Melanastera cabucu, Serbina & Malenovský & Queiroz & Burckhardt, 2025

Serbina, Liliya Š., Malenovský, Igor, Queiroz, Dalva L. & Burckhardt, Daniel, 2025, Jumping plant-lice of the tribe Paurocephalini (Hemiptera: Psylloidea: Liviidae) in Brazil, Zootaxa 5585 (1), pp. 1-164 : 77-78

31 Melanastera cabucu sp. nov.

( Figs 11B, 17F, 28M–R)

Type material. Holotype ♂: Brazil: PARANÁ: Morretes, Floresta Marumbi , trail to hotel, S25.4459, W48.8873, 170 m, 14.ix.2011, Miconia formosa (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #6(3) ( UFPR; dry).

Paratypes. Brazil: PARANÁ: 3 ♂, Morretes, Estação Marumbi , S25.4484 /4492, W48.8901 /8915, 230– 240 m, 14.ix.2011, Miconia formosa (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #5(4) ( NHMB; dry, slide, 70% ethanol; NMB-PSYLL0007640, NMB-PSYLL0007636, NMB-PSYLL0008622 [LSMelcab-30], NMB-PSYLL0007637) ; 2 ♂, 1 ♀, same as holotype but ( NHMB; slide; NMB-PSYLL0007638, NMB-PSYLL0007639, NMB-PSYLL0007641) ; 1 ♀, Morretes, Embrapa campus, S25.4515, W48.8723, 30.xi.2004, Miconia formosa (D.L. Queiroz) ( NHMB; dry; NMB-PSYLL0007642) .

Description. Adult. Coloration. Straw-coloured. Head and thorax with small dark brown dots; mesoscutum with brown longitudinal stripes. Antennal segments 3–8 with dark brown apices, segments 9–10 entirely dark brown. Forewing ( Fig. 17F) amber-coloured with sparse brown dots; base and apex of pterostigma and apices of veins Rs, M 1+2, M 3+4, Cu 1a and Cu 1b dark brown. Femora with brown dots; tarsi brown. Abdominal tergites partly and sternites entirely dark brown.

Structure. Forewing ( Fig. 17F) oval, broadest distal of the middle, broadly and evenly rounded apically; wing apex situated in cell r 2 near apex of M 1+2; C+Sc eakly curved in distal third; pterostigma slightly narrower than r 1 cell in the middle, weakly widening to apical two thirds; Rs almost straight in basal two thirds, obliquely curved to fore margin apically; M longer than M 1+2 and M 3+4; Cu 1a weakly irregularly curved, ending at level of M fork; surface spinules present in all cells, leaving narrow spinule-free stripes along the veins, forming hexagons of a double row of spinules, spinules absent from basal half of cell c+sc. Hindwing with 3–4 + 4 grouped costal setae. Metatibia bearing 8–10 grouped apical spurs, arranged as 3–4 + 4–6, anteriorly separated by 3 bristles.

Terminalia ( Fig. 28M–R). Male. Proctiger tubular, in basal third weakly produced posteriorly; densely covered with long setae in apical two thirds. Subgenital plate, in lateral view, subglobular; dorsal margin strongly, irregularly curved, posterior margin curved; with moderately long setae. Paramere, in lateral view, asymmetrically lanceolate; apex, in lateral view, blunt, directed upwards; in dorsal view, apex blunt, directed upwards, slightly inwards and hardly posteriad, lacking distinct sclerotised tooth; outer face with sparse, moderately long setae mostly in apical half; inner face with dense, moderately long setae; posterior margin with long setae. Proximal segment of aedeagus with apical part strongly subdivided, bulbous. Distal segment of aedeagus with dorsal margin weakly curved in basal half; ventral process situated in apical third of segment, in both lateral and dorsal views, very short, simple, rounded, button-like, lacking lateral lobes; apical dilation, in lateral view, relatively large, subrectangular, base bearing a large membranous lobe at dorsal margin; in dorsal view, apical dilation elongate, with slightly truncate apex; sclerotised end tube short and weakly curved.—Female terminalia cuneate; densely covered with setae. Dorsal margin of proctiger, in lateral view, slightly convex distal to circumanal ring and distinctly concave in apical half, apex pointed, upturned; in dorsal view, apex blunt; circumanal ring, in dorsal view, distinctly cruciform. Subgenital plate, in lateral view, abruptly narrowing in apical half, pointed apically; in ventral view, apex blunt.

Fifth instar immature. Unknown.

Host plant. Adults were collected on Miconia formosa Cogn. ( Melastomataceae ), which is possibly a host.

Distribution. Brazil (PR).

Derivation of name. Named after Miconia cabucu , noun in apposition, one of the synonyms of the probable host M. formosa .

Comments. Melanastera cabucu sp. nov. resembles M. dimorpha sp. nov. in the knob-shaped ventral process of the distal aedeagal segment. The two species differ as outlined under M. dimorpha .