Smilidarnis erwini, McKamey, 2023

McKamey, Stuart H., 2023, Three new species of the Neotropical genus Smilidarnis Andrade (Hemiptera, Membracidae), ZooKeys 1174, pp. 85-95 : 85

Smilidarnis erwini sp. nov.

Figs 8-13

Diagnosis.

Pronotum without pair of suprahumeral spines; vertex of head with four dark lines, outer pair adjacent to eyes and inner pair ventrally converging.

Description of male.

Dimensions (mm). Length of pronotum 8.5; length including wings in repose 10.0; width across humeri 3.7; width across posterolateral spine apices 1.5; height in anterior view 4.2. Head (Fig. 9 ). Ocelli circular, above imaginary middle line between eyes; distance to eye 0.8 × distance between ocelli; vertex with adjacent depression ventrolaterally; frontoclypeus with indistinct sutures and evenly convex in line with ventrolateral margins. Pronotum (Figs 8-10 ). Humeral angles rounded, only slightly produced laterally from wing bases. Forewing (as in Fig. 1 ) R and M not confluent for short distance near apex. Leg chaetotaxy. Femora of pro- and metathorax lacking cucullate setae and spines (other femora missing); metathoracic tibiae missing. Abdominal terga without pits, fossae, or digitate processes.

Male terminalia

(Figs 11-13 ). Pygofer (Fig. 11 ) including lateral plate subquadrate, lateral plate unarmed, ovate, pilose throughout, subgenital plate (Fig. 13 ) fused basally, its sides subparallel, slightly narrowing distally, length in ventral view about 2.3 × width; style (Figs 11 , 12 ) recurved with short acute apex; aedeagus (Figs 11 , 12 ) U-shaped in lateral view, shaft subparallel in anterior and lateral views, lacking dentae or other texture on distoanterior portion; gonopore dorsal. Color. Pale brown throughout except 4 dark lines on head vertex (outer pair adjacent to eyes, inner pair overlapping ocelli and ventrally convergent), 1 large median, dark brown, anteriorly divergent, V-shaped mark on pronotal metopidium, all 3 apical spines with bases and apices black but pale at mid length.

Female. Unknown.

Material examined.

Holotype ♂ (EPNC) with labels " ECUADOR: ORELLANA: Reserva Etnica Waorani , 1 | km S. OnkoneGare Camp Transect Ent 216.3m | 15-Jan-94 00°39'25.7"S, 076°27'10.8"W T.L | Erwin: et al Fogging Terre firme forest Lot 579", and a red " HOLOTYPE | Smilidarnis | Smilidarnis erwini | S.H. McKamey ". All legs are missing or badly damaged but the specimen, excluding its abdominal dissection, is otherwise intact.

Etymology.

The species is named to honor Terry Erwin for his innovative and revolutionary method of collecting insects through insecticidal fogging of the forest canopy, which has collected many new species, including this one.

Notes.

The pronotal apex of S. erwini resembles that of S. fasciatus in having the bases and tips of the posterolateral spines black. In S. fasciatus , however, in addition to other differences, those lateral spines are nearly as long as the middle spine, in comparison to S. erwini , in which they are about half the length of the middle spine, and S. concolor , in which they are even more reduced.

Figures

Figure 1. Smilidarnis robustus sp. nov., forewing and hind wing.

Figures 8 - 13. Smilidarnis erwini sp. nov. 8 - 10 habitus in dorsal, anterior, and lateral views, respectively 11 pygofer, styles, and aedeagus, lateral view 12 aedeagus and styles, anterior view 13 subgenital plate, ventral view. lp lateral plate.