Dicromantispa flavicauda (Navás)

Pires Machado, Renato Jose, Li, Hongyu & Ohl, Michael, 2025, Solving taxonomic and nomenclatural problems among the Neotropical species of the family Mantispidae (Insecta, Neuroptera), Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 72 (1), pp. 57-83 : 57-83

Dicromantispa flavicauda (Navás)

Fig. 6

Mantispilla flavicauda Navás, 1914 c: 86 . Lectotype: male ( NHMUK) (here designated). Type locality: Mexico: Guerrero: Venta de Zopilote

Notes.

The status of this species is similar to the previous two species. It was described by Navás (1914 c) from Venta de Zopilote at Guerrero state, Mexico, but the number of specimens used for the description is not clear ( Ohl 2004). In this sense, we are herein designating the sole male from NHMUK as the lectotype. After the original description, the species was treated in Mantispa by Penny (1977) and Ohl (2004), and more recently transferred to Dicromantispa by Snyman et al. (2018) without justification. After analyzing the lectotype, we agree with Snyman et al. (2018) that the species belongs to Dicromantispa .

Dicromantispa is currently known from Mexico by two species, D. interrupta and D. sayi , including records from Guerrero of both species ( Reynoso-Velasco and Contreras-Ramos 2010). Mantispilla flavicauda can be easily distinguished from D. interrupta , because the latter has specific marks on the forewings, but there is nothing that separates it from D. sayi , a widespread species with records from most of the USA south to Panama, including many of the Caribbean islands ( Hoffman et al. 2017). Dicromantispa sayi presents some color variation of the head and antennae ( Hoffman 1989) but the lectotype of M. flavicauda clearly fits within the known range of variations. Unfortunately, we only had access to images of the lectotype of M. flavicauda , and, therefore, we could not dissect the taxonomically significant genitalia. However, based on the current evidence, we are convinced that Mantispilla flavicauda Navás, 1912 is a junior synonym of Dicromantispa sayi (Banks, 1897) (new synonym).

Figures

Figure 6. Mantispilla flavicauda Navás 1914, lectotype, male. A, B. Habitus photo, dorsal and lateral views; C. Head, frontal view; D. Head and thorax, dorsal view; E. Foreleg, outer surface; F. Left fore and hind wings; G. Labels.