CHRYSOPERIA LUCASINA (LACROIX) - A DISTINCT SPECIES OF GREEN LACEWING, CONFIRMED BY ACOUSTICAL ANALYSIS (NEUROPTERA, CHRYSOPIDAE)

The existence of cryptic, sibling species, distinguished principally b y vibrational courtship songs, has been confirmed for the carnea-group of Chrysoperla green lacewings in Europe and western Asia. One member of this species-group, C.lucasina (Lacroix), is characterized by seve ral morphological traits as well, but its taxonomic validity has been considered uncertain due to the subtle and variable nature of those tr aits. Here, we describe the calling and courtship songs of C.lucasina, which uniquely distinguish that taxon from all other members of the c arnea-group in Europe. The male of C.lucasina produces two slightly bu t consistently different types of songs, one while calling and the oth er while dueting with a female. The female produces just one type of s ong, identical to the male's calling song, which is used for both call ing and dueting. Measured features of the songs of C.lucasina are near ly invariant over a broad geographical area, from the Canary Islands t o Cyprus and from northern Africa to the U.K. Similarly, at least one morphological feature, the presence of a dark stripe on the pleuron of the second abdominal segment, characterizes all adult individuals ide ntified acoustically as C.lucasina. Furthermore, larval head markings vary little among different populations of the song species. We conclu de that C. lucasina is a valid biological species, which can also be r ecognized in museum collections by a suite of morphological attributes . We also briefly compare the songs and adult morphology of C.lucasina with five other currently unnamed song Species of the carnea-group wh ose geographic ranges overlap extensively with it.