Nubilophasma Murcia and Cadena-Castañeda, 2023

Murcia, Andres David & Cadena-Castañeda, Oscar J., 2023, The stick insects (Insecta: Phasmatodea) from the Cloud Forest of the Chicaque Natural Park, Colombia, Insecta Mundi 2023 (20), pp. 1-45 : 25-26

Nubilophasma Murcia and Cadena-Castañeda , new genus

Description. Body light brown with yellow stripes arranged on the legs. Tegmina with green veins, costal region of wings brown with discontinuous light green or yellow stripes, a longitudinal yellow line run along the dorsal surface of head and thorax. Head slightly longer than wide, wider towards eyes, tapering towards rear, males with ocelli and females without them, eyes prominent and spherical; antennae brown with irregularly arranged yellow bands, antennomeres club-shaped; antennae longer than the total length of the body. Pronotum rectangular with raised and rounded anterolateral angles for the defensive glands, with tiny granules along its lateral margins, and armed with four spines on the anterior half of the mesonotum, two smaller anteriorly and two more conspicuous posteriorly. Tegmina short, extending to the middle of the metanotum, strongly convex with oval margins; costal margin constricted at the base, hind wings projecting to the middle of the tergite IX. Femora slightly widened apically; probasitarsus and metabasitarsus very elongated, as long as the sum of the other tarsomeres, mesobasitarsus twice as long as the second tarsomere. Abdominal segments with posterolateral projections in both sexes. Abdominal sternite V of male longer than wide with a very prominent projection that forks distally into two spines, located on its posterior margin; sternite VII with preopercular organ small and located near posterior margin. Poculum longer than wide, strongly convex with pronounced ventral prolongation, 2.5 times longer than sternite VIII, anterior margin convex, posterior margin extending to anterior margin of the anal segment. Cerci curved, as long as tergite X with numerous setae, and round and widened distally. Subgenital plate elongate, 2.5 times longer than wide, extending near the apex of tergite X, slightly convex with oval posterior margin.

Type species: Nubilophasma chicaquensis new species by original designation and monotypy.

Etymology. The name is the combination of the Latin words nubilo (referring to cloud forest habitat “From the cloud aggregations”) and the typical termination for phasmid genera phasma. The name means “stick insect from the cloud”. The gender of the name is being established as feminine.

Comparison. The genus Ignacia Rehn, 1904 (sensu Zompro, 2004), shares the club-shaped antennomeres; mesonotum with spines; femora wide apically, and abdomen with lateral expansions. In contrast, the new genus has the mesonotum distinctly longer than the pronotum. The wings do not exceed the tergite IX; tegmina do not have the prominent shoulder-shaped prolongation on the anterior border, as described by Zompro (2004), common to Ignacia species. Additionally, the abdominal expansions are most conspicuous in Nubilophasma new genus; the base of fore-femur is almost straight and not curved as seen to Ignacia .

Comments. The type species of Ignacia Rehn, 1904 is Pseudophasma auriculatum Bolívar [Y Urrutia] (= Ignacia auriculata ), inherited from replaced name. Compared with the species currently included in Ignacia , the type species differs markedly from the other species of the genus. The spine-shaped prolongation of the costal edge of the tegmina is remarkable for I. auriculata , only comparable to Ignacia atrophica (Pallas, 1772) , both Amazonian species. In addition, these two species do not have developed lobes on the lateral edges of the abdomen segments, as mentioned by Zompro (2004) and Gutiérrez and Bacca (2014), in the diagnosis of this genus. On the other hand, I. amapaensis Piza, 1978 , does not have any of the diagnostic characters of Ignacia ; apparently, it does not belong to that genus, its type specimen should be revised, and perhaps moved to Pseudophasma Kirby, 1896 .

In contrast, Nubilophasma new genus can be confused with Ignacia , but the two genera can be easily distinguished with the comparison characters provided here. The confusion is caused by the diagnosis proposed by Zompro (2004), since he based his generic description on a specimen identified by him as I. auriculata from the locality Cachabi, Ecuador (Chocó Biogeographic). Still, the type locality of I. auriculata is the Atalapo River, Ecuador or Venezuela (Amazon).

Therefore, the specimen studied by Zompro (2004) is not a “true” Ignacia , and is most likely conspecific with I. spinipes Conle et al., 2011 ( Colombia, Chocó) and Ignacia sp. ( Colombia, Nariño; identified by Gutiérrez and Bacca (2014)). Apparently, only two species should be considered valid for Ignacia ( I. auriculata and I. atrophica ) with a distribution restricted to the Amazon. Later studies may confirm this opinion, and if so, I. spinipes should be moved into Nubilophasma new genus, a different genus from Ignacia .