Nephochaetopteryx coendu sp. nov.

(Fig. 7)

Type material. HOLOTYPE ♁ (DZUP): Vilhena, RO [Rondônia] / 15.X.1986 / C. Elias Polonoroeste [printed and handwritten on rectangular white label] // DZUP 252962 [printed on rectangular white label]. [Holotype lacking right fore leg and both mid legs, with cleared abdomen and terminalia preserved in glycerin in a microvial pinned beneath the specimen.]

Description. Male (holotype). Length = 5.2 mm.

Head. Fronto-orbital plate, parafacial plate and postocular strip with golden microtomentum. Frontal vitta black with basal half reddish-brown. Six frontal setae. Gena and postgena with golden microtomentum. Palpus yellow.

Thorax. Chaetotaxy: dorsocentrals 2+4 (first two weak); intra-alars 2+2; supra-alars 1+3, notopleurals 1, subprimary; anepisternals 5; merals 5. Wing hyaline; with dark spot beginning in the terminal portion of vein R 1, filling the distal third of cell r 1 and the upper half of the distal half of cell r 2+3; vein R 4+5 setulose dorsally to crossvein r-m.

Abdomen. Tergites brown with a band of grayish microtomentum on anterior 4/5 of dorsal and lateral surfaces.

Terminalia. Sternite 5 brown; cleft deep, nearly reaching middle of sternite; lobe rounded, with a tuft of short setulae and with two strong flattened setae basally; arm small and narrowed (Fig. 7E). Syntergosternite 7+8, epandrium and cercus brown. Cercus about as long as epandrium, with prong rectangular and bent posteriorly, and with a small apical projection on ventral margin in lateral view (Fig. 7A). Cercus without setulae, covered with several, scattered, spine-like setae (Fig. 7A). Cercal prongs with convergent tips in dorsal view (Fig. 7B). Surstylus glossiform, slightly curved anteriorly, without setulae and with small, pointed and slender setae restricted to basal half (Fig. 7A). Pregonite short and widened, with distal portion perpendicular to base, pointed apex, and small, pointed setae on posterior margin (Fig. 7C). Postgonite longer than pregonite, almost straight, with apex strongly curved anteriorly, and with a long seta and some small, pointed setae on anterior margin (Fig. 7D). Basiphallus almost as wide as long, about half as long as distiphallus (Fig. 7F). Distiphallus straight in lateral view, with a quadrate apical margin bearing some small cuticular spines and a long, pointed projection (Fig. 7F). Ventral margin of distiphallus serrated and with a long, pointed projection directed to base (Fig. 7F). Vesica short, triangular, with a small, pointed apical projection (Fig. 7F). Inner process of vesica longer than wide (Fig. 7F). Median and lateral styli long, of about the same width as widest portion of lateral wall of distiphallus, and both inserted close to apical surface (Fig. 7F).

Female. Unknown.

Etymology. The word “coendú” is utilized in some parts of the Brazilian Amazon for porcupines of the family Erethizontidae . The specific epithet, coendu, which should be treated as a noun in apposition, alludes to the spiny cercus and surstylus, and to the two strong, pointed setae on male sternite 5 of this species.

Distribution. NEOTROPICAL—Brazil (Rondônia).

Remarks. This species differs from the others in the genus in having surstylus with spine-like setae and lobe of sternite 5 with two strong flattened setae basally. Nephochaetopteryx coendu sp. nov. shares cerci with spine-like setae with N. affinis, N. cyaneiventris, N. orbitalis, N. subaurata and N. psittacocercus sp. nov.