Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Válogatott tanulmányok 13. - Natura Somogyiensis 28. / Miscellanea 13. (Kaposvár, 2016)

Ábrahám L.: Neuroleon tarimensis sp. n. – a new ant-lion from Taklamakan desert, China (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae)

Natura Somogyiensis

28

65-74

Kaposvár, 2016

Neuroleon tarimensis sp. n. - a new ant-lion from Taklamakan desert, China (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae)

Levente Ábrahám

Rippl-Rónai Museum, H-7400 Kaposvár, Fő utca 10, Hungary, e-mail: labraham@smmi.hu

Ábrahám, L.: Neuroleon tarimensis sp. n. - a new ant-lion from Taklamakan desert, China (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae).

Abstract: Neuroleon tarimensis sp. n. is described from China and compared to Asiatic Neuroleon species: Neuroleon erato Hölzel, 1972, Neuroleon zakharenkoi Krivokhatsky, 1996, Neuroleon marcopolo Holzel, 1970, Neuroleon fanaticus (McLachlan, 1875), Neuroleon nemausiensis (Borkhausen, 1791), Neuroleon nigriventris (Navás, 1913), Neuroleon dianae Hölzel, 1972, Neuroleon punjabensis Iqbal & Yousuf 1997, Neuroleon unpunctatus Ghosh, 1981, Neuroleon apicalis Navás, 1915 and Neuroleon roscidus (Navás, 1937).

Keywords: new species, ant-lion, Myrmeleontidae, Taklamakan desert, China

Introduction

The high species richness of ant-lion species is largest in arid areas of the Earth. The ant-lion fauna of the larger deserts and semi-deserts situated in the Asiatic Palearctic or in its border area have already been studied (Saudi Arabian Peninsula: Hölzel 1982, 1983, 1988, 1998, 2002, Ábrahám and van Harten 2014; Iran, Afghanistan: Hölzel 1968, 1972; Middle Asia: Krivokhatsky 1990, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2011; India, Rajasthan: Ghosh 1977; Inner Mongolia: Hölzel 1970a,b, Krivokhatsky et al. 1996, Ao et al. 2009, Zhan et al. 2012a,b).

However, there is no published data at all on the fauna of the Taklamakan desert (Tarim basin, Inner Asia).

In 2013, a zoological expedition was organised by Lithuanian entomologists to the Taklamakan desert to study the local Lepidoptera fauna. During night samplings about 50 specimens of ant-lion were collected, which belong to six species (Acanthaclisis pallida (McLachlan, 1887), Nohoveus simplicis (Krivokhatsky, 1992), Aspoeckiana uralen- sis Hölzel, 1969, Lopezus fedtschenkoi (in Fedtschenko McLachlan, 1875), Myrmeleon semigriseus Krivokhatsky, 1991). The sixth collected species proved to be a new species for the science.