Sixty new dragonfly and damselfly species from Africa (Odonata)
Author
Dijkstra, Klaas-Douwe B.
Author
Kipping, Jens
Author
Mézière, Nicolas
text
Odonatologica
2015
44
4
447
678
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.35388
Pseudagrion munte
Dijkstra
sp. nov.
– Upemba Sprite
(
Type
Photo 20
,
Photo 31
,
Fig. 13
)
Taxonomy
Genetically close to the sympatric
P. symoensii
Pinhey, 1967
that is also endemic to Katanga’s high plateaus, but morphologically well-separated, and treated as a distinct species by
Dijkstra & Clausnitzer (2014)
.
Material studied
Holotype
♂
.
RMNH.INS.505608
,
Congo-Kinshasa
,
Katanga
,
Upemba National Park,
Munte
, river with grassy verges, gallery patches and rapids in miombo woodland,
1450 m
a.s.l. (
8.77 ° S
26.84 ° E
),
18 -xi- 2011
, leg.
K.-D.B. Dijkstra
,
RMNH
.
Further material.
10 ♂
(
RMNH.INS.505607
),
1 ♀
(
RMNH.INS.505606
), as holotype,
RMNH
.
1 ♂
, as holotype,
CKJL
.
Genetics
One unique haplotype (n = 3) close to four similar but distinct haplotypes (n = 7) of the sympatric
P. symoensii
.
Male morphological diagnosis
Similar to several highland species of the A-group of
Pseudagrion
by (a) the small size, Hw 18.5 –20.0 mm (n= 10); (b) the bluish green labrum that is narrowly black at its base, contrasting with black postclypeus; and (c) the frons and dorsum of the thorax and abdomen base that are pruinose with maturity. Differs from the somewhat similar
P. vumbaense
Balinsky, 1963
, sympatric
P. inconspicuum
Ris, 1931
and syntopic
P. spernatum
Selys, 1881
by (1) the evenly pruinose dark mesepisternum without defined pruinose or pale ante-humeral stripes with maturity; (2) the black rather than pale brown or reddish Pt; (3) the entire dorsum of S 8 but only the basal half of S 9 being blue, rather than both segments completely blue dorsally or wholly pruinose; and (4) the cerci nearest to those of
P. symoensii
with an internal flange on the lower branch that extends almost to the base and ends in a sharp up-turned tooth, although this tooth is not as large and there is no additional tooth more basally and dorsally (
Fig. 13
). Note that latter species, while genetically and geographically close, is otherwise very different, e.g., with orange labrum and frons, and red Pt.
Etymology
Name refers to the
type
locality (noun in apposition).
Range and ecology
Grassy borders of open sections of the
Munte
, a small swift-flowing blackwater river with some gallery forest at 1
450 m
a.s.l. on the otherwise open Kibara Plateau of Upemba National Park,
Katanga
(
Photo 31
).