Lycoderes albinoi Creão-Duarte & Cabral, 2017

Creão-Duarte, Antonio José, Cabral, Valberta Alves & Lourenço, Aline, 2017, A new species of Lycoderes Sakakibara (Hemiptera, Membracidae, Stegaspidinae) from Brazil, Zootaxa 4281 (1) : -

Lycoderes albinoi Creão-Duarte & Cabral sp. nov.

( Figs. 1–4 )

Diagnosis. Body dark brown, almost black, except for forewings, with large central hyaline area, and abdomen, yellow; anterior pronotal process vertical, elevated, with suprahumeral horns arising at apex, divergent in frontal view, spatulate, longer than wide, tricarinate; posterior process sickle-shaped, extending from base of anterior process, arched and well separated from scutellum anteriorly, distal half tectiform, tapering to acute apex, extended slightly beyond apex of clavus.

Measurements (in millimeters): Male/female. Total length (head to apex of forewings) 5.85/6.06; pronotum length (projection of suprahumeral horns to apex of posterior process) 5.37/5.49; length of forewings 5.36/5,48; width between humeral angles 1.71/1.91; width of head across eyes 1.67/1.77; head height 0.88/0.94; distance between eyes 1.12/1.23; distance between ocelli 0.46/0.50.

Description. Holotype male. Coloration. Head, pronotum, ventral surface of thorax and legs dark brown, except for central area of forewings, hyaline, and eyes, ocelli and abdomen, yellow; head, legs and thorax with whitish and waxy pubescence; hind tibiae light brown, and tarsi yellow. Head ( Fig. 2 ). Approximately 1.5x wider than long, eyes hemispherical, ocelli small, above centro-ocular line; postclypeus trilobed in frontal view. Thorax. Pronotum ( Fig. 1 ) densely punctate, punctations coarser on posterior process; short, decumbent setae throughout; median carina weaker in metopidium, percurrent and sharper along posterior process; suprahumeral horns Vshaped in anterior view, spatulate, longer than wide, tri-faceted, delimited by carinae on anterior and posterior margins and on ventral surface from apex to base of posterior process; in lateral view, metopidium slightly curved anteriorly, short, not exceeding suprahumeral horns in length; posterior process sickle-shaped, extending from base of anterior process, sharply curved and well separated from scutellum anteriorly, distal half tectiform, tapering towards acute apex, reaching beyond apex of clavus; forewings ( Fig. 1 ) obliquely truncate at apex; one discoidal cell, five apical cells: fourth cell triangular, not petiolate, and fifth cell pentagonal; two crossveins: r-m fused to branch M1+2 and m-cu to branches M3+4. Legs with tibiae spatulate, metathoracic tibiae with cucullate setae in distal half of row II.

Female (Figs. 3,4): similar to male, slightly larger and lighter in color; proximal half of posterior process less sharply curved.

Material examined. Holotype male, “ Brasil, BA[HIA], Uma | Fazenda UNACAU | 7-24.X.1986 /D. S. Amo- | rim & C. Vasconcelos ”; “ Mata Atlântica Primária | Armadilha Luminosa ” ( DSEC / UFPB). Paratype female with same label data as holotype .

Notes on type specimens. Specimens in good state of preservation. The holotype lacks the right suprahumeral horn. The left suprahumeral horn is missing in the female paratype, as well as the tarsi of both metathoracic legs. There is slight variation in the position of the crossvein r-m in the type series, however, in both the holotype and the paratype it is located at the base of M1+2 after the M fork. The crossvein r-m is a little farther from the fork in the holotype’s left forewing, and right after the point of bifurcation of M in the right forewing of the female, which is anomalous in this regard. In all cases, the fourth apical cell in the forewings is distinctly triangular.

Remarks. In comparison to other congeneric species, Lycoderes albinoi sp. nov. most closely resembles Lycoderes ancora (Germar) and Lycoderes furcifer Sakakibara. In females of Lycoderes ancora , the suprahumeral horns diverge next to the base of the posterior process, whereas in females of Lycoderes . albinoi sp. nov., the anterior process is more elongate, so that the suprahumeral horns diverge farther from the base of the posterior process. In males of Lycoderes ancora , the base of the posterior process is wider, reaching the base of the suprahumeral horns, a condition that is not observed in males of Lycoderes albinoi sp. nov. due to the much narrower base of the posterior process. The base of the posterior process is also close to the base of the suprahumeral horns in males and females of Lycoderes furcifer , however, the tip of the posterior process does not reach the apex of the clavus, as it does in Lycoderes albinoi sp. nov. In males of Lycoderes furcifer , the suprahumeral horns are tapered acutely towards the distal tips, and slightly curved ventrally. Contrastingly, the suprahumeral horns are gradually broadened toward the distal half in males of Lycoderes albinoi sp. nov., forming a dorsal angle in frontal view, then tapering from the distal third to an acute tip.

Etymology. This species is dedicated to Dr. Albino Morimasa Sakakibara, for his lifelong work training new systematists focused on auchenorrhynchan Hemiptera , and for his outstanding contributions to treehopper taxonomy.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 4. Lycoderes albinoi sp. nov. 1 – 2 male holotype in lateral and frontal view (MZSP). 3 – 4 female paratype in lateral and frontal view (DSEC). 5 – 6 Lycoderides capixaba Sakakibara, 2013, female in frontal and lateral view (DSEC); 7, Lycoderides capixaba Sakakibara, 2013, male in lateral view (DSEC). Scale bar = 1.0 mm.