Semachrysa jade

Semachrysa jade
	Semachrysa jade , female
Systematics
Trunk :	Arthropod (arthropoda)
Class :	Insects (Insecta)
Order :	Reticulated winged (Neuroptera)
Family :	Lacewing (Chrysopidae)
Genre :	Semachrysa
Type :	Semachrysa jade
Scientific name
	Semachrysa jade
	Winterton , Guek & Brooks , 2012

Semachrysa Jade is a lacewing , which in the Malaysian provinces of Selangor and Sabah occurs. Very few specimens of this species have been found so far, all of which were females. The species can easily be distinguished from all other species of the genus Semachrysa by its characteristic wing veining , the spot between the bases of the antennae, only two existing spots on the frons, and the seventh abdominal star , which is pointed posteromedially and has a tuft of hair. The species resembles Semachrysa wallacei because of its black spots on its head and wings.

features

So far only the females are known. The animals have a forewing length of 15.0 millimeters, the hind wings are 13.5 to 14.0 millimeters long. They are light green and yellow in color and have dark spots on the head, abdomen and both wings. In the case of prepared animals, the color fades to pale yellow. The head is yellow and bears a black spot on the vertex between the antennae and also a rectangular spot of the same kind on the front below the antennae base and proximal to the edge of the compound eyes . The front plate has a brown sheen on the side. The labrum is indented in the middle. The antennae are pale green, unpatterned and slightly longer than the forewings. Your flagellum carries at least 50 flagellomeres. The palps are green and also unpatterned.

The prothorax is green and has a small brown spot on the anterior side of the pronotum. The protothorax is relatively sparsely covered with short, green hairs. The hair on the sides is a little thicker and darker. The mesonotum and metanotum are yellow-green, the scutum is darker in prepared animals, the mesoscutellum is pale yellow. These parts of the body are also sparsely hairy, pale yellow to white. The legs are colored very light green and covered with white hairs. On the rails ( tibia ) of the forelegs, the setae are distally shorter and yellowish. The distal tarsus and claws are brownish on all three pairs of legs . The wings are quite rounded. The costal area of the forewings is broad, rounded at the base and straight towards the wing tip. Both pairs of wings are transparent, have predominantly pale green wing veins and each have a characteristic dark spot at their base, which extends along the wing veins, which are also darkened there. The fore wings have four or five transverse arteries between the arteries R and Rs, which converge towards the rear. Rs approaches the Psm vein basally. There are three cross veins between the veins Cu1 and Cu2, the first rear cross vein is forked towards the edge, with its rear (posterior) arm connecting to the vein Cu2 at the wing edge.

The abdomen is yellow-green on the back, the belly is white. On the second to fourth tergite there is a dark stripe medially. On the third to fifth tergite there is a poorly recognizable dark spot on each side. The eighth sternite has a medial cluster of short, strong setae. The seventh sternite has a broadly pointed posteromedial margin and bears a tuft of short, dark setae.

Discovery story

In May 2011, Hock Ping Guek, a Malaysian amateur photographer, was out in Selangor State Park near Kuala Lumpur to take macro photos of forest insects. He focused on rather rare lacewings that perched on branches and leaves. During this excursion he managed to get a close-up of a yellowish green insect with black spots on its wings. He had seen the insect before, but it flew away before he could photograph it. On his return, he published the picture on Flickr with the comment that he was happy that after four years of macro photography he finally managed to get a respectable shot of these animals. Shaun Winterton, a senior entomologist with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, saw this photo soon after. He was taken with the black wing markings that he had never seen before on a lacewing species. Despite his extensive field experience, he was unable to identify this species. Colleagues he showed the photo to were also at a loss.

Winterton emailed Guek and asked if he had a sample as it was believed to be an undescribed species. Guek said no, as the photographed specimen had flown away shortly after the picture was taken. A year later, Guek Winterton sent another email informing him that he had seen this lacewing species again and this time was able to catch a specimen. Winterton recommended that Guek send the sample to Steven J. Brooks of the Natural History Museum in London. Brooks later confirmed that it was indeed an unknown species. At the same time, he found out from a previously unclassified and examined specimen that the museum had received in 1981 that the species also occurs in the Malaysian province of Sabah on Borneo . Guek, Winterton and Brooks wrote the scientific description together with Google Docs . Winterton named the species after his daughter. In the summary of the article, which was published in the journal ZooKeys in August 2012 , the authors described their find as "a joint discovery by a citizen scientist and professional taxonomists ".