Melanastera tijuca Serbina & Malenovský & Queiroz & Burckhardt 2025
Creators: name: Serbina, Liliya Š.
name: Malenovský, Igor
name: Queiroz, Dalva L.
name: Burckhardt, Daniel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Liviidae
Melanastera
Melanastera tijuca

description: 14 Melanastera tijuca sp. nov.
(Figs 9D, 15F, 24H–M)
Type material. Holotype ♂: Brazil: RIO DE JANEIRO: Parque Nacional da Tijuca, pico da Tijuca, S22.9429 /9438, W43.2851 /2862, 960‒ 1030 m, 11.iv.2019 (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #325 (UFPR; slide; [LSMelsut-100]).
Paratypes. Brazil: RIO DE JANEIRO: 1 ♂, 1 ♀, same as holotype but (NHMB; slide; NMB-PSYLL0008150 [LSMelsut-100], NMB-PSYLL0008095 [LSMelsut-100]).
Description. Adult. Coloration. Body yellowish. Antenna brownish yellow, segments 4–7 with dark brown apices, segment 8 dark brown in its apical half, segments 9–10 entirely dark brown. Mesopraescutum with two orange patches along the fore margin; mesoscutum with four orange longitudinal stripes. Forewing (Fig. 15F) bright yellow, paler along veins, lacking dark pattern. Coxae pale brown, meracanthus pale yellow.
Structure. Median suture of vertex reduced in basal three quarters of vertex. Forewing (Fig. 15F) oblong-oval, widest in apical third, narrowly, evenly rounded apically; C+Sc curved in apical quarter; pterostigma slightly narrower in the middle than cell r 1, weakly convex in apical third; Rs straight, curved in apical fifth; M longer than M 1+2 and M 3+4; Cu 1a curved in apical third, ending at M fork; cell cu 1 narrow; surface spinules present in all cells, absent from basal half of cell c+sc, leaving narrow spinule-free stripes along the veins, forming hexagons, of a single row of spinules. Hindwing with 4 + 1–2 grouped costal setae. Metatibia bearing a posteriorly open crown of 9–11 apical spurs.
Terminalia (Fig. 24H–M). Male. Proctiger long, weakly produced posteriorly; densely covered with long setae in apical two thirds. Subgenital plate subglobular; dorsal margin strongly curved, posterior margin irregularly curved; with dense, long setae posteriorly. Paramere, in lateral view, irregularly sublanceolate; paramere apex, in lateral view, rounded, in dorsal view, directed inwards and slightly posteriad, with a small sclerotised tooth; outer and inner faces with dense, moderately long setae in apical two thirds; posterior margin with long setae. Proximal segment of aedeagus with apical part subdivided. Distal segment of aedeagus with sinuate ventral margin and almost straight dorsal margin in basal half; ventral process large and broad, simple, lacking lateral lobes, situated slightly distal of the middle of the segment, in lateral view, ventral process tongue-shaped, rounded apically; in dorsal view, ventral process narrow, oval, widest in basal third, rounded apically; apical dilation, in lateral view, sickle-shaped, apex subacute, directed ventrad, dorsal margin evenly convex, with a membranous lobe basally, apical dilation, in dorsal view, lanceolate, widest medially, blunt apically; sclerotised end tube short, weakly sinuate.—Female terminalia cuneate; densely covered with setae. Dorsal margin of proctiger, in lateral view, straight distal to circumanal ring, apex blunt; in dorsal view, apex blunt; circumanal ring, in dorsal view, cruciform. Subgenital plate, in lateral view, abruptly narrowing to apex in apical half, with ventral margin angular medially, pointed apically; in ventral view, blunt apically.
Fifth instar immature. Unknown.
Host plant. Unknown.
Distribution. Brazil (RJ).
Derivation of name. Named after the Parque Nacional da Tijuca, where the species was collected.
Comments. Melanastera tijuca sp. nov. resembles M. macaireae sp. nov. and M. granulosi sp. nov. in the narrow, yellow forewing with clear stripes along veins, from which it differs in the partly reduced median suture of the vertex and the structure of the male and female terminalia.
The falcata -group
Description. Adult. Vertex and thorax covered with microscopical setae. Forewing (Fig. 15G–I) with small brown dots; pterostigma distinctly expanding towards the middle or apical third. Distal segment of aedeagus lacking ventral process.
Immature. Antenna 10-segmented.
Comments. The group includes two species in Brazil. One is associated with Myristicaceae, while the host family of the other species is unknown.
description: Published as part of Serbina, Liliya Š., Malenovský, Igor, Queiroz, Dalva L. & Burckhardt, Daniel, 2025, Jumping plant-lice of the tribe Paurocephalini (Hemiptera: Psylloidea: Liviidae) in Brazil, pp. 1-164 in Zootaxa 5585 (1) on pages 52-53, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5585.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/15007669