Saica tupackatari María & Melo, 2024, n. sp.
Creators: name: María, Valentina Castro-Huertas
name: Melo, María Cecilia
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Reduviidae
Saica
Saica tupackatari

description: Saica tupackatari n. sp.
(Figs 4 G-H; 5J, Q; 6G; 8)
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 38B5DDCC-8C9F-4AD3-B1E0-B7D0ECBDE765
TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype. Bolivia [Bolivie] • ♂; Piste Camote-Apollo; 1000 m; 7.XI.2002; Bleuzen réc. / Saica tupackatari Castro-Huertas & Melo 2024; MNHN.
ETYMOLOGY. — This new species is named after the Aymara leader “Tupác Katari” (Julián Apaza Nina) of the resistance indigenous movement against the Spain colony in Bolivia and Peru. Tupác means “shiny” in Quechua, and Katari means “snake” in Aimara. The name is treated as a noun in apposition.
DISTRIBUTION. — Bolivia (Fig. 8).
DIAGNOSIS. — Coloration mostly brown (Fig. 4 G-H), apex of thoracic spines whitish, forewing yellowish with pterostigma red, legs mostly reddish with apical 3/4 of tibiae and tarsi yellowish (Fig. 4H); posteromedial process of pygophore widely concave medially, ramus short and slightly projected laterally (Fig. 5J) and nearly vertical in lateral view (Fig. 5Q); lateral margins of the dorsal phallotecal sclerite conspicuously produced laterally, lateral projections longer than dps apex (Fig. 6G).
DESCRIPTION
Male
Macropterous. Measurements in Table 2.
Coloration (Fig. 4 G-H). Head: Brown. Scape dark brown (rest of antennal segments missing). First and second labial segments brown, third labial segment yellowish. Thorax: Dark brown, apex of meso- and metanotal spines yellowish. Procoxal cavity, procoxa and protrochanter brown, profemur reddish, protibia yellowish with basal portion reddish, protarsus yellowish; meso- and metalegs similar to proleg. Forewing yellowish, base of veins and pterostigma reddish. Abdomen: Reddish.
Structure. Thorax (Fig. 4H): Humeral angle spines long, three times longer than their base. Mesonotal spine straight, three times longer than its base. Protuberance of scutellum with apex slightly concave, conspicuously concave posteriorly, lateral margins slightly expanded in caudal view. Metanotal spine sinuous, nearly 0.2 times the length of mesonotal spine. Forewing with two closed cells, apex of outer discal cell extending as far as apex of pterostigma. Abdomen: Abdominal tergite 2 not conspicuously narrower than posterior segments. Genitalia: Anterior region of genital opening (go) of pygophore narrow in dorsal view, posterior margin of pygophore flat. Posteromedial process of pygophore (mpp) not elevated basally and widely concaved medially. Ramus angulated and projected vertically, nearly three times longer than their base, apical region narrow with an acute and projected apical process (Fig. 5J), nearly vertical in lateral view (Fig. 5Q). Dorsal phallothecal sclerite (dps) nearly triangular, apex truncated, subapical lateral margin laterally projected, lateral projection longer than dps apex (Fig. 6G).
REMARKS
Saica tupackatari n. sp. is the darkest species of the genus. Considering this, it looks similar to S. ochracea, but S. tupackatari n. sp. can be distinguished by the entirely dark brown thorax, and the uniformly reddish legs except the yellowish tibiae and tarsus, the acute ramus, and the conspicuously laterally projected dorsal phallotecal sclerite, a unique condition in the genus. The species is only known from the male holotype.
CLADISTIC ANALYSIS
The IW analyses resulted in two different topologies, corresponding to two ranges of k -values. The topologies are almost identical and recovered Saica as monophyletic and the clade Pseudosaica + Polytoxus as its sister group. A clade composed by S. elkinsi, S. erubescens, S. tibialis, and S. lativentris is recovered in all topologies but in the analyses with k -values from 8 to 10, S. elkinsi is recovered as sister species of S. erubescens, with one additional tree with a different relative position of Polytoxus armillatus and P. esakii in the k -values 9 and 10. In k -values 11 and 12, S. elkinsi is recovered as sister group of the clade (S. erubescens + (S. tibialis + S. lativentris )), with one additional tree with a different relative position of the same Polytoxus species that in the anterior analyses, in the k -value 11.
The most parsimonious tree obtained from the analysis with k -value=12 has a total fit of 7.44502 (CI = 50, RI = 72), recovering Saica as monophyletic (Fig. 9) and supported by one synapomorphy: the bifid posteromedial process of pygophore (#64-1), and three homoplastic characters: the thin simple setae on the gular region (#6-1), the near straight parameres (#73-1), and the projected lateral margin of the dorsal phallotecal sclerite (#83-1). Pseudosaica + Polytoxus clade is recovered as the sister group of Saica, and it is supported by nine synapomorphies: the simple setae on the ventral margin of the second visible labial segment arranged in a tuft (#10-1), the ventral surface of the procoxa with stout simple setae (#17-1) arranged in several tufts of setae (#18-1), the posterior margin of scutellum with a protuberance (35-1), the r-m crossvein of the forewing present (45-1), the procoxa nearly one time the length of the protrochanter (49-1), the protibia curved (50-1), the basal plate arms longer than the dorsal process of the basal plate (#76-1), and the basal plate extension as long as or longer than the basal plate (#79-1). Our results are congruent with the hypotheses of Castro-Huertas & Melo (2023) about the monophyly of Saica, but the sister-group hypothesis is not congruent because they recovered only Polytoxus as sister-group of Saica.
Our analyses recovered the clade S. ochracea + S. tupackatari n. sp. as the sister-group of remaining Saica species, but with low support. The internal relationships have a low support except for the clades G and H (Fig 74). The clade G is composed by (S. subinermis + (S. apicalis + S. meridionalis )) and it is supported by one synapomorphy: the posteromedial spine of mesonotum only twice as long as the base of the spine (#34-0). The clade (S. meridionalis + S. apicalis) is supported by two synapomorphies: the forewing with three closed cells (#44-1) and the M and CU veins basally fused (#47-1). The clade (S. meridionalis + S. apicalis) was also recovered by Castro-Huertas & Melo (2023) and was supported by the presence of three closed cells in the forewing (character 84-1) and the posterior process of the scutellum with the anterior margin emarginated (character 79-1).
The clade H is composed by (S. elkinsi (S. erubenscens (S. lativentris + S. tibialis ))) and it is supported by a two synapomorphies from the posteromedial process of the pygophore: the elevated base (#67-1) and the angulated medial margin (#68-1). The clade S. lativentris + S. tibialis is supported by one synapomorphy: the bifid posteromedial process of pygophore in lateral view located nearly at 45° to the base (#65-0).
description: Published as part of María, Valentina Castro-Huertas & Melo, María Cecilia, 2024, Saica Amyot & Serville, 1843 (Reduviidae, Emesinae, Saicini): taxonomic revision and phylogenetic analysis with morphological characters, pp. 813-845 in Zoosystema 46 (32) on pages 835-836, DOI: 10.5252/zoosystema2024v46a32, http://zenodo.org/record/14532160