Journal
of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2021 | 13(9):
19376–19379
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6827.13.9.19376-19379
#6827 | Received 22 October 2020 | Final received 17
November 2020 | Finally accepted 14 July 2021
First record of Mantispilla indica (Westwood,
1852) (Neuroptera: Mantispidae)
from the Western Ghats, India
T.B. Suryanarayanan
1 & C. Bijoy 2
1,2 Shadpada Entomology Research Lab,
Department of Zoology, Christ College, Irinjalakuda,
Thrissur, Kerala 680125, India.
1 suryantb1995@gmail.com (corresponding
author), 2 drbijoyc@gmail.com
Editor: Levente Abraham, Rippl-Rónai
Museum, Kaposvár, Hungary. Date
of publication: 26 August 2021 (online & print)
Citation: Suryanarayanan, T.B. & C. Bijoy (2021). First record
of Mantispilla indica
(Westwood, 1852) (Neuroptera: Mantispidae)
from the Western Ghats, India. Journal of
Threatened Taxa 13(9): 19376–19379. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6827.13.9.19376-19379
Copyright: © Suryanarayanan &
Bijoy 2021. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License. JoTT
allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any
medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of
publication.
Funding: First author
is funded by CSIR-JRF
(08/376(0010)/2019-EMR-I).
Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to the
Principal, Christ College (Autonomous), Irinjalakuda,
Kerala, for providing the facilities for undertaking this study. The first
author offer sincere gratitude to CSIR, Government of India, for financial
support in the form CSIR Junior Research Fellowship (08/376(0010)/2019-EMR-I).
Many thanks to Vivek Chandran A., for photographing
the specimens.
Order Neuroptera
is a heterogeneous group of holometabolous insects with varying structure and
biology. There are around 6,000 species of Neuroptera
reported worldwide, but from India, only 327 species of Neuroptera
under 115 genera and 12 families are reported (Singh et al. 2020; Oswald 2020).
Mantispidae is a family of Neuroptera which resembles the praying mantids (Order Mantodea), because of their raptorial forelegs that are
inserted at the apical end of the elongated prothorax, so they are frequently
called mantid-flies (Ohl 2007). Mantispidae
is represented by four extant subfamilies and 410 species worldwide, of which
only 17 species under seven genera representing a single subfamily, Mantispinae are known so far from India (Chandra &
Sharma 2009; Ohl 2007). Among these, only five species (Euclimacia nodosa (Westwood, 1847) from
Kerala, Mantispa coorgensis
Ohl, 2004 from Coorg, Karnataka, Mantispa
cora Newman, 1838 from Malabar, Kerala, Mantispa maindroni Navas, 1909 from Tamil Nadu, Mantispilla
salana (Navas, 1931)
from Maharashtra (Ghosh & Sen 1977; Bhattacharjee et al. 2010; Singh et al.
2020) were reported from Western Ghats as per the available literatures. Apart from this, Bijoy & Rajmohana (2012) reported an unidentified species of Tuberonotha Handschin,
1961 from Western Ghats (Wayanad, Kerala).
Most of the larvae of Mantispinae are
parasites of Hymenoptera and spiders and have a complicated development called hypermetamorphosis (Ghosh 2000b).
The subfamily Mantispinae
in India comprises Mantispilla Enderlein, 1910 as the predominant genera with three
species (Snyman et al. 2018). Mantispilla was
synonymised under Mantispa Illiger
in Kugelann, 1798 by Penny (1982), but Snyman et
al. (2018) recognised Mantispilla as a valid
genus. In this study, we report Mantispilla
indica (Westwood, 1852) for the first time from
the Western Ghats as well as from Kerala.
Specimens were collected using
the light trap. The collected specimens were killed by using a killing jar with
2–3 drops of ethyl acetate. Later, the specimens were dried; Changes to,
mounted and held on entomological pins with proper labelling. They were
examined under Leica M205 stereomicroscope. The terminology of wing venation
and identification followed Ghosh (2000b) and Snyman et al. (2018). The digital
imaging of specimens was taken with Nikon Coolpix P900 with Raynox
250 lens. Distribution map of the
species in India was plotted using QGIS 3.12.3 software. Specimens were deposited in the insect
collections of Shadpada Entomology Research Lab
(SERL), Kerala, India.
Mantispilla Enderlein,
1910
Mantispilla can easily be identified from
other genera by the presence of longitudinal pigmentation on the anterior or
inner lateral sides of forecoxae (Image 1A), absence of short stout setae on
the pronotum (Image 1 B-i), but may have a few
sparsely distributed setae, velvet appearance in the mesothorax (Image 1B-ii),
reduced or absence of cross-vein between A1 and CuP
(Image 1 C). The type locality, distribution and literature source of Mantispilla species’ in India are plotted in
Table 1.
Mantispilla indica
(Westwood,
1852)
Mantispilla indica
is
characterised by a black antenna except for two basal segments. The prothorax
has two brown lines in the lateral sides but without transverse ridges and
vertex with a transverse brown stripe. This species is widely distributed in
India, but scanning of the literature revealed no record of this species from
the Western Ghats. Thus, Mantispilla indica forms the first record in the Western Ghats.
Specimens are brownish in colour
(Image 1 D,E). They measured 10.1 mm in length from head to abdomen and 2 mm
wide. Forewing is 10 mm in length and 2 mm wide. Hindwing is about 9 mm in
length and 2 mm wide. The specimen characters look similar to the type specimen
(Tauber et al. 2019) in Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH).
Head dark yellow with brown patterns and with black flagellar segments.
Prothorax brownish-yellow with two brown lines in lateral sides, but without
transverse ridges. In the foreleg, a small black spot at tip anteriorly and mid
and hind pair legs with dark brown claws. In both forewing and hindwing,
longitudinal veins; costa, subcosta and radius
dominantly yellow, radial veins are dark brown. Medial, cubital and anal veins
yellow anteriorly and dark brown distally. Crossveins
also dominant dark brown (Image 1C). Pterostigma elongate and red. Abdomen with
alternate dark brown and light yellow bands in lateral view.
SERLNR054, SERLNR055,
18.iii.2020, 20.iii.2020, 2 females, Irinjalakuda,
Kerala (10.355°N, 76.213°E), coll. Suryanarayanan
T.B.; SERLNR056, SERLNR057, 03.vii.2020, 15.vii.2020, 1 female, 1 male, Mulamkunnathukavu, Kerala (10.598°N, 76.216°E), coll. Suryanarayanan T.B.
Mantispilla indica
was reported
from regions like West Bengal: Kolkata and Darjeeling, Meghalaya: East Garo
Hills, Sikkim, Assam: Sibsagar, Karnataka: Mysore,
Rajasthan: Jodhpur, Himachal Pradesh: Kangra Valley
(Ghosh 1977, 1998, 2000a,b; Ghosh & Sen 1977; Sharma & Chandra 2013)
(Image 2). (Note: The species is also reported from the western Himalaya but
exact locality details are unavailable).
Mantispidae is a family of Neuroptera with very specialized lifestyle owing to their
biology and structural resemblances to the praying mantis. The taxonomy of this
group is least studied either due to the short lifespan of adults or due to
their very low population density (Ohl 2007).
Although 410 species are reported worldwide, because of the lack of specialists
in India only 17 species are reported (Ohl 2007;
Chandra & Sharma 2009). This paper aims to draw the attention of
researchers for future exploration studies on Mantispidae
family from different parts of India.
Table 1. Type locality,
distribution and literature source of Mantispilla
species in India.
|
Species |
Type locality of Species |
Distribution |
Literature source |
1 |
Mantispilla salana (Navas, 1931) |
Maharashtra (MNHN) |
Maharashtra |
Ghosh & Sen 1977 |
2 |
Mantispilla lineolata Westwood, 1852 |
Nepal (BMNH) |
Himachal Pradesh (Kullu) |
Ghosh & Sen 1977 |
3 |
Mantispilla indica Westwood, 1852 |
Kolkata (BMNH OUMNH) |
West Bengal, Meghalaya, Sikkim,
Assam, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh |
Ghosh 1977, 1998, 2000a,b,
Ghosh & Sen 1977, Sharma & Chandra 2013 |
MNHN—National Museum of Natural
History | BMNH—British Museum of Natural History | OUMNH—Oxford University
Museum of Natural History.
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