Calliopanorpa, Willmann, 2024

Willmann, Rainer, 2024, Phylogeny and evolutionary history of Mavropanorpa n. gen. (Mecoptera: Panorpidae), Zoologischer Anzeiger 311, pp. 69-87 : 81

Calliopanorpa n. gen.

Diagnostic characters: Notal organ very long, exceeding the 4th abdominal segment, postnotal organ at hind margin of 4th segment. Body and legs mostly yellow. Wings spotted, markings not developed as uninterrupted bands. - The first two characters are autapomorphies and thus indicate monophyly of the genus.

Typus generis: Panorpa takenouchii Miyak´e, 1913.

Additional species: C. dichotoma (Miyamoto, 1977) , C. nikkoensis (Miyak´e, 1908), C. kagamontana (Miyamoto, 1978) .

Derivatio nominis: καλός (kalos, gr.), beautiful; after Calliope (the beautiful-voiced, latinised spelling), according to Hesiod the wisest of the nine muses; the muse of science and philosophy.

Remarks on Panorpa jinhuaensis . P. jinhuaensis may or may not be closely related to Mavropanorpa . The species has basally crossed, filiform subsidia, and the chitinous strut has a broad, plate-like anterior attachment device for the subsadial muscles that reminds of that in amurensis (where it is, however, medially interrupted). The hypovalvae have a short, broad stalk superficially similar to that in amurensis . In other structures jinhuaensis is unlike Mavropanorpa . For example, the short dististyli resemble those of European species of Panorpa . This structure ensures that jinhuaensis is phylogenetically positioned outside Mavropanorpa . The hypovalvae are basally broad and taper towards their ends. The subsidia are terminally pointed, the lateral processes are small, the aedeagal perticae long, and aedeagal ventral valves are hardly developed. Again, jinhuaensis is small (fore wing lengths 10.2–10.8 mm, Wang et al. 2019: 151, while Mavropanorpa has fore wing lengths of 12–19 mm). Although these characters are untypical of Mavropanorpa , they do not exclude the possibility that jinhuaensis is sister to Mavropanorpa as circumscribed here. This position was assumed by Wang & Hua (2021: Fig. 15 ). According to Wang and Hua (2022), jinhuanensis belongs in the waongkehzengi group. Waongkehzengi and the similar P. menqiuleii (the third species in the group) have the subsidia not crossed (Wang et al. 2019: 156, 160–161. Possibly some more species belong in the group ( Wang and Hua 2019: 156). However, as their males are unknown clarification of their exact systematic position must be postponed. With respect to the crossing of the subsidia of jinhuaensis I am inclined to assume a unique case of convergence (but see discussion in section „Geography“.

Remarks on former species groups in Panorpidae . Several species groups that were proposed earlier were created by using characters not suitable for the reconstruction of natural, i.e. monophyletic entities. Wing markings tend to vary enormously intra-specifically but were much used in publications until the 1940s. Course and number of wing veins vary both within and across species and are largely dependent on wing size ( Ohm 1961). Colouration of thoracic nota may be totally black or exhibit a light pattern within one and the same species, etc. Such characters are, however, not entirely useless but must be taken as indicative of evolutionary relationships with care. Sometimes, it was not realised that the distribution of characters may show a clearly hierarchical pattern. Therefore, obvious sub-groups of some higher-level entities were not recognized as such. An example of paradoxical species groupings became obvious when Cheng (1957: 40) stated: „This species [ baohwashensis], belonging to the davidi group, resembles Panorpa approximata Esben-Petersen , which is in the amurensis group, as established by Issiki“. Repeatedly, convergently evolved structures and, of course, symplesiomorphies were taken for grouping scorpionflies which resulted in unnatural assemblages. Using geographical occurrence as a basis for sorting species may be practical for identifying species but cannot be simply equated with phylogenetically founded units. However, as evolution and geographic distribution are largely interdependent distribution patterns may offer additional evidence.

Figures

Fig. 15. Mavropanorpa japonica, terminal portion of right basistylus and basal portion of right dististylus, seen from left side, showing end of aedeagus and appendages after removal of left basi- and distylus. Arrow indicates level of cut between piston and roof of pumping chamber as depicted in Fig. 16. Scale 0.2 mm.