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.

 

 

For images - - click here

 

 

References

 

Bhattacharjee, S., M. Ohl, S. Saha, S. Sarkar & D. Raychaudhuri (2010). Euclimacia nodosa (Westwood, 1847), a rare and poorly known species of Mantispidae (Neuroptera), recorded for the first time from West Bengal, India. Zoosystematics and Evolution 86(2): 221–224.

Bijoy, C. & K. Rajmohana (2012). A report on some rare Neuroptera from Kerala, mimicking wasps and mantids. Malabar Trogon 10(1&2): 10–11.

Chandra, K. & R.M. Sharma (2009). Checklist of Indian Neuropterids (Insecta: Megaloptera; Raphidioptera; Neuroptera). Zoological Survey of India, Central Zone Regional Centre Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, 22pp.

Ghosh, S.K. (1977). Fauna of Rajasthan, India-Neuroptera. Records of the Zoological Survey of India 72: 309–313.

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Ghosh, S.K. & S. Sen (1977). Check-list of Indian Planipennia (Order Neuroptera). Records of the Zoological Survey of India 73(1–4): 277.

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