A cryptic new species of Chlidonoptera Karsch, 1892 from the south west protected zone of the Central African Republic (Insecta, Mantodea, Hymenopodidae).

Nicolas Moulin

doi:10.3897/zookeys.917.39270

Abstract

Between 1998 and 2012, several scientific expeditions in Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve and Dzanga-Ndoki National Park led to the collection of many Mantodea specimens from Central African Republic (CAR). Among these specimens, several males of an undescribed species were discovered. Morphologically, this species most closely resembles to Chlidonoptera vexillum Karsch, 1892 and Chlidonoptera lestoni Roy, 1975. A new lineage was revealed by DNA barcoding. Therefore, a new species is described, Chlidonoptera roxanaesp. nov. Habitus images, genitalia illustrations and descriptions, measurement data, a key to species, natural history information, and locality data are provided. These results add to the evidence that cryptic species can be found in tropical regions, a critical issue in efforts to document global species richness. They also illustrate the value of DNA barcoding, especially when coupled with traditional taxonomic tools, in disclosing hidden diversity.

Highlights

Since the beginning of the 1980s, the entomologist Philippe Annoyer has been traveling in southwestern Central African Republic (CAR) searching for butterflies and other insects
Chlidonoptera chopardi is distributed in West Africa, C. vexillum and the new species are distributed in West Central Africa, C. lestoni is distributed in Ghana (Leston 1968, Roy et Leston 1975), with C. werneri distributed in the East
The cytochrome oxidase I gene (COI)-DNA barcoding of 19 Chlidonoptera specimens enabled to differentiate the new species from C. vexillum collected in Gabon (Moulin 2018a) and Cameroon

Summary

Introduction

Since the beginning of the 1980s, the entomologist Philippe Annoyer has been traveling in southwestern CAR searching for butterflies and other insects. Described by Karsch in 1892 (Bomistria lunata Saussure, 1898 synonym) to contain a single species C. vexillum, two species were added: C. chopardi Roy, 1964 and C. lestoni Roy, 1975. During this time, Roy synonymized the East African Anabomistria werneri Giglio-Tos, 1915 (Roy 1964) with Chlidonoptera, which was later confirmed by Lombardo (1997). Chlidonoptera chopardi is distributed in West Africa, C. vexillum and the new species are distributed in West Central Africa, C. lestoni is distributed in Ghana (Leston 1968, Roy et Leston 1975), with C. werneri distributed in the East. The description of a species should result from a synthesis of information that encompasses morphological, molecular, biological, biogeographical, physiological, ecological and bibliographical data, this compendium of information is lacking for the great majority of species

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Discussion