Sinolipeurus tetraophasis Gustafsson & Lei & Chu & Zou 2020, new combination

Sinolipeurus tetraophasis (Clay, 1938) new combination

(Figs 19, 31, 63–65, 86, 95)

Oxylipeurus tetraophasis Clay, 1938: 186, fig. 40, pl. XIII: fig. 3.

Reticulipeurus tetraophasis (Clay); Złotorzycka 1966: 112.

Oxylipeurus tetraophasis Clay, 1938; Price et al. 2003: 204.

Type host. Tetraophasis obscurus (Verreaux, 1869) —Verreaux’s partridge.

Type locality. Yunnan [China].

Other host. Tetraophasis szechenyii Madarasz, 1885 —Szechenyi’s partridge.

Description.

Male. Head broad, frons broadly rounded (Fig. 19). Marginal carina slender. Head chaetotaxy as in Figs 19 and 95. Lateral margins of postantennal head converging posteriorly. Thoracic and abdominal plates and chaetotaxy as in Fig. 19. Reticulation only visible on pterosternal plate, metepisterna, and sternal and subgenital plates. Antennae as in Fig. 31; tooth-like projection of scape prominent; rugose area of flagellomere I small. Accessory sternal plate present (Fig. 86). Stylus long, slender, spatulate, distal end somewhat lanceolate (Fig. 86). Basal apodeme broad, proximal end diffuse (Fig. 63). Proximal mesosome broadly trapezoidal, lateral margins converging distally (Fig. 65); distal mesosome with distinct submedian lobes, densely rugose; antero-lateral and lateral lobes as in Fig. 65. Gonopore and ventral sclerite as in Fig. 65. Parameres as in Fig. 64; pst2 microsetae. Measurements as in Table 1.

Female. Not available.

Type material examined. Paratype ♂, Yunnan [China], Nov.1921, R. Meinertzhagen,3118, NHMUK010682628 (NHML).

Remarks. Clay (1938) described Oxylipeurus tetraophasis based on two males and one female from Tetraophasis obscurus from Yunnan, and one male plus two females from T. szechenyii from Szechuan (= Sichuan) and Yunnan. Clay (1938) quotes that the holotype is in the Meinertzhagen collection, but gives no repository for the other specimens. Judging from other material examined listed by Clay (1938) in a similar manner but deposited in the Meinertzhagen collection, we assume that all the specimens of O. tetraophasis were from that collection as well. However, only four slides with five lice labelled as O. tetraophasis were found in the collection at the NHML: the holotype and one paratype male from T. obscurus, Yunnan; one non-type female from T. obscurus from Kansu; and one male plus one female from Tragopan temminckii from Sichuan. The male from T. temminckii is described below as Sinolipeurus sichuanensis new species, but not the female on the same slide (see below). No specimens from T. szechenyii were found at the NHML, and those examined by Clay (1938) may be lost. We tentatively accept that Sinolipeurus tetraophasis parasitises the two hosts given by Clay (1938) because we have not examined any specimens from T. szechenyii. However, those two hosts do not overlap geographically and their estimated time of evolutionary divergence is 1.75 Myr (Liu et al. 2014). Additional specimens of Sinolipeurus from T. szechenyii are needed to establish whether the same louse species occurs on both host species.

The non-type female from Tetraophasis obscurus labelled as Oxylipeurus tetraophasis is morphologically different from the holotype male in characters that otherwise seem to be similar between sexes in species of other genera in the Oxylipeurus -complex. Therefore, we are not certain that it is conspecific with the male. If and when more females of Sinolipeurus from T. obscurus are collected, or if the missing female is located, the description of the female of S. tetraophasis in Clay (1938) will have to be reviewed.

Type host. Tragopan temminckii (J.E. Gray, 1831) —Temminck’s tragopan.