Nesocordulia malgassica Fraser, 1956
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publication ID |
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5660.2.1 |
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publication LSID |
lsid:zoobank.org:pub:103B00A2-9573-45C1-B1AE-A1FA9772E247 |
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DOI |
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16602864 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/B042BE13-FF8C-AA62-71DD-52FAFD1BFCD1 |
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treatment provided by |
Plazi |
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scientific name |
Nesocordulia malgassica Fraser, 1956 |
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Nesocordulia malgassica Fraser, 1956 View in CoL —Rusty-tipped Knifetail
Figs 9 View FIGURE 9 , 15 View FIGURE 15 , 17–19 View FIGURE 17 View FIGURE 18 View FIGURE 19
Etymology. A feminine adjective indicating the species’ Malagasy origin.
Type material. Holotype male and allotype female ( MNHN), both from Ambila-Lemaitso , Atsinanana Region, Madagascar, 03.1951.
Photographic records. Male (two photographs), 18.9115° S, 48.4332° E, which lies between the Analamazaotra Special Reserve and Mantadia National Park at 964 m asl, Alaotra-Mangoro Region, 06.02.2001, photo by Ulrich Röder (https://observation.org/observation/49961334/ erroneously assigned to Zahamena National Park).
Diagnosis. Medium-sized Nesocordulia species that appears to be unique by its black abdomen with uniformly rufous S7–10 and its slender cerci. The latter are characteristically wavy in lateral view and abruptly bent inward at their tips, despite diverging for half of their length, in dorsal view. The thoracic markings with two upper and three lower yellow spots on each side are shared only with N. evanida (although they differ in detail), as is the labrum with two small yellow basal spots. A potential form of N. coloratissima with similarly uniform S7–10 may occur locally, but that species differs in many features such as the cerci, occipital triangle, frons sides, labrum, and thoracic pattern.
Description. Pale colours of specimens in the collection are partly faded and darkened, thus the original species description by Fraser (1956) was helpful in their identification.
Holotype male. Total length 53.2, abdomen (excluding appendages) 36.7, Fw 36.5, Hw 35.4, Fw Pt 2.4, cerci 2.6. Fw Ax 13, Fw Px 9–10, Hw Ax 8, Hw Px 10–11.
Head. Face dark with a yellow centre ( Fig. 9c View FIGURE 9 ). Frons sides brown and metallic, with bronze, golden and green reflections ( Fig. 9f View FIGURE 9 ). Vertex, postfrons and central antefrons metallic: green and blue with violet reflections. The rest of antefrons dark brown, with a small yellow triangle in the centre at the clypeus margin ( Fig. 9c View FIGURE 9 ). Sides of postclypeus dark brown with metallic green reflections, while the centre of it and anteclypeus yellow ( Figs 9c,f View FIGURE 9 ). Labrum black and dark brown, with two small yellow spots at the base, separated by a diffused brown centre ( Fig. 9c View FIGURE 9 ). Labium light ochre, possibly ochre yellow in live. Occipital triangle black. Postgenae black.
Thorax. Synthorax largely melanised, metallic reflections (mostly green and locally copper in the lower mesepimeron) interspersed with dark brown ( Fig. 9f View FIGURE 9 ). Mesepisternum metallic green with the ochre brown anterolateral corner adjacent to similar mesokatepisternum ( Fig. 9f View FIGURE 9 ). Synthoracic sides with five yellow spots in two lines ( Figs 9f View FIGURE 9 , 19 View FIGURE 19 ). In the upper line, two quite large markings, the irregularly triangular mesepimeral spot, at the level of metastigma and pointing dorsally, and the more rectangular metepisternal spot, with a projection pointing ventrally. In the lower line, three rather small spots along the lower margin of synthorax, the first on the metakatepisternum below the metastigma and two next on metepimeron. Poststernum mostly yellow, its broader region partly brownish. Middorsal carina dark brown.
Wings. Membrane hyaline. Pt medium-sized, brown ( Fig. 9a View FIGURE 9 ).
Abdomen. Divided into two sections, an anterior part (S1–6), black with paired yellow pattern, and a posterior part (S7–10), mostly reddish brown ( Fig. 9a View FIGURE 9 ). The laterodorsal yellow spots on each side of S2 are of similar size: the anterior one more angular, with tapered tip pointing dorsally and the posterior one more rounded and tapered anteriorly. The lateroventral yellow spot on each side of S2 stretched along most of the segment’s length; narrow anteriorly, broad posteriorly ( Fig. 9f View FIGURE 9 ). The laterodorsal yellow pattern on S3–6 consists of anterior stripes on each segment, and posterior stripes on S3 and S4 only ( Fig. 9e View FIGURE 9 ). Basal laterodorsal spots on S7 reddish brown, barely recognisable as almost completely merged with each other and with the similarly coloured rest of the segment; they turn into black in lateroventral parts of the segment ( Figs 9a,e View FIGURE 9 ). Along the ventral carina of S3–6, a brownish line with an anterior yellow broadening on S3 only; on S7, there is no basal spot adjacent to the ventral carina.
Secondary genitalia. In lateral view, the hamule oval to slightly rectangular with rounded distal corners and a hardly recognisable apical incision ( Fig. 15 View FIGURE 15 ); due to the poor quality of the available material, the actual shape of the hamule may differ in detail. Genital lobe relatively narrow, directed downwards, black and basally yellow.
Caudal appendages. Cerci yellow, basally brown, with pale brownish shade up to 40% of their length and with whitish hair-like setae. In dorsal view, slender, straight to their mid-length and gradually diverging distally, but subtly converging at extreme tip, and slightly tapering in the distal third ( Figs 9a View FIGURE 9 , 18 View FIGURE 18 ). In lateral view, shallowly sinusoidal, in the distal half of their length slightly distended, thus looking ‘heavy’, hanging down ( Figs 9e View FIGURE 9 , 17 View FIGURE 17 ); a small ventral bulge visible near their base. Epiproct medium-length, reaching two thirds of the cerci length ( Fig. 17 View FIGURE 17 ), and ochre yellow with the brown apex.
Variation in males. Pale elements in the living male (examined on photographs) clearly brighter than in the specimen in the collection: the abdominal pattern (S2–6) pale yellow and caudal appendages yellowish white. The anterior part of S7 to the supplementary transverse carina not reddish brown similarly to more distal parts as it is in the holotype male, but two-tone, basally darker (reddish black) and further paler, ochre.
Allotype female. Total length 56.4, abdomen (excluding appendages) 40.9, Fw 38.2, Hw 37.4, Fw Pt 2.7–2.8. Fw Ax 12, Fw Px 8–9, Hw Ax 7–8, Hw Px 9–11. The female colour pattern ( Figs 9b,d View FIGURE 9 ) similar to that of the male holotype with the following differences: (a) frons sides pale brown; (b) labrum black to metallic bronze with less marked yellowish spots forming a diffused central area at the base; (c) colours on S6 not clear (less well preserved), but it seems that intermediate between those on S3–5 and S7–10: blurred and darkened yellow stripes barely visible in the anterior part while the posterior two thirds of the segment mottled rusty on the black background ( Fig. 9b View FIGURE 9 ); (d) almost the whole wing membrane tinted with amber yellow in all wings, the most intensively, in form of rays, at base ( Fig. 9b View FIGURE 9 ). Cerci relatively long (1.8), ochre yellow (probably brighter alive) ( Fig. 9d View FIGURE 9 ).
Distribution. Known from two localities separated by some 75 km in eastern Madagascar ( Fig. 21 View FIGURE 21 ), in the ecoregion of Madagascar Humid Forests ( One Earth 2024) and the hydrographic ecoregions of Eastern Lowlands and Eastern Highlands ( Sparks & Stiassny 2022).
| MNHN |
Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle |
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.