Notes on Chinese Species of the Genus Acroneuria Pictet (Plecoptera: Perlidae: Acroneuriinae)

Abstract

The genus Acroneuria was established by Pictet as a subgenus of Perla Geoffroy in 1841. Klapálek (1909a) regarded the subgenus as the genus and reviewed the species (1909b, 1909c, 1917). The Nearctic species was reviewed by Needham and Claassen (1922, 1925), Stark and Gaufin (1976a), and fifteen species were considered valid (Stark, 1998). Eleven species from the Orient recorded by Illies (1966). Four species from Japan were placed in other genera by Uchida (1983, 1990). Four species from China were named by Wu (1935, 1938, 1948), one species by Wu and Claassen (1934) and four species by Yang and Yang (1995, 1998). Du (1999) revised the Chinese species and placed seven species of them in Sinacroneuria Yang et Yang. Otherwise, two species from the Himalaya were described by Harper (1976) and Zwick (1977), respectively. Four species from the Orient are now known. Two new species, Acroneuria morsei Du and Acroneuria multiconata Du are described in this paper and a key to the four Chinese species is also proposed. The type specimens of the new species are deposited in the Insect Collection of Yangzhou University (YU) and Entomological Museum of Northwest Science and Techno logy University of Agriculture and Forestry (NWSTUAF). 1. Acroneuria morsei Du, sp. nov. (Figs. 1～2) This new species is similar to Acroneuria personata Harper, especially head with a dark brown “mask” patch, but it can be easily distinguished from the latter in the following two aspects: 1) the 9th and the 10th tergite with two groups of the sensilla basiconica patch on the posterior margin in the new species, but the 9th tergite without the sensilla basiconica and 10th tergite with a large group of the sensilla basiconica patch in the latter; 2) the su banal lobes produced upward into a pair of broad at the base, bluntly pointed up turned triangular processes in the new species, but a pair of heavy cylindrical, up turned processes in the latter. Type material: Holotype ♂ (YU), Guanxian (=Dujiangyan city), Sichuan, 20-Ⅵ-1990, J. C. Morse and Yang Lianfang. Paratypes, 11♀♀ (YU), the same data as the holotype. Etymology: The new species is named in honor of Dr. Morse, one of the collectors of type specimens of type species. 2. Acroneuria multiconata Du, sp. nov. (Figs. 3～4) This new species is similar to Acroneuria morsei Du, but it can be easily distinguished from the latter in the following four aspects: 1) head without a dark brown “mask” patch in this species; 2) the sensilla basiconica on the 10th tergite in this species more than those in the latter; 3) the sternite with numerous yellowish brown hairs in this species, but the less hairs in the latter; 4) this species differs from the latter in the shape of the subanal lobes as shown in Fig.2 and Fig.4. Type material: Holotype ♂ (YU), Haopingsi, Taibai mountain, Shaanxi, 20-Ⅵ-1982, no collector on the label. Paratypes, 3♂♂、4♀♀ (YU), the same data as the holotype; 4♂♂ (NWSTUAF), Huoditang, Ningshan county, Shaanxi, 19-Ⅵ-1985, Liu Lan. Etymology: The name refers to the numerous sensilla basiconica on the 10th tergite.