Zeugomantispa femoralis (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

Zeugomantispa femoralis (Navás)

Fig. 5

Mantispa femoralis Navás, 1914 a: 25 . Lectotype: female ( NHMUK) (here designated). Type locality: Mexico: Veracruz: Orizaba

Notes.

Since its original description by Navás (1914 a) no other taxonomic paper treated this species, and there are no images of the species available in the literature. The original paper is not clear about the number of specimens used for the description, as evidenced by Ohl (2004). In this sense, we are herein designating the sole female specimen from NHMUK as the lectotype. After its original description, the species was listed by Penny (1977) and included in the world catalogue by Ohl (2004). More recently, Snyman et al. (2018) transferred the species to Zeugomantispa without explicit justification. Herein after analyzing the lectotype, we can conclude that it is a female, and, in fact, it belongs to Zeugomantispa , based on the pronotal setae arising from distinct bumps (Fig. 5 B ). However, the species clearly presents all diagnostic characters of Z. minuta (Fabricius) : the green pterostigma, and the aa-ap crossvein curved posteriorly in the forewing ( Hoffman 2002) (Fig. 5 E ). Zeugomantispa minuta is a widespread species with records from USA to South America, including some Caribbean islands, with a long list of synonyms, many described by Navás ( Ohl 2004). In this sense, we are convinced that Mantispa femoralis Navás is a junior synonym of Zeugomantispa minuta (Fabricius) (new synonym).

Figures

Figure 5. Mantispa femoralis Navás 1914, lectotype, female. A, B. Habitus photos, dorsal and lateral views; C. Head, frontal view; D. Foreleg, outer surface; E. Right forewing; F. Right hind wing; G. Labels.