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Hi there,

Here you have a nice pic of what I think is Hemipenthes maurus, shot in D?lar, Sierra Nevada, S Spain at 2000 masl. By mountain creek. 30S VG50. 03/08/2008. Size aprox 1 cm.


Thanks,

Guillermo

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I agree - with both ID and that it is a very nice photo :)

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Yet another i have not seen myself so i must go by the literature, as my collection is not complete i cannot garuntee the accuracy of my det.

I think this is Hemipenthes vockerothi Francois, 1969, a species endemic to Spain, TL Sierra Nevada.

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Thanks, Susan and David.
I will send it to the gallery then, I think it will be new there.

Cheers,

Guillermo

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Are the strong golden coloured hairs the main clue, or are there other things we should look for?

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My det is a best guess based on Francois type descrition in which he compares it to hamiferus. It is clear that maurus, hamiferus, gaudanicus, mischanensis and vockerothi form a complex of cosely related taxa. I suspect that maurus is a northern species and that many southern European records are erroneous. Vockerothi seems to be a montain species which could be interpreted as a population that has become isolated as maurus has retreated north and that has now speciated.

Vockerothi has the black hook beyond the dical cell broader and curling round under the dical cell. However, such characters are variable and probably not enough to conclude that vockerothi is a separate species. From the illustrations i can find the genitalia are all very similar. Only a revision of the genus will sort this out but given that Francois has decribed this form we might as well use his name.

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OK - that's interesting - I had noticed that the black hook at the end of the discal cell is variable in what I have been calling maurus, so had assumed that would not be the character you were looking at.