Arria qinlingensis sp. n., a remarkable new praying mantis from China (Mantodea: Haaniidae)

ABSTRACT

A new species of mantis, Arria qinlingensis sp. n., is described based on both male and female specimens collected from Qinling Mt., China. This new species has similar external morphology to A. leigongshanensis (Ge and Chen, 2008); these two species represent a mysterious evolutionary clade in the genus Arria Stål, 1877. The discovery of this moss-mimicking mantis species represents the northernmost distribution of the genus Arria. Illustrations and ecological images of Arria species in China are presented, and the images of the final-instar nymph for both sexes of A. leigongshanensis (Ge and Chen, 2008) and the ootheca of Arria qinlingensis sp. n. are illustrated. The distribution of the two species in China is discussed and mapped.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:5A945355-B76D-4EFC-9D26-36FEF2ED4D9C

KEYWORDS:

• Dictyoptera
• morphology
• taxonomy
• new species
• Oriental Region

Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank Mr Chang-Chin Chen (Tianjin), for his support and help in research. Our thanks go to Mr Wei-Wei Zhang (Chongqing), Mr Zhi-Liang Wang (Beijing), Mr Yun Ji (Beijing), Mr Yu-Chen Zheng (Fujian), Mr Yi-Nong Ni (Beijing) and Mr Chao-Yue Sun (Shaanxi) for providing us with valuable specimens. We are very grateful to Dr Andrew Polaszek (London, UK) and the anonymous reviewers for their careful reviews and valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 31572308, 31750002].