New Clonopsis stick insects from Morocco: the amphigonic C. felicitatis sp.n., the parthenogenetic C. soumiae sp.n., and two androgenetic taxa.

New collections of Moroccan samples of the stick insect Clonopsis allowed the discovery of two new species (the bisexual C. felicitatis sp.n., the all-female parthenogenetic C. soumiae sp.n.), and two all-male clonal androgenetic strains (C. androgenes- 35 and C. androgenes-53). Together with the already known parthenogenetic C. gallica and the new all-female C. soumiae, C. felicitatis forms a numerically polyploid series with 2n535/36, 3n554 and 4n572; all karyotypes are structurally diploid, however, so that it has been suggested that most likely they became re-diploidized in the triploid and tetraploid parthenogens, as apparently happened in other stick insects. Also in the two androgens the karyotype is structurally diploid: therefore C. androgenes-53 should have originated as a re-diploidized triploid. Aside from their karyotype, the males of C. felicitatis are identified by colour stripes, whereas for the androgens and the females of the three Clonopsis taxa, only the chromosome numbers are diagnostic, since body and egg traits, also analysed at SEM level, did not reveal sound differentiating characters, suggesting a close relationship. In line with karyological and SEM observations, preliminary mitochondrial analyses support that C. felicitatis is the mother ancestor of ‘‘polyploid’’ C. gallica, C. soumiae and of both androgens. Together with C. gallica, these new taxa form a cohesive species-complex, well differentiated from the two already known bisexuals C. maroccana and C. algerica. Actually these species do not show directly comparable karyotypes, and their males can also be specifically recognized by their terminalia. These findings throw a significant new light on the hitherto obscure relationships of taxa within the genus. The overall reproductive and chromosomal diversification of North African Clonopsis suggests that the Rif region could well be the radiation centre of the genus, although the ‘‘triploid’’ C. gallica has been able to gain some pre-desert zones towards the South and to widely spread into Europe.