Taxonomic revision of the genus Phyllothelys Wood-Mason (Mantodea: Hymenopodidae) from China

Abstract

Summary The genus Phyllothelys Wood-Mason (Mantodea: Hymenopodidae: Phyllothelyinae) includes 18 species in the world, among which 12 species were recorded in China. However, most Phyllothelys species have been described only for a single sex, and previous taxonomic characters are mainly based on the vertex prolongation of head, which leads to taxonomic confusion within the genus. Here, after raising and observing large amounts of males and females Phyllothelys, collected in the same localities, we find that several species which were described based on a single male or female are conspecific, and that there are significant differences between the males and females for some species. Then, we propose other stable taxonomic characters within species and provide for the first time a systematic review of the Phyllothelys species in China. We propose that Phyllothelys Wood-Mason should be divided into four species groups. Seven new species, P. cancongi n. sp., P. tianfuense n. sp., P. tengchongense n. sp., P. xiezhi n. sp., P. jiazhii n. sp., P. dulongense n. sp. and P. chuangtsei n. sp., are described. Phyllothelys hepaticum (Zhang) and P. wuyiense (Yang & Wang) are proposed as synonyms of P. werneri Karny. Phyllothelys robustum (Niu & Liu) is transferred to P. sinense robustum (Niu & Liu) n. stat. Life history, necessary illustrations and ecological images of Phyllothelys species from China are presented. The distribution of the genus Phyllothelys species is discussed and mapped.