A new genus of praying mantis, Chlorocalis n. gen., with two new species from the Greater Mekong region (Mantodea: Mantidae)

Summary

A new genus of praying mantis is described, Chlorocalis n. gen., with two species, C. maternaschulzei n. sp. and C. prasina n. sp. from the Greater Mekong Region. Chlorocalis is placed in Mantidae and can be immediately recognized by the presence of dark brown (male) or yellow-whitish (female) oblique stripes on the forewings, a large conical bulge on the clypeus, two large conical bulges on either side of the inferior margin of the lower frons, and the male genitalia with two distal processes on the ventral phallomere. Chlorocalis maternaschulzei is a widespread lowland species with records as west as Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Thailand, and as east as mount Núi Chúa in southern Central Vietnam. We consider this species to be of Least Concern. In contrast, C. prasina is a narrow-range mountain endemic of the Vietnamese Central Highlands in the Annamite range and is assessed by us to be Vulnerable. The new findings demonstrate the still very poor knowledge on praying mantis species diversity in South-East Asia and the urgency to resolve this taxonomic deficiency in the face of biodiversity loss.

Résumé

Un nouveau genre de mante religieuse, Chlorocalis n. gen., avec deux nouvelles espèces de la région du Grand Mékong (Mantodea : Mantidae). Un nouveau genre de mante religieuse est décrit, Chlorocalis n. gen., avec deux espèces, C. maternaschulzei n. sp. et C. prasina n. sp. de la région du Grand Mékong. Chlorocalis est placé parmi les Mantidae et caractérisé par la présence de bandes obliques brun foncé (mâles) ou jaune blanchâtre (femelles) sur les ailes antérieures, un grand renflement conique sur le clypéus, deux gros renflements coniques de chaque côté du frons inférieur et les organes génitaux mâles dont le phallomère ventral est muni de deux processus distaux. Chlorocalis maternaschulzei est une espèce répandue dans les basses terres, avec une répartition qui s’étend de la Province de Nakhon Ratchasima, Thaïlande, à l’ouest jusqu’au mont Núi Chúa dans sud du centre du Vietnam. Nous considérons pour cette espèce l’attribution du statut “Préoccupation Mineure”. En revanche, C. prasina est une espèce endémique à dispersion réduite limité aux montagnes centrales de la cordillère annamite au Vietnam et nous estimons qu’elle est “Vulnérable”. Cette nouvelle découverte démontre que les connaissances sur la diversité des espèces de mantes en Asie du Sud-Est sont encore très réduites, ainsi que l’urgence de résoudre cette déficience taxonomique face à la perte en biodiversité.

LSID for publication: http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:805CF2DD-A40A-4465-A7B2-7465AB034EEA

LSID for Chlorocalis: http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:195E8F94-C522-4BA3-9B9D-8484856876F7

LSID for C. maternaschulzei: http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:ED8E4722-3908-41C9-A81A-9EEB880DAC80

LSID for C. prasina: http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:34B3BFFE-D7BC-40D3-94E0-CB04904A091C

Keywords:

• Taxonomy
• morphology
• Oriental region
• Indochina

Mots-clés:

• Taxonomie
• morphologie
• région Orientale
• Indochine

Acknowledgements

The authors want to express their sincere gratitude to Konstantin Pleshcheev (Voronezh, Russia) for collecting and rearing the Koh Chang female, providing life data and capturing beautiful photos of it, as well as Sören Materna and Tobias Schulze who collected the holotype of C. maternaschulzei and for the photos they provided. XV wishes to thank Luca Bartolozzi (UniFI, Italy) for the loan of additional specimens of C. prasina from central Vietnam, Adwine Vanslembrouck (RBINS) for her permanent support of his taxonomic research, and Jérôme Constant (RBINS) and Joachim Bresseel (RBINS) for their invaluable guidance and friendship during field collecting in Cambodia and Vietnam. MS’s special thanks goes to Roger Roy (MNHN) for his expert opinion and Christian Schwarz for his useful comments in an early research stage, the curators of the ZSM, Munich and BMNH, London for providing access to their collections for research and the opportunity to examine useful reference material, and finally Dmitri Logunov (MMUE) for the loan of C. prasina specimens from Vietnam. ES wishes to thank Andrey Gorochov, Leonid Anisyutkin (ZIN) and Andrey Ozerov (ZMMU) for providing access and great help in studying collections of the respective institutions, Vitaly Bezborodov (Amur Branch of Botanical Garden-Institute FEB RAS, Blagoveshchensk), Sergey Storozhenko (Federal Scientific Center of the East Asia Terrestrial Biodiversity FEB RAS, Vladivostok) and Pavel Udovichenko (Moscow) for additional specimens of C. prasina, and Alexander Prosvirov (Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia) for help with the macro-photography system. Last but not least, the authors sincerely thank Stuart L. Pimm and Binbin V. Li (Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham) for providing us with their forest cover map, as well as Konstantin Pleshcheev, Sören Materna, Tobias Schulze, Vitaly Bezborodov, Sergey Ryabov (Tula Branch of Russian Entomological Society, Moscow) and Andrey Gorochov for providing photographs and descriptions of the collection localities. XV’s contribution was a result of the capacity building Programme of the Belgian Global Taxonomy Initiative National Focal Point that runs under the CEBioS programme with financial support from the Belgian Directorate-General for Development Cooperation. XV’s fieldwork in Cambodia was financed by a GTI grant, fieldwork in Vietnam was co-financed by GTI and the King Léopold III Fund for Nature Exploration and Conservation. ES’s contribution was part of the research program of the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Project No. AAAA–A16–116021660095–7.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Global Taxonomic Initiative; King Léopold III Fund for Nature Exploration and Conservation.