© Entomologica Fennica. 16 September 2011 Taxonomy, habitat choice and distribution of Kimunpsocus flavonimbatus (Rostock, 1879) comb. n. (Psocodea: ‘Psocoptera’: Psocidae) Gergely Várkonyi & Charles Lienhard Várkonyi, G. & Lienhard, C. 2011: Taxonomy, habitat choice and distribution of Kimunpsocus flavonimbatus (Rostock, 1879) comb. n. (Psocodea: ‘Psocoptera’: Psocidae). — Entomol. Fennica 22: 97–105. The bark lice Psocus flavonimbatus Rostock, 1879 and Ptycta chubsugulensis Günther, 1982 are assigned to the genus Kimunpsocus Yoshizawa, 2009. The male terminalia of K. flavonimbatus are described for the first time and compared to the corresponding structures of the other known species of the genus. Previ- ously only known from the type locality in Estonia and the municipality of Kuhmo in Finland, K. flavonimbatus is now reported from 13 new sites and as a new species for four municipalities in eastern Central Finland. Analyses of an ex- tensive material strongly suggest that K. flavonimbatus is a habitat-specialist spe- cies, confining its occurrence to pristine and semi-natural spruce-dominated fo- rests. Nonetheless, its occurrence seems to be sporadic even in the old-growth fo- rests. Forest structure of a subset of occupied and unoccupied sites is described and the conservation biology of K. flavonimbatus discussed. G. Várkonyi, Finnish Environment Institute, Friendship Park Research Centre, Lentiirantie 342B, 88900 Kuhmo, Finland; E-mail: gergely.varkonyi @ymparisto.fi C. Lienhard, Muséum d’histoire naturelle, C. P. 6434, CH-1211 Genève 6, Swit- zerland; E-mail: [email protected] Received 6 April 2011, accepted 17 May 2011 1. Taxonomy 1.1. Introduction Kimunpsocus flavonimbatus (Rostock, 1879) This interesting species has been redescribed by comb. n. (Fig. 1) Lienhard & Kanervo (2002), based on newly dis- covered material from Kuhmo, eastern Central Psocus flavonimbatus Rostock, 1879: 129. Finland. The male terminalia could not be exam- Amphigerontia flavonimbatas [sic!] ined for that redescription, because all males (Rostock). Mühlen 1884: 331 (incorrect spell- available were damaged, lacking the abdomen. ing). Therefore it was not possible to assign the species Psocidus flavonimbatus (Rostock). Smithers to one of the modern genera of the family 1967: 108; Lienhard & Smithers 2002: 444. Psocidae. Thus, in the World catalogue published Psocus flavonimbatus Rostock. Lienhard & by Lienhard & Smithers (2002), it was assigned Kanervo 2002: 59 (redescription). to the genus Psocidus Pearman (s. l.), a heteroge- 98 Várkonyi & Lienhard • ENTOMOL. FENNICA Vol. 22 Fig. 1. A female Kimun- psocus flavonimbatus from Teerisuo-Lososuo Mire Reserve, Kuhmo, eastern Central Fin- land. Photo: G. Várko- nyi neous group within Psocidae containing many comb. n.forPtycta chubsugulensis Günther, species, which cannot be allocated to one of the 1982. genera defined in this family after the redefini- We had now the chance to examine a perfectly tion, in a narrow sense, of Psocus Latreille by preserved male from Finland (Suomussalmi, Pearman (1932). Murhisalo, beating, 71765:36448, 31.vii.2008, Lienhard & Kanervo (2002) suggested that leg. P. Kähkönen), which was collected together Psocus flavonimbatus could be close to or even with typical females. As indicated by Lienhard & identical with Ptycta chubsugulensis Günther, Kanervo (2002), the specific identification of described from Mongolia (Günther 1982). Un- both sexes is easy due to their characteristic fore- fortunately, as only the male holotype is known of wing pattern. The general morphology of both this species, and no intact males were available of sexes and the female terminalia have been de- Psocus flavonimbatus, it was impossible to make scribed in detail by these authors. The male termi- any detailed comparison of these species. nalia are here described for the first time, based on The morphology of male terminalia of Ptycta the above mentioned specimen. The following chubsugulensis indicates the close relationship of measurements of this male complete the data al- this species with Kimunpsocus takumai Yoshiza- ready given in the redescription of the species wa, recently described from northern Japan (Lienhard & Kanervo 2002): body length (BL) = (Hokkaido Island) and considered by Yoshizawa 3.2 mm; forewing length (FW) = 5.0 mm; length (2009) as the type species of a new monotypic ge- of hind femur (F) = 0.95 mm; length of hind tibia nus, Kimunpsocus Yoshizawa. Therefore we pro- (T) = 1.85 mm; length of hind tarsomere 1 (t1) = pose here the following new combination: Ki- 600 µm; length of hind tarsomere 2 (t2) = 175 munpsocus chubsugulensis (Günther, 1982) µm; minimum distance between compound eyes ENTOMOL. FENNICA Vol. 22 • The bark louse Kimunpsocus flavonimbatus 99 Fig. 2. Kimunpsocus flavonimbatus (Ro- stock), male. – a. Ter- minalia (lateral view). – b. Hypandrium, apical part of median strap (anterior view). – c. Hypandrium (pos- terior view). divided by the antero-posterior diameter of com- slightly clubbed seta near its anterior base (see pound eye, in dorsal view (IO/D) = 1.2. The char- detail of Fig. 3a), trichobothrial field oval, not acters of male terminalia confirm the close rela- subdivided. Hypandrium (Fig. 2a–c) with a tionship of this species with Kimunpsocus chub- slightly asymmetrical, strongly sclerotized me- sugulensis comb. n. but justify the separation of dian strap and with a partly membranous, partly the European and the Mongolian forms as two sclerotized rounded lateral lobe on each side. The distinct species. Thus, this European species has apical part of the median strap antero-ventrally also to be assigned to the genus Kimunpsocus. curved and asymmetrically trilobate, one of its terminal lobes rounded and denticulate (Fig. 2b– c). Phallosome (Fig. 3c) distally slightly asym- 1.2. Description of male terminalia metrical, with a toe-shaped smooth submedian (Figs. 2a–c, 3a–d) process, on each side in distal half with a sclero- tized ventro-lateral longitudinal band. Clunium characteristically shaped, anterior mar- gin with a deep medio-dorsal notch (Fig. 3d), postero-lateral region slightly concave in lateral 1.3. Discussion view (Fig. 2a). Epiproct chair-shaped in lateral view (Fig. 2a), its basal lobe broad and rugose, Kimunpsocus flavonimbatus (Rostock) is closely slightly prominent medially (Fig. 3b). Paraproct related to the two other members of the genus (Fig. 3a) lacking laterally projecting basal lobe, Kimunpsocus Yoshizawa, the Mongolian species with a pointed apical hook and a well-differenti- K. chubsugulensis (Günther) comb. n. (=Ptycta ated subapical prominence, the latter bearing a chubsugulensis Günther, see Section 1.1.) and the 100 Várkonyi & Lienhard • ENTOMOL. FENNICA Vol. 22 Fig. 3. Kimunpsocus flavonimbatus (Ro- stock), male. – a. Left paraproct. – b. Epiproct (posterior view). – c. Phallosome (ven- tral view). – d. Clunium (dorsal view, spread out). Japanese K. takumai Yoshizawa. Male terminalia tinctly trilobate epiproct lobe (see Yoshizawa are very similar in all three species, in particular 2009: Fig. 2B). The median strap of the hypan- their characteristically shaped phallosomes are drium of K. takumai is probably very similar to K. almost identical (here shown in ventral view, see flavonimbatus (according to the somewhat sche- Fig. 3c; same view in Fig. 2E by Yoshizawa2009; matic Fig. 2D in Yoshizawa 2009). depicted in dorsal view by Günther 1982: Fig. 5). The forewing pattern is essentially the same in However, the male of K. chubsugulensis can be all three species, but of varying intensity (proba- distinguished from the male of K. flavonimbatus bly also with considerable intraspecific variabil- by the shape of the antero-ventrally curved apical ity): highly contrasted pattern as depicted by part of the median strap of the hypandrium: it is Lienhard & Kanervo (2002: Fig. 1a, b) for K. simple in K. chubsugulensis (see Günther 1982: flavonimbatus; medium contrast in Yoshizawa Fig. 4) and trilobate in K. flavonimbatus (Fig. 2b– (2009: Fig. 1) for K. takumai; weakly contrasted c). This striking difference could be confirmed by pattern in Günther (1982: Fig. 2) for K. chub- the examination of the holotype of Ptycta chub- sugulensis. The female of the latter species is not sugulensis (mounted on three microscopical known, in the two other species the morphology slides by K. K. Günther, deposited in the Zoologi- of female terminalia is very similar (Lienhard & cal Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Kanervo 2002: Fig. 1g, i; Yoshizawa 2009: Fig. St. Petersburg), while the remaining terminalia of 3A, B). However, Lienhard & Kanervo (2002: this specimen (i.e. clunium, epiproct, paraproct, Fig. 1h) illustrate a weakly sclerotized, asymmet- phallosome) are the same as described above for rically structured spermapore region (internal K. flavonimbatus. The Japanese K. takumai can plate) for K. flavonimbatus;inK. takumai the in- be distinguished from these species by its dis- ternal plate is “without obvious sclerotization nor ENTOMOL. FENNICA Vol. 22 • The bark louse Kimunpsocus flavonimbatus 101 Fig. 4. Distribution of Kimunpsocus flavonimbatus in eastern Central Finland. The small square symbols denote the 1-km2 squares where the species has been recorded during 1997–2008. Thin black lines delineate munici- palities, of which Kuhmo is shown in its entirety. The two most central squares, isolated from large semi-natural forest areas, denote remnant populations of K. flavonimbatus that have gone extinct during the