Journal of Threatened
Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 November 2022 | 14(11): 22190–22194
ISSN 0974-7907
(Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8049.14.11.22190-22194
#8049 | Received 13
June 2022 | Final received 06 October 2022 | Finally accepted 28 October 2022
Rediscovery of an interesting preying mantis Deiphobella
laticeps (Mantodea: -Rivetinidae) from Maharashtra, India
Gauri Sathaye
1, Sachin Ranade 2 & Hemant V. Ghate 3
1 9A/12 Paschimanagari,
S No. 21 Kothrud, Pune, Maharashtra 411029, India.
2 Vulture Conservation Breeding
Center, Rani, Kamrup, Assam 781131, India.
3 Post-Graduate Research Centre,
Department of Zoology, Modern College of Arts, Science & Commerce,
(Autonomous), Shivajinagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411005, India.
1 grsathaye@gmail.com, 2 sachinranade@yahoo.com,
3 hemantghate@gmail.com (corresponding author)
Editor: P.M. Sureshan, Zoological Survey of India, Calicut, India. Date of publication: 26
November 2022 (online & print)
Citation: Sathaye,
G., S. Ranade & H.V. Ghate (2022). Rediscovery of an interesting preying mantis Deiphobella
laticeps (Mantodea: -Rivetinidae) from Maharashtra, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 14(11): 22190–22194. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8049.14.11.22190-22194
Copyright: © Sathaye
et al. 2022. 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: DST Woman Scientist Scheme.
Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: Gauri Sathaye
is indebted to DST Woman Scientist Scheme SSD/SS/029/2008 under which she
received financial assistance. We thank K. Kunte, for
specimen collected. Authors are grateful to the authorities of Modern College
for facilities and encouragement.
Abstract: Deiphobella laticeps (Wood Mason, 1876), is an
interesting preying mantis, rediscovered from
Maharashtra State, India, after considerable lapse of time since its original
description.
Keywords: Deiphobinae, Deiphobini,
Dictyoptera, Fischeria,
rediscovered.
Genus Deiphobella GiglioTos,
1916 was erected by Giglio-Tos to accommodate
Wood-Mason’s species Fischeria laticeps which was described in 1876. At present, there
are only two species under this genus: Deiphobella
laticeps (Wood Mason, 1876) and Deiphobella gardneri
(Werner, 1935). This genus belongs to the family Rivetinidae
and the subfamily Deiphobinae as per the recent
classification by Schwarz & Roy (2019).
Earlier,
Mukherjee et al. (1995) had placed this genus in the family Mantidae,
subfamily Mantinae and the tribe Miomantini
while in the subsequent classification it was placed in the tribe Rivetinini (Ehrmann 2002). The
genus is oriental in distribution and is so far known from India and Sri Lanka
only.
Two
specimens, one female from Pune, Maharashtra and one male from Bengaluru,
Karnataka, were identified as Deiphobella laticeps based on the key provided by Mukherjee et al.
(1995). The genus Deiphobella can be
easily identified by its laterally conical eyes and sharp triangular supra-anal
plate.
The two
species under this genus, Deiphpbella laticeps and D. gardeneri,
are differentiated on the basis of smooth or granular coxa and lower frons
(frontal sclerite) with or without black band. Deiphobella
laticeps has minutely granular fore coxa and a
black band on lower frons. According to Mukherjee et al. (1995), the species Deiphobella laticeps
is known only from Karnataka (Mysuru) in India and Sri Lanka while the other
species is known only from Uttar Pradesh (type locality: Chakata
Range, Haldwani, now in Naini
Tal District, Uttarakhand) in India. Rao et al. (2005) reported the species
from Andhra (Kurnool) extending its distribution to the east and the presence
of this species in Pune, Maharashtra (Ghate &
Ranade 2002), is northward extension of the range of this species. Vyjayandi (2007) reported this species from Kerala, which
is further south of Karnataka. Ghate et al. (2012)
also enlisted this species in the checklist of Mantodea
of Maharashtra. In most of the localities this species was collected from
patches of grass.
We also
checked the original description of Fischeria
laticeps by Wood-Mason (1876) and the original
diagnosis of the genus Deiphobella by Giglio-Tos (1916). This helped us to confirm the identity of the
species. This paper briefly redescribes and illustrates
D. laticeps with some terms that are
recently introduced by Brannoch et al. (2017).
Taxonomic
Position as per Schwarz & Roy (2019)
Superfamily
Eremiphiloidea Saussure, 1869
Family Rivetinidae Ehrmann & Roy,
2002
Subfamily Deiphobinae Schwarz & Roy, 2019
Tribe Deiphobini Schwarz & Roy, 2019
Genus Deiphobella Giglio-Tos,
1916
Species Deiphobella laticeps
(Wood-Mason, 1876)
(for synonyms see Ehrmann 2002)
Brief redescription of Deiphobella
laticeps Female
General
body size and colouration: Large, elongate and
slender insect; overall colour dark brown but
reddish-brown at places,
Head: much
broader than long (because of conical projecting eyes). Vertex smooth, without
prominent grooves, flat and wide, its upper edge slightly convex above level of
eyes and continuous with eyes. Eyes laterally conical (Image 2A). Ocelli small.
Antennae long, filiform, many segmented. Lower frons transverse, with black
band.
Pronotum:
narrow, elongate; supra-coxal dilation moderate.
Lateral margins of pronotum denticulate; denticles denser in prozona. Disc of prozona dorsally
and ventrally with numerous prominent granules arranged in four rows, two on
either side of median sulcus. Anterior one third part of metazona
with obtuse median carina. Pronotum narrow at supra-coxal
dilation, gradually becoming broader towards posterior end. Overall pronotum
more or less parallel sided with few granules on the disc. Metazona
much longer than fore coxa (Image 1A,B, 3A,B).
Fore legs:
coxae shorter than metazona, dorsally few small
granules or tubercles are seen only on well raised carina; internally (antero ventral side) finely granulated; distally little
widened; coxal lobes (preapical lobes) divergent.
Fore femur slender, dorsal margin with few blunt dark brown tubercles; both
edges of femur almost parallel sided with spines present in distal half only,
internal (antero ventral) spines – 14; external (postero ventral) spines – 4; discoidal spines – 4; all
spines black at tips only. First three discoidal spines are very closely placed
whereas fourth spine is smaller and is placed considerably away from the first
three. Antero ventrally femora are yellowish, with few blunt tubercles; claw
groove (tibial spur groove) is situated in front of middle. Tibia slender, one
third shorter than femora; antero ventral spines –
left 16/ right 15 and postero ventral spines – 8
(Image 2B,C).
Mid and
hind legs: long, slender, smooth, without any spines or spinules
on coxa and femora, but few spinules are present on
tibia.
Wings: very
short in female (brachypterous); fore wings opaque, costal area of fore wings
brownish-yellow, anal area smoky, discoidal area smoky brown with a large oval
brownish blotch bordered by blackish bands on either side. Hind wings small,
smoky brown, costal area dark opaque brown with an apical pale yellow band, on
either side of which is a dark brown band; rest of wing translucent with dark
brown veins and pale cross veins.
Abdomen:
segments longer than broad, except for terminal segment. In female, supra anal
plate triangular, pointed and carinate.
Male and
female difference
Male
shorter in length (but exact length in our specimen is not known as last three
segments are broken), and less robust; juxta-ocular lobes well marked; antero-ventral
spines on femora 16; spines are thin and slender. Wings well developed. Fore
wings narrow, with brown patch in anal region. Hind wings broad, translucent,
smoky with dark brown longitudinal veins and white transverse veins. Costal
area somewhat opaque brown with a magenta tinge in some part and with a
pre-apical pale cream large blotch with its distal and proximal margin dark
brown.
In Female
the antero-ventral spines on femora are thick, short and stout.
Morphometry
(all figures in mm, arranged as Female / Male )
Total
length – 132/73 – (male appears very short because three terminal segments are
broken).
Pronotum: prozona -10/10 metazona- 28/20;
total pronotum -38/28 Fore wings - 21/45; Hind wings 14/42
Fore leg:
Coxa 22/15; Femur 25/18; Tibia 8/6. Mid leg: Femur 30/24; Tibia 25/17. Hind
leg: Femur 36/32; Tibia 38/29.
Fore leg spination (for female):
F =
4DS/14AvS/4PvS; T = 15-16AvS/8PvS
Materials
examined: One male (Bengaluru, Coll. K. Kunte,
28.i.2002) and one female (Chatushrungi Hill, Pune,
Coll. Sachin Ranade, 9.iii.2001). Both preserved at
Modern College, Pune; accession Nos. MCZM 10 and 11, respectively.
Discussion
Length of male given by Giglio-Tos (1927) is 121 mm; as our male specimen is damaged we
are providing this data. The body length of the male specimen examined by
Wood-Mason in the original description is 121 mm; the type locality of this
species is given as ‘Sheargaon, Kolapur
State’, now Shirgaon, Kolhapur District of
Maharashtra. So, originally this species was described from Maharashtra but
this fact was overlooked earlier. Recently the species was reported from
various parts of Kolhapur, including Radhanagari
(Raut 2017) but in subsequent report of Radhanagari Mantodea there is no mention of this species (Raut et al.
2022)
The species D. laticeps is thus far known only from India: Maharashtra (Ghate
& Ranade 2002, but see remarks above), Karnataka (Mukherjee et al.
1995), Andhra (Rao et al. 2005), Kerala (Vyjayandi
2007) and Sri Lanka (Mukherjee et al. 1995), but this clearly is due to lack of
surveys specifically for Mantodea. The species may be
more widely distributed as similar habitats are present elsewhere in
Maharashtra. Thorough surveys would certainly add more localities of this
rarely observed / reported mantis.
For images - -
click here for full PDF
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