Mantispa indica Westwood , 1852 ( Neuroptera : Mantispidae ) , a rare species with some morphological notes from Assam , India

Mantispa indica (Westwood) is an insufficiently explored species under the family Mantispidae (Neuroptera) with limited understanding. Its presence has been documented in various regions of India and Nepal over time. Nevertheless, a comprehensive examination of its morphometric characteristics has been lacking. This research presents a novel morphological comparison of male and female specimens, accompanied by appropriate illustrations, from two distinct protected areas in Assam, India.

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online); ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)  Mantispidae (Leach, 1815) is one of the taxonomically complex, least studied families belonging to the highly diverse order Neuroptera. This group of insects is noteworthy because of their raptorial front legs attached to the anterior margin of an elongate prothorax, they resemble small praying mantids of the order Mantodea, for which they are popularly called false mantids or Mantidfly (Ohl 2007). The overall similarity between mantispids and mantids is clearly due to convergent evolution of morphological similarities of two unrelated insect groups (Cannings & Cannings 2006). In spite of their adaptive significance, this group of insects have received relatively little attention, which is mainly due to less abundance, relatively small number of species and complicated life-cycle (Bhattacharjee et al. 2010). They show hypermetamorphic type of development where, the first instar larvae are campodeiform and quite mobile, and the last two instars are scarabaeiform and relatively immobile (Ghosh 2000;Ohl 2004). In addition, the biology of most species is unknown, those that are known have larvae that feed on Hymenoptera and spiders.

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India. Bhattacharjee et al. (2010) reported the Mantispa nodosa (Westwood, 1847) from West Bengal of India. Ohl (2004) reported the distribution of Mantispa indica from Indian oriental, Calcutta, Nepalia. Ghosh (2000) reported distribution of Mantispa indica from Assam (Sibsagar), Calcutta, Darjeeling, Meghalaya, Sikkim, western Himalaya, and Karnataka. Very recently, Suryanarayanan & Bijoy (2021) reported Mantispilla indica from the Western Ghats in India. But its occurrence in Assam particularly in lower Assam is still doubtful as there is no sufficient supporting literature against it. Thus, the present paper provides first record from this area with some standard measurements of body parts following Ohl (2004) that facilitate future comparison with other species in Mantispa.

Materials and Methods
Male and female individuals were collected from two different localities ( Both the samples were preserved in 80% ethanol following Ghosh (1998) and stored for future reference in the laboratory of Ecology and Wildlife, Department of Zoology, Bodoland University, Kokrajhar, Assam. The species was identified following available literature and comparing with the samples of Hope Entomological Collection, Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Tauber et al. 2019). Images were captured by Zoom Stereo Microscope LB-340 and Canon EOS 500D. The measurements are in millimetre made with an eyepiece graticule following the software MICAPS MICAPS-MicroView.
Nomenclature: The name is now the same as the original, and it is listed as such by Ohl (2004: 184). For a while, the species was known as Mantispa (Mantispilla) indica (Westwood) [combination by Enderlein (1910: 346)]. Later, the name Mantispilla was synonymized with Mantispa by Penny (1982: 217).
Habit and Habitat: The female was reported while seating on a tender leaf of Sida sp. on the road side where the upper canopy was open. The individual was found immovable for about 10 minutes before capture. Perhaps the individual was waiting for its prey. On the other hand, male was attracted towards the CFL bulb while light trapping and hovering over the bulb. The habitat was mostly dominated by the Sal trees (Shorea robusta) along with bamboo patches. Flying and walking pattern was observed and recorded inside the rearing box (1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 ft). They usually do not fly for long distance and while flying they resemble to the wasp species. Besides, they walk within a short distance with the help of meta and meso-thoracic pair of legs. Antennas are moving straight up and down movement. Like other neuropteran insects the mantispids are also solitary in nature. Besides, their peculiar lifecycle, solitary nature and extremely low abundance they are very difficult to recognise in nature.

Diagnosis of sexes
Female: Pronotum dorsally yellow but ventrolaterally dark brown. Black lines in the margin of precoxa and coxa are distinct. Abdomen eight segmented with dark brown lines at the junction of each tergite. Yellow band of antenna are absent. Underside of femur is blackish-brown. Abdomen is comparatively larger than the male (Image 1).
Measurements and ratios (in mm) of male and female: A few measurements were depicted of male and female for a more detailed description (Table 1). For convenience, Lambkin (1986) abbreviations are added in brackets after the descriptions (e.g., minimum frontal eye distance [WBE]").
Male: Body dark brown and slander. Lower part of the abdomen yellowish with eight abdominal segments. Abdomen dorso-ventrally flattened with prominent terminal gonocoxaite. Pronotum dark brown. Underside J TT

Conclusion
Northeastern India is a biodiversity hotspot with a large number of endemic elements within its fauna and flora. But order Mantispidae was poorly documented from this region. Though the species are solitary, low abundance and obscure in nature, the occurrence of both male and female individuals from two different locations indicates the presence of more Mantispidae than presently known. Accordingly, extensive survey and collection is needed throughout the region so as to further expand our knowledge of the diversity, conservation status as well as to discover the biology of these fascinating species.
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