Neocherentes adrianoi 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 : 4-6

Neocherentes adrianoi Nearns and Monné , sp. nov.

( Fig. 2 a−d, 4 b, e)

Neocherentes dilloniorum ; Nearns and Swift (2011)

Description. Female. Length 15.0−14.0 mm (measured from vertex to elytral apices), width 6.0− 5.4 mm (measured across humeri). Habitus as in Fig. 2a . 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 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, about 1/2 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 = 0.63; II = 0.18; IV = 0.8; V = 0.62; VI = 0.5; VII = 0.44; VIII = 0.34; IX = 0.31; X = 0.22; XI = 0.21.

Thorax. Pronotum roughly cylindrical, transverse, about 1.3 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 concave, emarginate apically. Scutellum transverse, apex rounded. Elytra. About 1.8 times as long as width at humeri, about 3.6 times as long as pronotal length, about 1.5 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 about 1.5 times longer than IV.

Male. Length 12.0 mm (measured from vertex to elytral apices), width 4.5 mm (measured across humeri). Similar to female except antennae distinctly longer than body, surpassing elytral apices by 4 antennomeres; antennal tubercles armed with short, blunt horns; basal 1/3 of profemora transversely rugose; ventrite V without a median triangular impression.

Type material. Holotype, ♀ ( Fig. 2 a−d), BRAZIL: Espírito Santo, Linhares, Maio 1970, Fragoso // Coleção Fragoso // comp. con foto de holotipo de Paracherentes ferruginea Breun. MNHN Paris ( MNRJ) . Allotype, ♂, BRAZIL: Rio, Riachuelo, vii 1932, M. Souza Gomes coll. ( MNRJ). Two paratypes, 1 ♀ BRAZIL: Minas Gerias, Mar de Hespanha ( MNHN); 1 ♀, “ Shtt ” [handwritten label on green paper] ( NHMW) .

Etymology. This species is named in memory of the late José Adriano Giorgi (1970−2018), longhorned beetle expert and friend, who will be missed. The epithet is a noun in the genitive case.

Diagnosis and remarks. Neocherentes adrianoi can be separated from its congeners by the combination of the following characters: apical 1/3 of elytra without punctation, mesosternal process medially concave, and mesosternum and abdominal sternites with distinct striped pattern similar to dorsal surface ( Fig. 4b, e ). In both N. dilloniorum and N. pergeri , the apical 1/3 of elytra has punctation and the mesosternal process is flat. This species is described from four specimens (one male, three females), three of which were collected in Brazil from near sea level to approximately 500 m ( Fig. 5 ). One of the two female paratypes (NHMW) contains only a handwritten label on green paper which reads “ Shtt,” which we believe is short for Heinrich Wilhelm Schott (1794−1865), Austrian botanist and royal gardener who spent many years in Brazil (1817−1821) collecting specimens (Antonio Santos-Silva, pers. comm.). The late Stephen Breuning recognized the Mar de Hespanha (Minas Gerais) female paratype (MNHN) as distinct from N. dilloniorum , which he labeled with the manuscript name “ Paracherentes ferruginea.” To the best of our knowledge, this name was never published. The female holotype from Linhares (Espírito Santo) was incorrectly listed as a male N. dilloniorum by Nearns and Swift (2011), in recording a new country record for Brazil. Accordingly, N. dilloniorum is formally excluded from the Brazilian fauna.

Figures

Figure 2. Neocherentes adrianoi sp. nov., holotype female. 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).