Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Válogatott tanulmányok XIX. - Natura Somogyiensis 35. / Miscellanea 19. (Kaposvár, 2020)
Ábrahám, L.: Cymothales annisancti Navás, 1926 is a valid species (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontida)
Submitted: 25.03, 2020; Accepted: 04.04, 2020; Published: 09.07, 2020 Natura Somogyiensis 35: 15-24. Kaposvár, 2020 DOI: 10.24394/NatSom.2020.35.15 www.smmi.hu/termtud/ns/ns.htm Cymothales annisancti Navás, 1926 is a valid species (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae) Levente Abraham Rippl-Rónai Museum H-7400 Kaposvár, P.O. Box 70, Hungary, e-mail: labraham@smmi.hu Ábrahám, L.: Cymothales annisancti Navás, 1926 is a valid species (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae). Abstract: Cymothales annisancti Navás, 1926, formerly kept as a synonym. On the basis of a Cymothales specimen from Republic of Guinea we concluded, it is conspecific with the type of Cymothales annisancti Navás, 1926. The valid taxon is compared to Cymothales liberiensis van der Weele, 1904. With 8 figures. Keywords: antiion, Cymothales, new status, Africa Introduction Myrmeleontidae (antiions) is the richest family in species (more than 1500 described species) of the order Neuroptera (Stange 2004, Oswald 2019). Most of them are associated with arid habitats: deserts, semi-deserts, savannahs but many species also occur in tropical and subtropical forests. The antiion fauna of Africa is lesser known. Mansell (2010) mentioned the occurrence of 58 valid genera 447 valid species based on 273 publications. The number of synonymous taxa is also high (102 generic synonyms and 230 species synonyms). It is likely that descriptions of new species and new synonym taxa will be found in significant numbers in the future. Only a small part of the African antiion fauna has been revised (eg. Mansell 1985, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1996, 2018a,b, Michel & Mansell 2010). One of the most imposing genera of medium to large sized species is Cymothales Gerstaecker, 1894, whose distribution extends from the savannahs to the tropical forests of Africa (Mansell 1987). Its species have significantly different lifestyles than those found in large numbers in dry habitats, as its larva develops in caves of trees (Mansell 1987, Stange 2004). During the revision (Mansell 1987) of the genus Cymothales, 17 species from Africa were listed. Later, Hölzel (2001) described a new species from the Southwestern Arabian Peninsula (Yemen) where the vegetation is drought deciduous thorn woodlands and shrublands. The fauna of this area has a strong African influence and it is a transitional area between the Tropical and the Palearctic zone. Recently, I received a few antiion specimens from Guinea, in which I found a Cymothales specimen with strange colour pattem. After a thorough examination, I found my specimen from Guinea is morphologically conspecific with Cymothales annisancti Navás, 1926, which was considered as synonym name (Mansell 1987). ISSN 1587-1908 (Print); ISSN 2062-9990 (Online)
