Sungaya inexpectata

On September 8, 1995, Oliver Zompro collected a nymph of this previously unknown species in Sungay a Barangay of Tagaytay City in the Province of Cavite on the Filipino island Luzon. This died a short time later due to a failed molting during transport. On October 7, 1995, he was almost at the same location where he collected an adult female. Zompro incorrectly assigned the discovery location (Sungay, Tagaytay) to the province of Batangas, which is located much further south. This leads to incorrect identification of the location of the breeding line that emerged from the adult female. It is also not stated whether the exact location is in the Barangay Sungay East or Sungay West. Zompro found further females in 1999 near the original discovery location near the Taal Lake in the jungle near Tagaytay on ferns.^[2][3]

The females reach a length of 8.0 to 8.5 centimetres (3.1 to 3.3 in) and a weight of around five grams. At the end of the abdomen they have a beaked secondary ovipositor, typical of species of the Obriminae, which surrounds the primary ovipositor.^[4] The nymphs and the freshly molted imago of the form known since 1995 are very light (beige). As they grow older, adult females become increasingly darker. What is striking is the crown of spines on the back of the head and the four flat spines on the meso- and metanotum. In light-colored females, these are often surrounded by a brown diamond pattern.^[5]

The currently known representatives of the species reproduce through parthenogenesis. The first offspring of the wild-caught specimens laid the amphora-shaped, roughly 4.5 millimetres (0.18 in) long and 3.7 millimetres (0.15 in) wide, relatively large eggs approximately every two weeks in groups of 10 to 12 eggs in the ground. Later generations laid their eggs individually into the damp earth. After 4 to 6 months the nymphs hatch,^[6] which are already 17 millimetres (0.67 in) long when they hatch. Newly hatched nymphs, like the fresh adult females, are very brightly colored. The entire development into takes about three to four months.^[4][5][7]

Zompro described the species and genus in 1996 based on the two specimens found in 1995. The adult female was declared as holotype of the species, the recently collected female nymph and two offspring specimens of the holotype were declared as paratypes.^[2] All four are deposited in his collection, which, according to him, is affiliated with the Zoological Museum of the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel,^[8] although it is not available there. In a later publication, of which Zompro is the editor, it is announced that the holotype will be given to the Museum of Natural History of the University of the Philippines in Los Baños. ^[9] The genus name refers to the location where the holotype was found. The species name is derived from the Latin “inexpectatus”, meaning “unexpected”.^[1][2]

In their genetic analysis based studies to clarify the phylogeny of the Heteropterygidae was shown by Sarah Bank et al that in addition to the species originally described, there as Sungaya inexpectata (Sungay "Highland"), two to three other species exist. According to this, a breeding stock from Benguet would be regarded as a sister species to Sungaya inexpectata to be described. Two of these, as well as one by Bank et al. not examined species were described in 2023. Sungaya ibaloi, which comes from Benguet, is therefore the sister species of Sungaya inexpectata.^[10][11]