Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Válogatott tanulmányok XIX. - Natura Somogyiensis 35. / Miscellanea 19. (Kaposvár, 2020)
Ábrahám, L.: A new Creoleon sp. n. (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae) from Socotra (Yemen)
42 Natura Somogyiensis Fig. 7: Female genitalia in lateral view (scale - 1 mm) Diagnosis: Based on habitus (size, wing shape, and sex-different abdomen length), the new species most closely resembles Creoleon aegyptiacus (Rambur, 1842). C. aegyptiacus has also dark marks on frons just under antennae. Between the antennae a thin longitudinal line extends towards the mouth on the irons but this line is missing on the frons of the new species. For the both species, the forewing rigth below the apex is not concave and the abdomen of males is longer than wings at rest. In the forewing of C. aegyptiacus, between A2 and A3, a small cross-vein can be found while than that of the new species is lacking. During the identification of East African and Malagasy materials, I have not found a specimen of C. aegyptiacus yet, although its occurrence was mentioned (van der Weele 1907: Madagascar, Banks 1911: Tanzania, Banks 1938: Kenya). The distribution of the species is limited to the southwestern and central parts of the Palearctic from Morocco to western China (Ábrahám 2017). The new species is somewhat similar to Creoleon elegans Hölzel, 1968 but the species is smaller in size than that of new sp. There are no dark spots on scapus and frons of C. elegans. It occurs only in the Middle East. Creoleon mortifer (Walker, 1853) is considered widespread in southern and eastern Africa and this species was mentioned in previous literature (Kirby 1903, Kimmins 1960, Whittington 2002, Ábrahám 2011) from the island of Socotra. Recently, I studied African Creoleon species, the distribution of C. mortifer is limited to the south of Africa. Those specimens similar to C. mortifer from eastern Africa require further taxonomic revision, their size being significantly smaller than that of C. mortifer. Each of taxa differs from the new taxon in that the abdomen of the males does not reach wing length in resting position. Forewing is concave just below the apex. Etymology, prolongaverunt means elongated and refers to the long abdomen of male. Biology. Based on the collected material, the new species spreads throughout the island from the sandy coastal plain to the higher rocky mountains and dry valleys (wadi). Imagoes are in flying from November to April. It is active at night, the artificial lights attract the imagoes.
