A new species of Nephus (Nephus) (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) described from Reunion Island

By

Magro, Alexandra
Churata, Julissa
Lecompte, Emilie
Hemptinne, Jean-Louis
Almeida, Lúcia Massutti de, 1951-

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2020

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

962

Pages

123--137

Subjects

Coccinelloidea , ladybird beetle , molecular data , predator , Scymnus , systematics

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.962.51520

 

Abstract

We report here a new species belonging to Nephus (Nephus) Mulsant. Nephus (Nephus) apoloniasp. nov. was collected in the Reunion Island (Mascarene Archipelago, Indian Ocean). We describe this new species and redescribe and illustrate three other Nephus species already known from Reunion: Nephus (Nephus) oblongosignatus Mulsant, 1850, Nephus (Geminosipho) reunioni (Fürsch, 1974) and Nephus (Nephus) voeltzkowi Weise, 1910. Furthermore, we present a phylogenetic tree for these four species and calculate the genetic distances between them, using high-throughput DNA sequencing of the mitochondrial genome. The similar external morphology of N. apoloniasp. nov. and N. voeltzkowi very probably explains why individuals from the first species have been mistakenly identified as the latter and were not recognized as different until now. Other than external and genitalia traits, the present study provides molecular evidence confirming these are indeed two different species.