryx platycephala, is redescribed
with digital images. Although known from Assam, West Bengal and other areas,
the mantis is not recently collected or illustrated from India so far and is
perhaps a rare species. This short note aims to fill up the lacuna.
Keywords: Dictyoptera, Mantini,
Paramantinae, praying mantis.
Editor: Anonymity requested. Date of publication: 26 July 2022
(online & print)
Citation: Sathaye,
G., S. Ranade & H. Ghate (2022). Illustrated description of the
mantis Mesopteryx platycephala
(Mantodea: Mantidae)
collected from West Bengal, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 14(7): 21462–21466. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8026.14.7.21462-21466
Copyright: © Sathaye
et al. 2022. Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: DST Woman Scientist Scheme.
Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: Gauri Sathaye
is indebted to DST Woman Scientist Scheme SSD/SS/029/2008 under which she
received financial assistance. Sachin Ranade is thankful to the Bombay Natural
History Society for support and encouragement. Authors are grateful to the
authorities of Modern College for facilities and encouragement.
A mantis collected in Alipurduar, West Bengal, was identified as Mesopteryx platycephala
(Stål, 1877) based on keys in Mukherjee et al.
(1995). According to Giglio-Tos (1927) and Ehrmann (2002), there are only three species under this
genus, namely Mesopteryx alata Saussure,1870, Mesopteryx
platycephala (Stål,
1877), and Mesopteryx robusta
Wood- Mason, 1882. All these three mantids are large, elongate (more than 90 mm
total length), and all are very similar to the members of the genus Tenodera but possess longer body and broader head. Stål (1877), in fact, had described this species as Tenodera platycephala.
The keys in Mukherjee et al.
(1995) include only two species which were differentiated on the presence of transverse
black lines on lamellar portion of prosternum under metazona
(platycephala) or absence of such lines (robusta). Giglio-Tos
(1927) briefly redescribed all the three species and
separated different species by a key; in the same key Mesopteryx
alata and Mesopteryx platycephala
are separated on the basis of length of forewing in female: forewing longer
than pronotum (alata) and forewing very short
than pronotum (platycephala). But the
characters of wings for males were not given. In recent years, Ehrmann (2002) also gave detailed diagnosis of the genus Mesopteryx and our specimen fits well in this genus.
Our specimen was diagnosed as Mesopteryx platycephala
using the keys in Mukherjee et al. (1995) which considered only platycephala and robusta
to be found in India at that time. Of these two, robusta
is much elongate form, in excess of 115 mm in total length. The specimen being
briefly redescribed here is shorter in body length
and has distinct, complete and incomplete transverse lines on the lamellar
portion of prosternum under metazona.
Redescription
Classification according to Ehrmann (2002):
Dictyoptera, Mantodea,
Mantidae, Paramantinae, Mantini.
Genus Mesopteryx
Saussure, 1870
Coloration: Overall uniformly pale brown
dorsally. Ventrally also pale brown but there is a tinge of greenish coloration
on prosternum and anterior side of femora and tibia. In forewings costal margin
is distinctly light green and is bordered below by dark reddish-brown line
(Image A 1,2 & Image B 3).
Spines: Fore femur with antero-ventral series blackish-brown with
black tips (Image B1) with postero-ventral series
pale brown with black tips (Image B2); of these longer spines are darker;
discoidal spines internally (anteriorly) black; externally (posteriorly) pale brown.
Prosternal expansion with many transverse blackish
lines, some of which are complete end to end, some are incomplete while some
are like dots (Image C1,2).
General: Large, elongate, brown colored, and relatively robust mantis (Image A).
Head: Triangular. Vertex slightly
convex, smooth with distinct juxtraoccular lobes.
Eyes oblong, slightly globular, projecting and widely separated. Ocelli small.
Antennae thin, filliform. Frontal sclerite (lower
frons) transverse, more than three times wider than high, its superior border
arched (Image B4).
Pronotum: long, depressed
(dorsoventrally flattened), lateral borders of metazona
lamellar; prozona with serrated margin, only anterior
half of the metazonal margin feebly serrated; lateral
edges of metazona almost parallel, supracoxal dilation indistinct; prozona
with a longitudinal median sulcus in posterior half whereas metazona
with smooth and round median carina, which is prominent in posterior half;
prosternum with four distinct denticulate carinae (Image C2) whereas disc of metasternum smooth and flat. Metazona
longer than fore coxae.
Legs: Fore legs: coxae: anterior
edge with many tubercles and spinules, hence
appearing rough; preapical lobes (fore coxal lobes)
convergent. Fore femur: Elongate, slightly narrowed apically. Dorsal margin
straight and smooth external (postero-ventral) spines
– four, internal spines (antero-ventral)
– 15, all black at tip only, discoidal spines – four, all discoidal
spines black on anterior side; claw groove (tibial spur groove) near middle.
Fore tibia: Internal (antero ventral) spines – 15;
external (postero-ventral) spines – 11, all black at
tips only, their lengths increasing from base to apex (Image B1,2).
Spine formula: F=4DS/15AvS/4PvS;
T=15AvS/11PvS
Mid and Hind legs: Long and
slender; mid legs moderately long while hind legs longer; legs covered with
short, fine setae. Femora without apical spine. Tibial spur prominent. Tarsus
long; basitarsus longer than rest of the segments taken together.
Wings: Both wings shorter than
body, costal area of fore wing green, opaque, rest of the wing highly
reticulated and translucent (Image B3).
Abdomen: Abdominal segments
longer than broad, genital segments and genitalia damaged. The slender body and
long wings suggest it to be a male.
Material examined: Regn.
No. MCZM 55, 10.v.2006, 1 male, genital region mutilated, Alipurduar,
West Bengal, coll. Sachin Ranade. This mantis was collected as a dead specimen
killed under a vehicle, later presumably partly eaten by ants.
Discussion
As mentioned earlier, based on
keys / descriptions in Giglio-Tos (1927) and
Mukherjee et al. (1995) our specimen is Mesopteryx
platycephala. The third species Mesopteryx alata of
Saussure was differentiated from platycephala
on the basis of comparative length of elytra (forewings) and pronotum of female
(see Giglio-Tos 1927) but our specimen is a male, on
the basis of the shape of abdomen. In the specimen with us, the forewings are
much longer than pronotum. The other character to distinguish these two species
can be total length based on Giglio-Tos’s (1927)
data: male of platycephala is about 90 mm and
female 110 mm long and in alata, length
of the body in female is 106 mm. Giglio-Tos (1927)
also gave other measurements such as length pronotum, metazona
and length of fore wings, in males as well as females, of M. platycephala and these are comparable with similar
measurement in our specimen, leaving no doubt that our specimen is M. platycephala. Male genitalia of none of these species
have been studied and in our specimen also the genitalia are damaged.
Subsequent to Mukherjee et al.
(1995), Ehrmann (2002) gives distribution of alata as southern China, northern India, and the
Philippines. Latest checklist by Mukherjee et al. (2014) gives distribution as
“India: (Assam, Sikkim, West Bengal); Elsewhere: Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal”.
Thus all the three species are present in India. As there are a very few
records or new collections of this insect, this appears to be a rare mantis.
The only other recent record of the same species is of Ehrmann
& Borer (2015) from Nepal wherein the male is said to be 89–103 mm long
while the female is 110–113 mm; the same paper gives the distribution of M. platycephala as present in northeastern
India, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Nepal. So our specimen is male even when size is
compared. Future studies on genitalia will throw more light on this genus.
Measurements in (mm):
Total length 95; tip of the
abdomen damaged. Pronotum 35 (Prozona 7 and Metazona 28); fore wings 50; hind wings 42.
Fore leg—Coxa 17; Femur 20; Tibia
8; Tarsus 8; (Basitarsus 5).
Mid leg—Coxa 5; Femur 18; Tibia
16; Tarsus 7; (Basitarsus 4).
Hind leg—Coxa 6; Femur 26; Tibia
27; Tarsus 10; (Basitarsus 5).
For images - -
click here (for full PDF)
References
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