Female ectodermal genitalia of the taxa of the Kelisia guttula-group (Homoptera Fulgoromorpha Delphacidae): not only an example for specialized coorganization with male genitalia without obvious reasons, but also a character set apt for species discrimination in westpalaearctic taxa?

In the course of evolution male and female external and internal ectodermal genitalic structures in the taxa of the monophyletic Kelisia guttula-group have been enlarged and differentiated in a very special way in comparison to plesiomorphic taxa of Kelisiinae. Functional reasons for this “orthogenetic” evolution are not yet known, as it seems. In evolutory “coorganization” the evolution of a proportionally very large genital segment and an extremely long, thin and flexible aedeagus in the males is “answered” (for there seem to be - other than in some other insect taxa, e. i. Diptera Tephritidae - no special “female” functions like oviposition or “sperm handling” which may act as “selective forces” on these structures, by this changing their morphology) by the females with the development of a special duct of approximately “edeagal length” guiding and keeping the male aedeagus during copulation. This “edeagal duct”, which morphologically is “folded off” from the genital room, starts at the dorsal base of the female’s genital room and ends opposite the depart of the oviductus communis (leading to the spermatheca as well as to the ovaries). It is much longer than the genital room, but it remains connected with it by a thin ligament. It is provided with a variety of sclerotized structures. This could be interpreted as a “lock and key” mechanism to prevent successful mating between specimens belonging to different species, but such matings are prohibited already by species-specific vibratory signals acting as “premating isolating mechanism”. As in the K. guttula-group there exist several species-groups containing externally very similar species, in which the females could not be identified down to species up to now (resulting in “handicaps” for biogeographical and ecological analyses), we examined these structures looking for species-specific characters enabling the safe identification not only of males, but of females, too. As a result all females of this group now may be safely identified due to such species-specific characters present in their internal ectodermal genitalia. The populations of “Kelisia irregulata Haupt” from Spain and western France have shown to be that different from the allopatrically distributed central european populations, that they seem to be a genpool of their own. So we decided to describe these populations as a species of its own: Kelisia occirrega n. sp. (Type locality: Spain, Prov. Pamplona, Isaba in the Valle del Roncal in the southwestern Pyrenees). This taxon ought to keep its species rank unless intermediate, transitional specimens will be discovered in the “gap” between the two taxa (situated in eastern France) indicating the existence of a “hybrid belt”