Nolima sp. - Nolima pinal

Moved tentatively

Moved from Nolima.

… v belov, 26 February, 2017 - 10:02pm

N. dine may not be the best placement here

Even though this was found at the type locality for Nolima dine, it may be better placed under N. pinal...see comment under post below for details:

… Aaron Schusteff, 24 February, 2019 - 11:03pm

Think I found this guy at Madera

Will post later.

… James Bailey, 3 September, 2017 - 9:10pm

Moved

Moved from Mantidflies.

… v belov, 31 January, 2014 - 5:47pm

Looks like the familiar conundrum

This is either Leptomantispa pulchella or Dicromantispa sayi...both occur in Arizona. These two can be notoriously difficult to separate.

There are (at least) two ways to tell these two taxa apart, but they're not effective for this (and many other) images. Here are those two (easiest to state and most dependable) ways:

1) setation and "roughness" of the upper edge of the pronotum (see here for details);
2) if the antennae are clearly "tri-colored", you have (the southern form of) D. sayi. But other forms of D. sayi have antennae virtually identical to those of L. pulchella...so that distinction doesn't go both ways.

For what it's worth, the color form and aspects of wing venation (too fuzzy to depend on here) make me lean towards L. pulchella...but it could go either way.

(Wish I had seen this one during our visit to the locale here during the BG gathering :-)

… Aaron Schusteff, 22 December, 2013 - 3:53pm

shape of the pterostigma rules out both Dicro~ & Lepto~

really cool thing

… v belov, 31 January, 2014 - 11:47am

Thanks for pointing that out =v=

...and correcting my error. Don't know how I missed that shorter, wider, and very red pterostigma!

… Aaron Schusteff, 31 January, 2014 - 11:52pm

Yes, that's the first thing I noticed

… margarethe brummermann, 31 January, 2014 - 3:43pm

Nolima sp.

This is a new subfamily for BG Calomantispinae, but somehow I cannot create a page for it, even though there is one for Mantispinae.

I took two German scientist on tour last summer to find Mantispids, so I sent them the image. Caroline Ring identified it as Nolima sp. and adds that we also got them in Peppersauce Canyon

… margarethe brummermann, 31 January, 2014 - 4:45pm

The type for one of the 3 U.S. species...

...Nolima dine, came from Peppersauce Canyon. See detailed discussion in Rehn's 1939 paper here.

A second AZ species, N. pinal, was described from the Pinal Mountains, due east of Phoenix and due north of Tucson (not all that far away from the Santa Catalina Mnts?). The 3rd species was described from further off (Texas).

… Aaron Schusteff, 1 February, 2014 - 12:56am

Yes

my friend wasn't sure if dine or pinal, even for the ones we collected at Peppersauce. She has no species key right now

… margarethe brummermann, 1 February, 2014 - 9:25am

Does she still have the specimens?

If so, you can refer her to Rehn's 1939 key here. I believe that's still the main published taxonomic treatment of Nolima, as the 2007 paper by Reynoso-Velasco & Contreras-Ramos(1) cites it as the most recent reference for the genus in their "Table 1" on pg. 704.

… Aaron Schusteff, 1 February, 2014 - 4:57pm

ha! thought so... awesome addition, danke schoen!

… v belov, 31 January, 2014 - 5:48pm

Yes, a Nolima post on BugGuide at last...hooray!!

Hoffman(1) and Reynoso-Velasco & Contreras-Ramos(2) use the semi-circular pterostigma as a diagnostic for subfamily Calomantispinae, with our only genus therein being Nolima.

And Rehn (1939) noted that in Nolima the forewing subcosta meets the costa slightly more than half-way out to the pterostigma (see his Fig. 11 here). That can be seen in Margarethe's image. In Plega the subcosta extends to the pterostigma, while in our Mantispinae the subcosta may meet the costa well before the pterostigma...but as you noted...the pterostigma is thinner and more elongate-rectangular.

… Aaron Schusteff, 31 January, 2014 - 11:56pm

I would create a page for the genus

but it's in subfamily Calomantispinae and I can't get it to create a subfamily page

… margarethe brummermann, 31 January, 2014 - 4:46pm

I was able to create...

a subfamily Calomantispinae page. Only problem is, I'm not sure how to move the Nolima genus page there!

Postscript: I figured out how to move the genus page. It's all done :-)

… Aaron Schusteff, 1 February, 2014 - 12:01am

pages for "coextensive" taxa

pending BG 2.0 [with its enhanced display options], the consensus is to avoid creating intermediate levels that would only hold a single subordinate taxon and thus only add extra steps navigating the tree --that's the only reason why i didn't make pages for Calomantispinae and Symphrasinae (not that i'm a big fan of that practice but it makes sense; in cases like this i usually add some language to the genus page, like "our only representative of the primarily neotropical subfamily/tribe Xxxx, that contains N more genera").
the taxonomic arrangement is clearly presented on both family & order pages(1)(2) (note that links to any guide pages can be added using the same [cite:xxxx] format)

[none of the above means i suggest deleting the subfam. page]

… v belov, 1 February, 2014 - 5:05pm

That had occured to me...

...after I made the Calomantispinae guide page. Nevertheless, after doing so, I felt compelled to make a Symphrasinae page, for "uniformity".

Along the same lines, I just made some additions to the info pages for the (monotypic) genus Xeromantispa and it's sole species X. scabrosa...another example of two taxonomic levels with a single actual member. I did that in anticipation that Margarethe or another contributor might soon get some nice images of that taxon...which I think is the only mantispid genus in BugGuide's purview still lacking images!

… Aaron Schusteff, 1 February, 2014 - 5:23pm

the 'proactive' page creation is also still considered a misdemeanor...
i admit i do do that but only where i can reasonably anticipate images to turn up in the guide soon (say, i know someone whom i can persuade to take and/or post some pics), but not otherwise; i delete such pages after a while if the pics didn't materialize.
editors tend to delete any blank pages they come across, as far as i know.
things may change with the BG 2.0 coming online; seeing links on the tree with no way to know which ones lead to picturlessque pages can be frustrating.

… v belov, 1 February, 2014 - 5:45pm

"Proactive" info pages can be very helpful

...as a place to provide useful information and links for a taxon that is currently little known, and that many users will not have the time or expertise to research. Many entomophiles will first look to BugGuide if they are interested in a particular taxon...and even if they can't find images, they may find descriptions, range, and other info that might help them learn about the taxon...and perhaps help them find it in the field and post images in the future.

I often expend significant(!) time & effort searching out useful information on a species of interest, and adding content to info pages. I would be quite upset if someone deleted an info page with useful content I'd painstakingly placed there for future reference.

I can see an "empty shell" guide page (i.e. with no content added to the info page) being deleted if it has sat unfilled for a while...but I would hope no editor would delete an imageless guide page with useful content on the "Info" page.

… Aaron Schusteff, 1 February, 2014 - 6:21pm

the higher-rank taxon page is the right place for info on missing subordinate taxa, imho

… v belov, 1 February, 2014 - 9:00pm

This plump little

fellow was definitely not our usual L.sayi It seemed very different from what I usually see.

… margarethe brummermann, 22 December, 2013 - 4:38pm

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… v belov, 17 September, 2013 - 11:47am