Myxia villaloboi Bahder & Bartlett, 2024

Barrantes Barrantes, Edwin A., Zumbado Echavarria, Marco A., Bartlett, Charles R., Helmick, Ericka E. & Bahder, Brian W., 2024, A new species of planthopper in the genus Myxia (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha Fulgoromorpha: Delphacoidea: Cixiidae) from the cloud forest in Costa Rica, Zootaxa 5481 (4), pp. 440-452 : 445-451

Myxia villaloboi Bahder & Bartlett sp. n.

( Figures 3–7 )

Type locality. Hotel Villa Blanca, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica.

Diagnosis. Moderate-sized (~ 5.5 mm) pale species (pale green in vivo, light yellow preserved), with colored patch above frontoclypeal suture bordered with white. Head in dorsal view with transverse carinae on vertex formed by joined subapical carinae before apex of eyes, with large depressed areolet between subapical transverse carina and head apex. Male terminalia with pygofer bearing a large subtriangular medioventral process, taller than width at base. Aedeagal shaft, bearing one subapical process (otherwise devoid of processes), endosoma with 2 elongate subapical processes (ventral process about twice as long as dorsal process). Anal tube short and stout in lateral view with triangular ventral projection near midlength, apex curved ventrad and rounded.

Description. Color. General body color in males pale green in vivo, yellow after storage in ethanol, paler ventrally ( Fig. 3 ). Frons pale with narrow orange (in preserved specimens) patch at fastigium and large, bell-shaped orange patch from frontoclypeal suture approximately to frons midpoint surrounded at top left and right sides by white; clypeus white. Wings transparent, unmarked.

Structure. Body length males (n = 3): 6.02–6.05 mm with wings; 4.22–4.25 mm without wings ( Table 3 ). Head. Vertex in dorsal view widest posteriorly, narrowing to near anterior margin of eyes; subapical carina meeting transversely on vertex (at narrowest part of vertex) near anterior portion of eyes resulting in distinct transverse suture, ahead of which the disc is concave forming a broad concave areolet within lateral carinae of vertex between subapical transverse carina and carina at fastigium; anterior margin of head sinuate with acute midpoint, posterior margin angulately incised with small, acute indentation at midpoint ( Fig. 4A ). Head in lateral view generally rounded, slightly angulate at fastigium, projecting slightly beyond eyes, lateral ocelli conspicuous at ventroanterior margin of eyes, anterior and dorsal to antennae. Antennae short with scape ringlike, pedicle ovoid, situated approximately at midpoint between eye and frontoclypeal suture ( Fig. 4B ). In frontal view, frons narrowest dorsally, widest at frontoclypeal suture, dorsal margin concave, lateral margins arched laterad from dorsal margin, median carina present. Median ocellus conspicuous just above frontoclypeal suture ( Fig. 4C ). Frontoclypeal suture linear.

Thorax. Pronotum in dorsal view ( Fig 4A ) very short medially, expanding laterally, anterior margin hidden by posterior margin of head, posterior margin broadly concave; lateral carinae arising near midpoint ( Fig. 4A ); lateral margin in dorsal view formed by lateral carinae extending between eye and tegula; in lateral view, dorsal portion of pronotum declining anteriorly; paradiscal region broad, extending ventrad about to level of antennae, anterior and posterior margins sinuate, carinae near anterior margin (by extension of lateral carinae of disc), ventral margin sinuate extending to sharp point at ventrocaudal margin, lateral carinae terminating at ventral margin ( Fig. 4B ). Mesonotum in dorsal view about as long at midpoint as wide at widest point (near posterior margin of tegulae); tricarinate, carinae subparallel and complete (or nearly so) to posterior margin ( Fig. 4A ).

Forewings elongate with leading and trailing sides approximately parallel-sided, apex rounded; blade transparent ( Fig. 5 ), faintly suffused, veins approximately concolorous bearing setae along veins, and a distinct, whitish stigma; apex of clavus exceeding midlength, Pcu+A1 fused just distad of claval midlength, composite vein reaching wing margin before CuP, combined vein stem Sc+R+M forming long stem from basal cell, fork of M from Sc+R basad of fusion of Pcu+A1; fork of RP from Sc+RA slightly proximad of wing midlength; CuA forked near distal claval margin. Branching pattern RA 1-branched, RP 3-branched, MP 4-branched; CuA 2-branched (distally anastomosed forming small closed ‘procubital cell’ [i.e., Emeljanov 1996]); crossveins ir, r-m, im, m-cu and icu present. Spinulation of hind legs 9-8-8.

Terminalia. Pygofer in lateral view ( Fig. 6A ) broad, narrowest at dorsal margin, greatly expanded ventrally, ventral margin sinuate, posterior margin convex dorsal, then nearly straight to medioventral lobe at ventral margin; anterior margin concave, sinuate. In ventral view ( Fig. 6B ), medioventral process subtriangular, approximately 1.5x as tall as wide at base. Anal segment in lateral view stout, distally downcurved with rounded apex, ventral margin with triangular projection on lateral margins ( Fig. 6A ). Gonostyli in lateral view ( Fig. 6A ) slender, weakly upcurved distally, dorsal and ventral margins slightly sinuate, bearing subapical dorsal projection, apex rounded; in ventral view, curved mesad, gonostyli slender, inner lateral margin concave bearing tooth on inner lateral margin just before apex, laterodistal apex truncate, dorsal knobs visible subapically on lateral margin, extending laterocephalad. Aedeagus ( Fig. 7 ) simple bearing one small, curved process (A1) arising subapically on left dorsolateral margin, angled dorsad, endosoma large, angled right (ventral view, Fig. 7C ) with two slender elongate processes (E1 & E2) arising subapically, E1 slender, arising on dorsal margin, curved dorsad, E2 slender, angled cephalad, approximately twice as long as E1. Phallobase large, subtending aedeagal left and ventral margins (ventral view, Fig. 7C ) one large, blunt process (PB1) arising on the left lateral side, extending to aedeagal apex; second process (PB2) arising on right lateral side, extending along ventral margin of aedeagus, reaching apex, terminating in elongated, slender process, J-curved dorsocephalad ( Fig. 7 ).

Plant associations. Unknown; collected at light trap.

Distribution. Hotel Villa Blanca, Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica.

Etymology. The specific epithet is a patronym for Jairo Villalobo who helped in coordinating field work at Villa Blanca.

Material examined. Holotype male “ Costa Rica, Alajuela Pr. / Villa Blanca / 19.VII.2021 / Coll.: B.W.Bahder // Holotype / Myxia villaloboi ♂ ” ( FLREC) ; Paratypes 2 male, 3 females, same data as holotype ( FSCA) .

Sequence Data. For the COI gene a 529 bp product was generated, for 18S a 1,363 bp product was generated, for 28S a 774 bp product was generated, and for H3 a 315 bp product was generated ( Table 2 ). For both COI and H3 phylogenies ( Fig. 8 ), there was generally low bootstrap support for most relationships, however, both phylogenies based on 18S and 28S show strong bootstrap support for both the monophyly of Myxia and the placement of M. villaloboi sp. n. within Myxia (99 and 100 respectively). The consensus tree ( Fig. 9 ) based on concatenated data from all loci demonstrated strong bootstrap support for the monophyly of Myxia (100) with M. villaloboi sp. n. resolving within this group with strong support for resolving closest to M. hernandezi (100) relative to all other taxa analyzed.

Remarks. The placement of the new species within Myxia is supported both by morphology and molecular data. The structure of the head and terminalia are consistent with other Myxia species. The form of the aedeagus and molecular analysis support M. villaloboi sp. n. as new. With the current data, Myxia is sister to a clade of ( Nymphocixia + Haplaxius ), with ( Myxia +( Nymphocixia + Haplaxius )) sister to Oecleus , a finding that is similar to our past results in the clade ( Echavarria et al. 2021a).

The large areolet on the distal portion of the vertex ( Fig. 4A ) is unique to M. villaloboi sp. n. relative to other species of Myxia ( Fig. 2 ).

Other material examined.

Myxia delta ( Kramer 1979) : Costa Rica, Manzanillo , Limón Province, 7. V .2021 (3 Males, FLREC) .

Figures

FIGURE 2. Dorsal view of head and thorax of Myxia species; A) M. baynardi, B) M. hernandezi, C) M. delta, D) M. belinda.

FIGURE 3. Adult male habitus of Myxia villaloboi sp. n.; A) lateral view and B) dorsal view.

FIGURE 4. Adult male Myxia villaloboi sp. n.; A) dorsal view of head, pronotum and mesonotum, B) lateral view of head, pronotum and mesonotum and C) frontal view of head; scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURE 5. Adult male Myxia villaloboi sp. n. forewing venation; wing venation ter54minology following Bourgoin et al. (2015); black text = vein, italic text = crossvein, green text = cell.

FIGURE 6. Adult male Myxia villaloboi sp. n. genitalia; A) lateral view, B) ventral view and C) dorsal view.

FIGURE 7. Aedeagus of Myxia villaloboi sp. n.; A) left lateral view, B) right later view, C) ventral view, and D) dorsal view.

FIGURE 8. Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic trees based on 1000 replicates; A) 18S rRNA, B) D9-D10 expansion region of 28S rRNA, C) H3 and D) 5’ region of COI; scale bar = percent nucleotide difference.

FIGURE 9. Maximum Likelihood consensus tree based on 1000 replicates for concatenated sequence data for the 18S rRNA gene, D9-D10 expansion region of the 28S gene, H3 gene, and 5’ region of the COI gene.