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Art. 19. — Descriptions of New Species and Varieties of Lacewings (Order Neuroptera Planipennia) from New Zealand, belonging to the Families Berothidae and Hemerobiidae.
[Read before the Nelson Institute, 14th September, 1921; received by Editor, 16th September, 1921; issued separately, 17th February, 1923.]
The family Berothidae includes only five genera of lacewings, containing species which are very rare and widely scattered about the earth. Three of these genera—viz., Spermophorella, Trichoma, and Stenobiella—are Australian, but no representative of the family has so far been recorded from New Zealand. In this paper the first occurrence of the family for New Zealand is recorded, in the form of a new genus and species.
The family Hemerobiidae is world-wide, consisting of small lacewings whose larvae feed on aphids and psyllids. Two genera have been recorded
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from New Zealand—viz., Drepanacra and Micromus—the former being purely Australasian, the latter world-wide. New Zealand possesses but one species of each of these genera, and both these species are also common in Australia. A new species of Micromus is added in this paper, together with a new species of the genus Boriomyia.
Family Berothidae.
In this family the forewing has the radial sector normal; the hindwing has the basal cross-vein connecting Rs with M placed in the normal transverse position, and Cu1 runs for a very long distance close to and parallel with the posterior margin of the wing, sending to it numerous branched veinlets. This condition of Cu1 is absolutely diagnostic for the family.
Genus Protobiella n. g.
Sc fused distally with R1 in both wings. Forewing with the costal space very narrow at the base, but increasing to a considerable width in the basal third of the wing, thence becoming slightly narrower; Rs with five branches, and with three cross-veins connecting it with R1; a basal cross-vein between R and M, just above the usual one connecting M with Cu1; M and Cu both dichotomically branched; no definite gradate series, but three cross-veins forming a partial outer such series connect M1+2 and the two most posterior branches of Rs respectively; other cross-veins are—one between the two main branches of M, two between M3+4 and Cu1, one between the two main branches of Cu, and the usual basal cross-veins between Cu2, 1A, and 2A respectively, the latter one obliquely placed. Hindwing with the costal space very narrow all the way, and carrying only unbranched veinlets; Rs with five branches, and connected with R1 by only two cross-veins; Cu1 runs close above and subparallel to the posterior margin to well beyond half-way; the part of Cu1 lying beyond the distal end of 1A does not send a series of veinlets arranged pectinately to the margin, such as descend from 1A itself, but gives off instead only four veinlets, which rebranch close to the margin; 1A is forked, each fork sending a pectinate series to the hind margin, the distal branch being much longer than the basal; an oblique cross-vein connects 1A with Cu1, Cu2 being entirely absent; a portion of a distal or outer gradate series is represented by three cross-veins connecting Cu1, M3+4, M1+2, and the most posterior branch of Rs respectively. No scales present on hindwing in either sex.
Genotype.—Protobiella zelandica n. sp.
Habitat.—New Zealand only.
This genus resembles the Australian Spermophorella in its rounded wings, shape of costal space in both wings, fusion of Sc with R1 distally in both wings, number of cross-veins connecting Rs with R1, form of M and Cu, and lack of fusion between 1A and Cu1 in hindwings. It differs from Spermophorella in the absence of a complete distal or outer gradate series of cross-veins in the forewing, and in the absence of the numerous veinlets arranged pectinately which descend from Cu1 distally in the hindwing in that and other known genera of Berothidae. In this latter character Protobiella is clearly the most archaic genus of the family.
Spermophorella is peculiar in that the females possess a more or less extensive area of the hindwing bearing thickened, seed-like scales attached
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to the veins. The female of Protobiella resembles the male in having no scales on the hindwing. Again, Spermophorella in Australia is known to have an especial liking for sandstone caves and hollows. The capture of Protobiella in a locality abounding in limestone caves may therefore indicate a similar cave-loving habit for the New Zealand genus.
These two genera differ widely from all other Berothidae in the shape of their wings, the other three genera having them either strongly falcate or excessively long and narrow.
Fig. 1.—Protobiella zelandica n. g. et sp.: wing-venation. (For venational nomenclature see fig. 2.)
Protobiella zelandica n. sp.
♂. Forewing, 7 mm.
Head dark brown, with pale-testaceous spots; eyes grey-black; antennae (broken off) very dark brown, hairy, the basal joint enlarged, club-shaped.
Thorax dark brown, the sides of the pronotum yellowish. Legs testaceous touched with fuscous, and carrying numerous stiff, dark hairs.
Abdomen brown, hairy, and ending in large semitransparent yellowish appendages which appear squarish in lateral view and are turned under the end of the abdomen so as to project forwards beneath it.
Wings: Forewing very slightly clouded and lightly irrorated all over with pale fuscous; veins speckled alternately with fuscous and pale testaceous Each cross-vein is prominently marked out by a small fuscous cloud enclosing it, and there are five fuscous patches situated along the distal half of the costal margin. Hindwing subhyaline, the veins unicolorous, fuscous; the two cross-veins between R1 and Rs slightly clouded, and one or two fuscous patches along costa towards apex.
♀. Similar to male, but larger (forewing 8·5 mm.), and somewhat more heavily spotted on forewing. Abdomen ending in two short processes projecting downwards and slightly forwards from the down-curved apex.
Locality.—Terakohe, near Takaka, Golden Bay, N.Z.; a single male specimen, taken by myself on the evening of 6th February, 1921. Waitati, 13th December, 1916; a single female.
Type.—Holotype male and allotype female in Cawthron Institute collection.
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Family Hemerobiidae.
In this family the stem of the radial sector is suppressed, in the forewing only, so that R1 appears to give off a series of two or more separate radial sectors; in the hindwing the basal cross-vein connecting Rs with M is placed longitudinally, and is curved sigmoidally. Cu2 may or may not be present in hindwing, but Cu1 never runs close to and parallel with the
Fig. 2.—Micromus tasmaniae (Walker) var. manapouriensis nov.: venational scheme, with Comstock-Needham notation. 1A, 2A, 3A, the three anal veins; Cu, cubitus; Cu1, first branch of cubitus, dividing in forewing into Cu1a and Cu1b; Cu2, second branch of cubitus; fr, frenulum; jl, jugal lobe; M, media; M1, M2, M3, M4, its four branches; pt, pterostigma; R, radius; R1, main stem of radius; Rs, radial sector; R2, R3, R4, R5, its four branches (all of which appear, in the forewing, to arise separately from R itself); r-m, basal longitudinal cross-vein, in hindwing, joining R to M, and sigmoidally curved; Sc, subcosta. In the figure the pterostigma is heavily shaded; in the insect itself this area is opaque, testaceous in colour, with the course of Sc through it only very faintly indicated.
posterior margin, as it does in the Berothidae. The frenulum is usually well developed in the hindwing. This type of venation is well illustrated by the genus Micromus, which is shown in fig. 2 as a guide to the correct interpretation of the veins in the other figures.
The three genera at present found in New Zealand may be separated by the following key:—
[The section below cannot be correctly rendered as it contains complex formatting. See the image of the page for a more accurate rendering.]
| 1. | Forewing with a broad costal space, having at its base a recurrent humeral veinlet | 2 |
| Forewing with a narrow costal space, without recurrent humeral veinlet; four to six radial sectors | Micromus. | |
| 2. | Forewing falcate, with six or more radial sectors | Drepanacra. |
| Forewing well rounded, with only three radial sectors | Boriomyia. |
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Boriomyia maorica n. sp.
Forewing, 9·2 mm. (Specimen apparently a female, but abdomen very shrivelled.)
Head, thorax, and abdomen blackish: eyes dark brown; antennae broken off; a touch of dark brown on notum and some brownish hairs towards end of abdomen. Abdomen curved downwards apically, broadening dorsoventrally, and ending in a sharp hook-like projection, which bends forwards and upwards beneath the last three segments.
Fig. 3.—Boriomyia maorica n. sp.: venation of forewing. (For venational nomenclature see fig. 2.)
Wings: Forewing iridescent subhyaline, very lightly irrorated all over with pale-fuscous spots and blotches; veins speckled alternately with dark fuscous and pale testaceous. More prominent markings are as follows: a dark-fuscous spot on subhumeral cross-vein, three similar spots on Cu1 (one at the origin of the two cross-veins, one at the secondary cubital fork, and one at origin of the most basal branch of Cu1a, at the point where a cross-vein descends on to Cu1b), another on fork of M3 + 4; the gradate series (of which there are two in the forewings of Boriomyia) are also outlined in dark fuscous. Hindwing faintly clouded all over with pale fuscous; the veins unicolorous, Sc and the costal veinlets being brownish, all the rest dark fuscous; pterostigmatic area very slightly darkened.
Locality.—Dunedin, N.Z. One specimen, apparently a female, taken at light by myself in Mr. W. G. Howes's residence in George Street, in February, 1920. About a week later Mr. Howes captured a second specimen of the same species.
Type.—Holotype female (?) in Cawthron Institute collection.
Micromus bifasciatus n. sp.
♀. Forewing, 7 mm.
Head, thorax, and abdomen (shrivelled) bright medium brown; antennae same colour, 3 mm. long; epicranium with two patches of darker brown; eyes dark brown. Legs testaceous.
Wings hyaline, with pale-testaceous venation. Forewing with two very strongly marked oblique bands of a dark fuscous-brown colour; one of these runs from Cu1 up to R2, covering the whole of the inner gradate series, and has a slight extension distad along R3; the other similarly covers the outer gradate series from Cu1 up to the lower branch of R2, ending up close to apex. The inner band is practically complete; the
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outer band is broken between Cu1 and M3 + 4, and again between M1 + 2 and R5, and is generally of a more irregular shape than the inner band. There is also an elongated patch of fuscous-brown along and below R1 covering the origins of R3, R4, and R5; the lower half of the pterostigma is also fuscous-brown, and a shorter dark patch covers the main stems of M and Cu1, and more or less joins up with the lower end of the inner oblique band already described. There is also a series of small patches along the margin of the wing, those on the costa very small, those on the posterior
Fig. 4.—Micromus bifasciatus n. sp.: a, venation and colour-pattern of forewing; b, fenulum of hindwing, enlarged. (For venational nomenclature see fig. 2.)
margin from end of Cu1 to apex considerably larger. Hindwing hyaline, pterostigma testaceous; frenulum well developed, with two strong bristles very close together (fig. 4, b). Male similar to female, but less darkly banded. Appendages large, somewhat spatulate, turned vertically downwards.
Locality.—West Plains and Tisbury, near Invercargill, N.Z. Taken by Mr. A. Philpott, F.E.S., in September, 1905, and again in March, 1920. One female and two males.
Types.—Holotype female (West Plains, 29th September, 1905, A. Philpott) and allotype male (Tisbury, 1st March, 1920, A. Philpott) in Cawthron Institute collection. Also a single paratype male.
Fig. 5.—Micromus bifasciatus n. sp. var. amabilis nov.: venation and colour - pattern of forewing. (For venational nomenclature see fig. 2.)
Variety amabilis nov.—A single male taken on rimu at Silverstream, near Wellington, by Mr. H. Hamilton, is a much more beautiful insect than the type series. Both fore and hind wings are beautifully iridescent, and all the veins are rose-pink, except Sc, which is brown. The two oblique bands are much more regular and complete than in the type form, and are of a rich chocolate-brown colour; the margins of both wings are almost entirely suffused with brown. Abdomen rose-pink above, yellowish-brown beneath.
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In the colour of the veins this variety parallels the beautiful variety rubrinervis Till. of Drepanacra binocula (Newm.), which Mr. G. H. Hardy took in Tasmania.
Variety imperfectus nov. — A single specimen from Gisborne, N.Z. (undated), has the inner oblique band absent, replaced by the very faintest yellowish-brown tinge, while the outer oblique band is exceedingly narrow, of a bright umber-brown colour; Sc and R are brown in both wings.
Both the above varieties are in the Cawthron Institute collection.
Micromus tasmaniae Walker. (Fig. 2.)
Micromus froggatti Banks, 1909.
This species is very common throughout Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. It is very variable in size, the expanse of the wings measuring from 11 mm. to 19 mm. It also varies considerably in the intensity of the speckling of the forewings. The normal markings are a somewhat opaque testaceous pterostigma on both wings, and, on the forewing only, a series of fuscous dots around the whole wing-margin, irregular speckling of the veins with fuscous, slight clouding of the gradate series, and a usually very conspicuous small blotch of dark fuscous covering the fork of M, and extending below it to Cu1.
Variety manapouriensis nov. — Mr. Philpott captured, on the 13th February, 1920, two fine specimens in which the normal spotting of the veins of the forewing is almost completely absent, being replaced by a much less conspicuous pattern of pale-brownish veins lightly speckled with a darker shade of brown; also, the whole of both wings is suffused with a very pale yellowish-brown tinge, which is normally quite absent in this species. The specimens are in the Cawthron Institute collection.
Variety nigroscriptus nov.—A single specimen was taken by Mr. Philpott in Nelson on the 29th December, 1920, which shows a very striking and unusual pattern on the wings. At first sight it would appear to be a new species; but I am unable to differentiate it from M. tasmaniae by any other characters except the wing-pattern, and so I prefer to name it as a variety only. In the forewing there is a curved black stripe occupying the narrow space between M and Cu1 basally, and continued downwards along Cu1; the inner gradate series is conspicuously marked in black, and a subtriangular area at the apex, covering all the veins from the end of the pterostigma to the apex itself, and extending narrowly downwards along the first half of the outer gradate series, is also marked in black. In the hindwing the corresponding portions of the wing have the veins lightly marked in black, so that when the wings are folded in the position of rest the darkened areas reinforce one another. This specimen is in the Cawthron Institute collection.
Drepanacra binocula (Newman).
Drepanepteryx binocula Newman, 1838.
The number of species of Drepanacra described from Australia and New Zealand is quite considerable, and I myself have added two species from Australia and one from Norfolk Island, together with several varieties. There are also in my collection a number of other forms which once appeared to me to be good species. However, in the spring of 1917 I reared from a large brood of larvae on a single wattle-tree in my garden at Hornsby, N.S.W., more than two hundred specimens, undoubtedly all belonging to a single
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species, which showed an enormous variation in size, venation, and colour-pattern, and included not only all the supposed species already described from Australia, but also all the known New Zealand forms, together with a striking new variety which had previously been sent me from New Zealand but had remained undescribed. Of this series the commonest varieties by far were humilis McL. (almost unicolorous brown or fawn) and instabilis McL. (with irregular broken fasciae and irrorations). The rarest of all, totalling only three specimens out of the whole lot, was the original type described by Newman as Drepanepteryx binocula in 1838, which had remained undiscovered ever since. This form has a conspicuous circular eye-spot (black centre and pale outer ring) covering the fork of Cu1 and extending down to the fork of 1A, in the forewing.
It follows that the specific name of the single Australian and New Zealand species now becomes Drepanacra binocula (Newman), while McLachlan's species,* together with those subsequently described by Hare† and myself,‡ must sink to the status of varieties. Of the two New Zealand species described by Hare, D. maori appears to me to be barely distinct from var. instabilis McL., while D. humilior is only a small form of var. humilis McL., such as occurs on the Dun Mountain, Nelson, in company with larger and more typical forms. Such dwarf forms can easily be obtained by restricting the quantity of food given to the larva in captivity.
The following new varieties of this exceedingly variable species are here described for the first time:—
Variety excisa nov.—The forewing is of the humilis type (brown, with very light irrorations), or fuscous, with heavier irrorations, tending towards the instabilis type, but is remarkable in having a large irregular pale patch placed so as to cover the upper portion of the space between the distal and middle gradate series, and extending up on to the costa. This gives the insect, when at rest, the appearance of a small dead leaf with a big piece cut out of it, and ought to be very effective as a protection against birds and other enemies. Taken at Opoho Hill, Dunedin, on the 31st December, 1919, by myself (this specimen is dark fuscous, and has the anal area of forewing very pale); at Nelson, on the 8th December, 1921, by Mr. A. Philpott (forewing dark fuscous); and at Forest Hill, Invercargill, on the 29th December, 1915, by Mr. A. Philpott (forewing nearly uniform brown, with anal area only slightly paler).
Variety divisa nov.—The forewing is divided by an almost straight line, running from base to apex, into a very pale upper area and a brownish-fuscous lower area, the latter having the gradate series slightly clouded. This is evidently a further specialization from var. longitudinalis Till. A single specimen only, of rather small size, taken at Tisbury, near Invercargill, by Mr. A. Philpott, on the 9th February, 1913.
Variety bilineata nov.—Of same type as divisa, but the dividing-line is double, being pale above and dark below. The upper area, instead of being pale, is brown and irrorated; the lower half, beneath the dark-fuscous lower dividing-line, is also brown, but uniformly so, as in typical humilis. A single specimen, taken by myself at Queenstown, 17th December, 1919. A fine specimen, combining typical bilineata pattern of forewing with
[Footnote] * Journ. Entom., vol. 2, pp. 111–16, 1863.
[Footnote] †Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 42, pp. 29–33, 1909.
[Footnote] ‡Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., vol. 41, pt. 2, pp. 301, 302, 1916; also the same, vol. 42, pt. 3, p. 532, 1917.
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the prominent eye-spot of binocula itself, was taken at Nelson on the 8th December, 1920, by Mr. Philpott.
Variety suboculata nov.—Generally similar to the type form of the species (binocula Newm.), but the eye-spot is absent; instead of it there is a dark spot about half-way along the posterior margin, somewhat semicircular in shape, dark fuscous with a paler centre; this spot is generally rather irregularly formed, but the general effect is to suggest the upper half of an eye-spot appearing above the wing-margin. In both this variety and typical binocula the ground-colour of the forewing may be either greyish or brown, and these is generally considerable irroration and subfasciation, as in instabilis McL. Nelson, 8th December, 1920 (forewing grey); West Plains, Invercargill (forewing brown); also Hornsby, N.S.W. (several, forewings grey).
The known varieties of this remarkably variable species may now be listed as follows:—
- A.
Oculate or semi-oculate forms: binocula Newm. (type), suboculata var. nov.
- B.
Self-coloured or only slightly irrorated forms: humilis McL., humilior Hare, hardyi Till., tasmanica Till.
- C.
Strongly irrorated forms, with more or less irregular fasciation or subfasciation: instabilis McL., maori Hare, froggatti Till., rubrinervis Till., pallida Till., insularis Till. The first three and the last of these are scarcely sufficiently distinct, the variation in size, shape of wing, and venation being particularly marked amongst these forms.
- D.
Longitudinally lined forms: longitudinalis Till., divisa var. nov., bilineata var. nov.
- E.
Geographical race, with wings rather broad and short, not strongly falcate, size small, markings various: norfolkensis Till. and var. lineata Till. This form occurs only on Norfolk Island, but I am doubtful whether it is sufficiently distinct to merit the name which I gave it, as many New Zealand specimens approach it very closely in size and shape. In the specimens studied, varieties of the humilis, instabilis, and longitudinalis types were represented. Thus it would appear that the species is just as variable on Norfolk Island as elsewhere.
In the above descriptions all the remarks apply to the forewing. The hindwing varies little, but is more heavily clouded around the margin in those varieties in which the forewing is most heavily coloured.
In conclusion, it would appear evident enough that if attention were paid by collectors in New Zealand to these interesting little insects, especially in the spring and autumn, and by carefully sweeping any native trees or bush which appears to be affected with psyllids, scale insects, & c., the present scanty record for New Zealand may be considerably enlarged, as has been the case quite recently in Australia when similar methods have been adopted. The close relationship existing between the Planipennia of New Zealand and Australia is already clearly proved, and we may anticipate that, before very long, new forms closely related to such Australian genera as Notiobiella, Carobius, and Psychobiella will be discovered, especially if native pine-trees, such as kauri, rimu, and totara, are carefully searched for these insects.