Noxnympha, Nascimento & Santos-Silva & Barclay, 2019

Nascimento, Francisco E. de L., Santos-Silva, Antonio & Barclay, Maxwell V. L., 2019, On the tribal allocation of Cosmotomidius Melzerı 1931 ı descriptions of new taxa of Acanthoderini and notes on some tribes of Lamiinae (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), Journal of Natural History 53 (11), pp. 705-723 : 706-707

Noxnympha gen. nov.

LAMIINAE Latreille ACANTHODERINI Thomson

Type species

Noxnympha eris sp. nov., monotypy, present designation.

Etymology

Latin: ‘nox’, night; ‘nympha’, minor deities of the forests, rivers, etc. (i.e. the nymph of the night). Feminine gender.

Description

Small size. Body slightly flattened, pubescent. Head hypognathous; frons transverse; antennal tubercles moderately elevated with rounded apex; maxillary palpi slightly longer than labial palpi; last maxillary and labial palpomeres fusiform; mandibles about as long as 3/4 of frons width, moderately curved, triangularly excavated on basal half of outer side; genae distinctly shorter than length of lower eye lobe. Eyes coarsely faceted; area of connection of ocular lobes not strongly narrow, with about four rows of ommatidia; distance between upper eye lobes slightly larger than width of one upper lobe. Antennae 11-segmented, longer than body; scape elongate, sub-fusiform; antennomeres filiform, length gradually smaller towards XI; antennomere III longer than scape. Prothorax distinctly wider than long; sides with large, rounded tubercle. Pronotum with two large, very elevated plate-shaped tubercles on each side of central area; with row of coarse, deep punctures near anterior and posterior margins. Prosternum centrally notably narrower than width of prosternal process. Prosternal process gradually widened towards apex; maximum width about 3/4 of procoxal cavity diameter. Procoxal cavities closed posteriorly. Mesoventral process without tubercle; wide, gradually narrowed towards apex; posterior width about 3/4 of mesocoxal cavity diameter. Scutellum gradually narrowed towards rounded apex. Elytra gradually narrowed from humerus to apex; posterior width smaller than half of humeral width; humeral width about 1.6 times posterior prothoracic width; with large, elevated, longitudinal carina at centre of basal fifth; apex truncate, with outer angle slightly projected; coarsely punctate; with moderately long and sparse, erect dark setae. Femora pedunculate-clavate. Mesotibiae obliquely sulcate dorsally at distal half. Metatarsomere I slightly shorter than II and III together. Abdominal ventrite I longer than II, III and IV, shorter than V; ventrite V longitudinally sulcate centrally on basal half; apex truncate.

Remarks

Noxnympha gen. nov. differs from Cosmotomidius ( Figure 1 (e – h)) as follows: body stout; humeral width about 1.6 times posterior prothoracic width; the lateral tubercles of prothorax are distinctly rounded; outer elytral apex slightly projected. In Cosmotomidius , the body is slender, humeral width is about 1.4 times posterior prothoracic width (except in C. egregius ), lateral tubercles of prothorax spiniform, and outer elytral apex with long spine. It differs from Zikanita ( Figures 3 (a – g), 4(a – f)) by the rounded lateral tubercles of prothorax (spiniform in Zikanita ), pronotum without dark sub-reniform pubescent maculae (presents in Zikanita ), and body without very long and white setae (present in Zikanita ). Noxnympha gen. nov. also somewhat resembles species of Anoreina Bates, 1861 , Pyrianoreina Martins and Galileo, 2008 , and Trichoanoreina Julio and Monné, 2005 , but differs in particular by the presence of strong pronotal tubercles (absent in these genera), and by the basal elytral carina strongly elevated (not or slightly elevated in these genera).

Figures

Figure 1. (a–d) Noxnympha eris, holotype female: (a) dorsal habitus; (b) ventral habitus; (c) lateral habitus; (d) head, dorsal view. (e–h) Cosmotomidius setosus, male: (e) dorsal habitus; (f) ventral habitus; (g) lateral habitus; (h) head, dorsal view.

Figure 3. Zikanita perpulchra: (a) dorsal habitus, female; (b) mesoventral process, lateral view, female; (c) ventral habitus, female; (d) dorsal habitus, male; (e) ventral habitus, male; (f) head, frontal view, female; (g) elytra, lateral view, female.