Polythore albistriata, Bota-Sierra & Herrera, 2023

Bota-Sierra, Cornelio & Herrera, Melissa Sánchez, 2023, A new species of bannerwing damselfly, Polythore albistriata sp. nov. (Odonata: Polythoridae), International Journal of Odonatology 26, pp. 82-92 : 83-91

Polythore albistriata new species ( Figs 1–10 )

Examined material

13 males, five females.

Holotype

CEUA 43176, male, from COLOMBIA, Huila Department, Estrecho del Magdalena, 1,400 m a.s.l., Lat. 1.9280280, Long. -76.2975000, collected with an aerial net in the forest, July 21, 2008, C. Bota leg.

Paratypes

Huila Department, San Agustin Municipality. One male, Parque Arqueológico Mesitas , 1,763 m a.s.l., Lat. 1.885500, Long. -76.294222, collected dead in a spider web over a rocky creek, July 20, 2008, C. Bota leg. ( CEUA 81599 ) . One male, at the outlet of the Naranjos River , 1,580 m a.s.l., Lat. 1.872000, Long. -76.299500, July 23, 2008, C. Bota leg. ( CEUA 43180 ) . Tow males, from the type locality, September 2011, E. Realpe leg. One male, from the type locality, Sept. 2014, E. Realpe and M. Sánchez leg. ( ANDES-E —DNA Voucher PM 1–2 ) . One female, from the type locality, September 6, 2016, Y. Cano leg ( ANDES-E 22915 ) . One female and two males, small creek on the route towards el Quebradón, 1,737 m a.s.l., Lat. 1.880111, Long. -76.309889, September 5–6, 2016. E. Realpe and Y. Cano leg. ( ANDES-E) . One male, El Pital Municipality, Vereda El Recreo , 2,020 m a.s.l., Lat. 2.283333, Long. -75.900000, edge of a gallery forest, July 7, 2013, C. Bota leg. ( CEUA 74238 ) . One male, Palestina Municipality , Natural National Park Cueva de los Guacharos , 2,300 m a.s.l., Lat. 1.6154240, Long. -76.1024390, on a trail, February 1, 2018, M. Ramírez and M. Fonseca leg. ( ANDES-E 23380 ) .

Caqueta Department. Three males, Florencia Municipality, near Puente Caraño , 652 m a.s.l., Lat. 1.736250, Long. -75.638250, October 11–14, 2014, C. Salazar leg. ( CAUR-DNA Voucher VOD1-3 ) .

Putumayo Department. Three females, Sibundoy Municipality, high sector of the road detour towards Mocoa-Sibundoy , 1,453 m a.s.l., Lat. 1.080122, Long. -76.731226, January 16, 2013, L. Pérez and J. Montes leg. ( UARC-SAIA _0558-0560) .

Localities recorded by citizen scientists in the Facebook group “Libélulas de los Andes Colombianos”. Huila Department: Municipality Baraya, La Troja township, 1,560 m a.s.l., Lat. 3.189512, Long. -74.938244, recorded by Michael Garcia. Municipality Palestina, Los Robles Reserve, 2,100 m a.s.l., Lat. 1.674236, Long. -76.147542, October 28, 2021, recorded by Joe Thompson. Neiva Municipality, 1,800 m a.s.l., Lat. 2.884386 Long. -75.066875, recorded by Arias H Dilmer.

Etymology

This name is a combination of two Latin roots that describe the wing color pattern of this species. The plural albis signifies “white”, and the singular feminine striata means a mark or a line.

Description of holotype

Head. Black except for the following pale yellow; two small, almost symmetric spots in the central part of the labrum, base of mandibles, genae, two small symmetric spots close to the lateral edge on the anteclypeus, and two transverse bands on the antefrons, starting under the scape and reaching the eye margin, two symmetric, ovoid spots on postfrons on each side of the median ocellus and two symmetric, quadrangular spots at the base of the postocular lobes; labium cream on base and black on apex. Anterior part of head except the antefrons smooth and shiny; dorsal part of head including antefrons with some pruinescence and a sculptured (punctuated), iridescent surface. Rear of head black with two symmetric, elongated, cream spots in the middle.

Thorax. Prothorax black, except for two symmetric, pale yellow bands on each side of the pronotal medium lobe, propleural external sides with pale yellow, thin bands. Pronotal medium lobe divided by a medial sulculus, pronotal posterior lobe rounded and convex.

Pterothorax. Black except for the following pale yellow areas: a transversal, thin stripe in the dorsal portion of the mesepisternum with perpendicularly bent distal ends, ending close to the antehumeral suture; a transversal stripe starting on the mesinfraepisternum, crossing the mesepisternum just above the antehumeral stripe and then descending to the metepisternum in the distal ¼ of its length; a transverse stripe starting on the mesocoxa, crossing the base of the mesinfraepisternum, continuing over the interpleural suture to half of its length where it continues on the dorsal part of the metepisternum, bending down close to the antealar suture; a transverse stripe on the metapleural suture, bifurcated towards its proximal end with the upper branch starting on the metepisternum and the lower branch starting on the metacoxa; a transverse stripe in the ventral area of the metepimeron, bifurcating towards its distal end with the upper branch on the metepimeron and the lower branch on the venter of the metathorax ( Fig. 1 ). Venter of pterothorax ocher, with a black spot shaped like a “W” ( Fig. 2 ).

Legs. Black except for proximal spots in the external 1/3 of the mesofemur and 2/3 of the metafemur; armature increasing towards the joint between the femora and the tibiae; the protibia apical third bears tibial combs on its external sides.

Wings. Veins brown, a transverse white band in the middle of the wings, extending to the Pt along the subcostal space ( Figs 3A , 4A , 5A ), see measurements of the wings and the white stripe in Table 1.

Abdomen. Black except for a pale yellow transverse lateral line that starts on S1 and ends in the middle of S3, with a small gap in the apical portion of S3, and a lateroapical spot on S4. Genital ligula with an inner fold proximal to flexure ( Fig. 6F ); in lateral view, two lateroapical subquadrate processes, with a short-curved flagellum on the apical corner, apex of the flagellum thickened ( Figs 6A, C, E, F ); in ventral (ectal) view, apex concave with two bluntly pointed processes ( Figs 6A, C, E, F ). Cercus black, twice as long as S10, with a ventral, curved, bluntly pointed process at the cercus’ midlength. Paraprocts undeveloped.

Measurements. Total length 5.4 cm, abdomen 4.4 cm.

Variation in male paratypes

In some of the paratypes the thin thoracic middorsal stripe is connected to the thin antehumeral stripe; the “W”-shaped spot on the venter of the pterothorax varies, with some forming a “U” and others being parenthesis-shaped “()” ( Figs 2 A, B ). Sometimes the abdominal lateroapical stripe extends to S4, sometimes there is a proximal spot on S5. The wing’s white stripe exhibits variation in width and in the starting and ending points within it ( Table 1, Fig. 5A ).

Measurements. Total length 5.2–5.5 cm, abdomen 4.2– 4.5 cm ( Fig. 3A ), right wings see Table 1.

Allotype description and variation in female paratypes

Head. Anteclypeus similar to that of holotype, almost black.

Legs as in the holotype.

Thorax and abdomen. Body coloration as in the holotype ( Figs 1B, C ), but the lateral stripe on the abdomen starts in S1 and terminates in the distal quarter of S5. The ventral coloration of the thorax varies from as in the holotype to a “U”-shaped spot ( Fig. 2C ). Ovipositor almost black, with a series of small denticles ventrally. Ovipositor stylus tip is the most distal part of the body ( Fig. 7 ).

Wings. The pale band is variable in size and some females have hyaline wings ( Figs 3B, C , 4B , 5B ).

Measurements. Total length 4.9–5.3 cm, abdomen 3.9– 4 cm, right wings see Table 1.

Diagnosis

Bick & Bick (1985, 1986) proposed six groups within the genus based mostly on their wing colorations, but the latest phylogenetic hypotheses show that these groups are not natural ( Sánchez et al., 2018, 2020). They ( Fig. 3 ) recovered P. albistriata sp. nov. (as Polythore sp. nov.) as closely related to P. conccina and P. procera . Males of these three species can be identified by their strongly contrasting wing coloration: Polythore concinna has smoky amber wings ( Fig. 8A ), P. procera has a white band in its middle third followed by a black band in the distal area ( Fig. 8A ), while P. albistriata has a white band in the middle third only ( Figs 4 , 5 ). Also, the shape of the genital ligula differs between these species: Polythore concinna has two very distinctive, enlarged processes on the apex, while P. procera and P. albistriata have similar ligula that can be differentiated by the apical lobes being more elongated in P. procera than in P. albistriata , and the lateral flagella in P. procera are two-segmented while in P. albistriata the apices of the flagella are thickened but not segmented into two ( Figs 8B , 6 ). The females can be distinguished by the color of their wings: Polythore concinna has amber-brown bands, P. procera sometimes shows a white band, but it is always followed by a black band that varies in size ( Fig. 8A ), sometimes being very narrow and sometimes covering the entire apex of the wing, while P. albistriata may sport a white band or have totally hyaline wings ( Figs 3 , 8A ). The species P. williamsoni and P. mutata have similar wing colorations as P. albistriata , with transverse white bands, but they differ in their genital ligula. The ligula of P. mutata has angulate anterolateral lobes, extremely short flagella, and wider lateroapical processes than P. albistriata , while P. williamsoni has ear-shaped two-segmented, long lateral flagella and wider lateroapical processes as well ( Sánchez et al., 2018). In addition, the geographical distributions of these two species are completely disjunctive from P. albistriata ; P. mutata is mainly distributed in the Amazon foothills, and P. williamsoni in the southeastern Andes of Peru.

DNA barcode identification

Two mitochondrial gene sequences that belong to Polythore albistriata sp. nov. were previously published on NCBI GenBank (see Table 2 for Accession Numbers). In addition, the Minimum Spanning Networks reveal that the haplotypes of P. albistriata are divergent from the most closely related species ( Fig. 9 ). However, it is important to highlight that the COI is highly diverse across all sampled haplotypes for all the species we compared. There may be more mutations between two specimens of P. albistriata coming from different geographic populations (18 mutational steps) than between some of the specimens from other species that are geographically closer to them (e.g., 6, 28 or 38 mutational steps between P. procera vs. P. albistriata haplotypes; see Fig. 8 ), suggesting that this gene fragment might be affected by introgression across close geographic populations, possibly indicating recent gene flow or incomplete lineage sorting across these species. The ND1 locus seems more stable at species level, clearly merging all the haplotypes of P. albistriata and showing divergence from the haplotypes of P. concinna , P. procera and P. derivata ( Fig. 9 ). Based on our results we suggest that for DNA identification in this genus NADH subunit I Dehydrogenase is a better barcode at species level, while Cytochrome Oxidase I can be a useful barcode for population-level signatures within a narrow geographical range.

Distribution

This mew species occurs in the southeastern Colombi- an Andes between 1,500 and 2,300 m a.s.l.. It has been recorded mainly in the upper Magdalena Valley in both the Central and Eastern Cordilleras (Huila Department) and in some localities on the Amazon slope of the Eastern Cordillera (Caquetá and Putumayo Departments; Fig. 10 ). This distribution pattern concurs with the biogeographic limits determined by the Colombian Massif and the Las Cruces Pass found in a study on endemic Andean birds (Hazi et al., 2018).

Biology

This species inhabits rocky streams and small rivers in cloud forests. Individuals within the known populations are not very abundant.

Conservation status

The species is known from nine different locations within a relatively small area with significant pressures from agriculture and urban expansion. Nevertheless, one of the locations lies inside the Colombian national park “Cueva de Los Guacharos” where the habitat for the species is protected.

Figures

Figure 1. A, B – Polythore albistriata thorax in lateral view, male, holotype: A – head in dorsal view; B – head in ventral view. C, D – Variation of thorax in lateral, and head in dorsal view: C – allotype; D – male, paratype.

Figure 2. Polythore albistriata, ventral view of the thorax: A – male, holotype; B –male, paratype; C – female, paratype.

Figure 3. Polythore albistriata, lateral fully body scans: A – ANDES-E 22917, male, paratype; B – ANDES-E 22915, allotype; C – UARC-SAIA 0558, female, paratype with hyaline wings.

Figure 4. Polythore albistriata, high-resolution scans of excised right wings: A – CAUR-PM2, male, paratype; B – ANDES- E 22915, allotype.

Figure 5. Polythore albistriata, variation of the white wing band against a contrasting background: A – males; B – females.

Figure 6. A–D: male genital ligula of closely related Polythore species in ventral (ectal) views: A – one-segment flagellum, P. albistriata, paratype; B – two-segment flagellum, P. procera; C – SEM, P. albistriata, paratype; D – SEM, P. concinna. E, F – Polythore albistriata, paratype: E – in lateroventral view; F – lateral view in open position. H, I – P. procera: H – in lateral view; I – in ventrolateral view. A and E by Camilo Flórez.

Figure 7. Polythore albistriata, ovipositor.

Figure 8. Diagnostic features of the two most closely related species, Polythore procera and P. concinna: A – Male and female wing color patterns; B – male genital ligula.

Figure 9. Minimum spanning haplotype networks for both barcode mitochondrial gene fragments—Cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and NADH subunit 1 dehydrogenase (ND1). Each circle represents a haplotype, and the numbers within the parentheses indicate the extent of mutations between them.

Figure 10. Polythore albistriata sp. nov. distribution map in southeastern Colombia near the Colombian Massif (purple) and the Eastern Cordillera Depression (orange). Collection-based (yellow) and citizen science data (blue).