Neocherentes pergeri Nearns and Monné, 2019

Nearns, Eugenio H. & Monné, Miguel A., 2019, Two new species of South America Neocherentes Tippmann, 1960 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Lamiinae: Onciderini), Insecta Mundi 2019 (699), pp. 1-10 : 6-9

Neocherentes pergeri Nearns and Monné , sp. nov.

( Fig. 3 a−d, 4 c, f)

Description. Female. Length 14.0− 13.1 mm (measured from vertex to elytral apices), width 6.0 mm (measured across humeri). Habitus as in Fig. 3a . General form elongate-oblong, moderately sized. Integument dark-brown to almost black, with white, gray, ochraceous, testaceous, and dark-brown pubescence; elytra with distinct pattern formed by curved and sinuate stripes of contrasting colors, forming almost an “X” shape extending from humeri to apices; mesosternum and abdominal sternites with similar stripes and colors.

Head. Frons subquadrate, about 4.5 times width of lower eye lobes. Eyes with lower lobes moderately sized, narrow, elongate; narrowest area connecting upper and lower eye lobes about 2 ommatidia wide. Genae elongate, nearly 2/3 as tall as lower eye lobes. Antennae slightly longer than body; antennal tubercles prominent, widely separated; tubercles not armed at apex; scape clavate; antennomere III moderately sinuate. Antennal formula based on antennomere III: scape = 0.56; II = 0.16; IV = 0.84; V = 0.62; VI = 0.44; VII = 0.38; VIII = 0.35; IX = 0.33; X = 0.28; XI = 0.26.

Thorax. Pronotum roughly cylindrical, transverse, about 1.25 times as wide as long; disk densely pubescent, with two large, subround tumescences, one on each side of midline, each tumescence depressed obliquely by shallow furrow; each side of disk with short, glabrous line extending obliquely from base to about basal 1/3. Mesosternal process nearly as wide as mesocoxal cavity, medially flat, emarginate apically. Scutellum transverse, apex rounded. Elytra. About 1.6 times as long as width at humeri, about 3.3 times as long as pronotal length, about 1.6 times broader basally than pronotum at its widest (at base); lateral margins slightly attenuate, gradually rounded to apices at apical 1/3, apices jointly rounded; basal 1/3 with sparse, shallow punctation; humeri prominent, anterior margin arcuate. Legs. Short; femora robust; metafemora clavate apically; tibiae slightly expanded apically; metafemora about 1/3 as long as elytra; tarsomere V about as long as I–IV combined. Procoxae large, globose; apex of prosternal process subtriangular.

Abdomen. Fifth abdominal ventrite with a median triangular impression; ventrite V nearly 2 times longer than IV.

Male. Length 11.3− 10.5 mm (measured from vertex to elytral apices), width approx. 4.4 mm (measured across humeri). Similar to male except antennae distinctly longer than body, surpassing elytral apices by 5 antennomeres; antennal tubercles armed with short, blunt horns; basal 1/3 of profemora transversely rugose.

Type material. Holotype, ♀, BOLIVIA, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Buena Vista , Nov.– Dec. 1992, R. Clarke, coll. (ex ACMT, to be deposited in NMNH) . Allotype, ♀, BOLIVIA, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Potrerillos del Guendá ; 17°40.26′ S, 63°27.44′ W, 9–29-XI-2006, B.K. Dozier collector ( FSCA). Two paratypes, 1 ♂ and 1 ♀, BOLIVIA, Santa Cruz: La Guardia (pre-Andean Chiquitano forest; 17°52′59″ S, 63°19′04″ W; 480 m a.s.l.), XI–XII.2015, beating tray, R. Perger col. ( RPPC).

Etymology. This species is named for our friend Robert Perger (Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia), who collected part of the type series, for his spirit of collaboration and contributions to the study of Neotropical longhorned beetles. The epithet is a noun in the genitive case.

Diagnosis and remarks. Neocherentes pergeri can easily be separated from its congeners by the metasternum and abdominal ventrites with mottled whitish-grey coloration (in N. dilloniorum and N. adrianoi , the metasternum and abdominal ventrites continue the distinct pattern found on the elytra ( Fig. 4c, f )). This species is known from four specimens (one male, three females) collected in pre-Andean Chiquitano transition forest in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia at approximately 480 m ( Fig. 5 ). Nothing is known about the biology of this species. The allotype male of this species was recently figured in a beautifully illustrated photographic guide to longhorned beetles of Bolivia by Lingafelter et al. (2017) as N. dilloniorum .

Figures

Figure 3. Neocherentes pergeri sp. nov., holotype male. a) Dorsal habitus. b) Lateral habitus. c) Close-up of head. d) Close-up of abdominal ventrites.

Figure 4. Three species of Neocherentes Tippmann, 1960, holotype specimens. a) N. dilloniorum, lateral view. b) N. adrianoi, lateral view. c) N. pergeri, lateral view. d) N. dilloniorum, close-up of abdominal ventrites. e) N. adrianoi, close-up of abdominal ventrites. f) N. pergeri, close-up of abdominal ventrites.

Figure 5. Partial map of South America showing the approximate distribution of three species of Neocherentes Tippmann, 1960. Neocherentes dilloniorum (red squares), Neocherentes adrianoi sp. nov. (magenta diamonds), Neocherentes pergeri sp. nov. (blue circles).