Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Aug 20:962:123-137.
doi: 10.3897/zookeys.962.51520. eCollection 2020.

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

Alexandra Magro  1   2 , Julissa Churata-Salcedo  3 , Emilie Lecompte  1   4 , Jean-Louis Hemptinne  1   2 , Lúcia M Almeida  3
Affiliations

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

Alexandra Magro et al. Zookeys. .

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. apolonia sp. 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.

Keywords: Coccinelloidea; Scymnus; ladybird beetle; molecular data; predator; systematics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Scanning electron microscopy A–D antennae E–H prosternal process I–L tarsi M–P abdominal postcoxal line A, E, I, MNephus (Nephus) oblongosignatus Mulsant, 1850 B, F, J, NNephus (Geminosipho) reunioni (Fürsch, 1974) C, G, K, ONephus (Nephus) voeltzkowi Weise, 1910 D, H, L, PNephus apolonia Magro & Almeida, sp. nov.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Nephus (Nephus) oblongosignatus Mulsant, 1850 A dorsal view B ventral view C lateral view D frontal view E, F abdomen G–K male genitalia: G spicula H, I tegmen (dorsal and lateral view) J, K penis L, M female genitalia: L spermatheca M coxites.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Nephus (Geminosipho) reunioni (Fürsch, 1974) A dorsal view B ventral view C lateral view D frontal view E, F abdomen G–J male genitalia: tegmen (dorsal and lateral view): I, J penis K, L female genitalia: K spermatheca L coxites.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Nephus (Nephus) voeltzkowi Weise, 1910 A dorsal view B ventral view C lateral view D frontal view E abdomen F, G female genitalia: F coxites G spermatheca.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Nephus (Nephus) apolonia Magro & Almeida, sp. nov. A dorsal view B ventral view C lateral view D frontal view E, F abdomen G–J male genitalia: G, H penis I, J tegmen (dorsal and lateral view) K, L female genitalia: K spermatheca L coxites.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Maximum likelihood phylogeny of Nephus (Nephus) apolonia Magro & Almeida, sp. nov. and four related species based on the mitochondrial genome (without the control region) reconstructed through 1000 non-parametric bootstrap replicates. The scale bar indicates 0.04 substitutions per site. Numbers on major nodes represent Maximum Likelihood bootstrap support.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Chazeau J, Étienne J, Fürsch H. (1974) Les Coccinellidae de l’île de la Réunion. Bulletin du Muséum National d’ Histoire Naturelle 3e série (210) Zoologie 140: 265–297.
    1. Darriba D, Taboada GL, Doallo R, Posada D. (2012) jModelTest 2: more models, new heuristics and parallel computing. Nature methods 9(8): 772–772. 10.1038/nmeth.2109 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fürsch H. (1966) Die Scymnus-Arten Westafrikas (Col. Cocc.). Entomologische Arbeiten aus dem Museum G. Frey Tutzing bei München 17: 135–194.
    1. Fürsch H. (1974) Die Coccinelliden von São Tomé. Mitteilungen der Münchner Entomologischen Gesellschaft 64: 13–39.
    1. Fürsch H. (1987) Übersicht über die Genera und Subgenera der Scymnini mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Westpalaearktis (Insecta, Coleoptera, Coccinellidae). Entomologische Abhandlungen Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde Dresden 51(4): 57–74.

LinkOut - more resources