Variation in the terminalia of Neohermes concolor with a key to males of Neohermes in eastern North America (Megaloptera: Corydalidae: Chauliodinae)

Authors

David E. Bowles, United States Air Force Armstrong Laboratory
Michael A. Mathis, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, Arkansas

Date of this Version

September 1992

Comments

Published in Insecta Mundi Vol. 6, No. 3-4, September-December, 1992. Copyright © 1992 by Bowles and Mathis.

Insecta Mundi, published by the Center for Systematic Entomology, is available online at http://centerforsystematicentomology.org/.

Abstract

Males of Neohermes concolor (Davis) from the interior highlands of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, and from Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky exhibited considerable variation in male terminalia. Differences occurred in the size of the dorsal membrane of the ninth sternite and in the shape of the tenth tergite (anal plate) which varied from rounded to truncate-shaped. This observed variation does not appear to be geographically correlated. Females of N. concolor did not exhibit broad variation in terminalii. Little variation was observed among males of N. angusticollis (Hagen) and N. matheri Flint. The broad range of variation observed in the tenninalia of N. concolor could result in misidentification by collectors who rely only on the shape of the anal plate rather than the more constant shape of the aedeagus.