Studies on the Mantodea of Nepal (Insecta) JAN 2 Ü !VV4 By Francesco Lombardo HARVARD UNlVERolTY Lombardo, F. (1993): Studies on Mantodea of Nepal (Insecta). -Spixiana 16/3: 193-206 The author examines a rieh collection of Mantodea from Nepal, belonging to the Zoologische Staatssammlung München. 20 species were identified, among which only 2 are known in the fauna of this region; almost all of them are new for the region of Nepal and Sceptuchus baehri, spec. nov., Acromantis elegans, spec. nov. and Memantis anomala, spec. nov. are new for the science. Dr. F. Lombardo, Dipartimento di Biologia Animale, Universitä di Catania, Via Androne 81, 1-95124 Catania, Sicily, Italy. Introduction Dr. Baehr of the Zoologische Staatssammlung München, whom I sincerely thank, gave me the opportunity to examine a rieh collection of Mantodea, picked by the researchers Dierl, Forster and Schacht during a biological expedition in Nepal in 1967. It is a collection of 109 remarkably interesting speeimens not only from a taxonomical view-point, as it is demonstrated that among the 20 species reported 3 are new for the science, but also from the faunistic one, since until today the Mantodea fauna of Nepal has been almost completely unknown. The only literature data existing pertain to a study written by Chopard and Dreux (1966) informing about the results of two biological expeditions (1959, 1962) in Nepal, where 3 species of Mantodea {(Rhombodera tectiformis Sauss., Leptomantis indica G.-Tos, Bolivaria xantoptera (Oliver) were found. Amorphoscelis annulicornis Stäl Amorphoscelis annulicornis Stäl, 1871, Ofv. Ak. Forh., 28 p. 401. A. annulicornis Giglio-Tos 1927, Das Tierreich, p. 24. A. indica Giglio-Tos, 1927, Das Tierreich, p. 23. Amorphoscelis indica Werner 1931, Proc. Zool. Soc. 4 p. 1329. Amorphoscelis indica Werner 1933, Proc. Zool. Soc, 4 p. 897. Amorphoscelis keiseri Beier, 1956, Verh. Naturf. Ges. Basel, 67 (1) p. 33. Amorphoscelis annulicornis Roy 1965, Bull. Soc. ent. France, 70 p. 269. Material: Nepal: 2 6 6, Rapti Tal Monahari Kohla, Belwa 350 m, 6.V.1967, (leg. Dierl, Forster, Schacht). Description These two speeimens differ from the typical material as they have the last article of the cerci completely black, while the other articles are only distally black (Fig. la). Also in the copulatory organ there are some differences, which especially concern the shape of the ventral phallomere (Fig. lb), which is almost rhomboid rather than subsquare as in the neallotype described by Roy (1965). 193
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