Melanastera cabucu 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 cabucu

description: 31 Melanastera cabucu sp. nov.
(Figs 11B, 17F, 28M–R)
Type material. Holotype ♂: Brazil: PARANÁ: Morretes, Floresta Marumbi, trail to hotel, S25.4459, W48.8873, 170 m, 14.ix.2011, Miconia formosa (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #6(3) (UFPR; dry).
Paratypes. Brazil: PARANÁ: 3 ♂, Morretes, Estação Marumbi, S25.4484 /4492, W48.8901 /8915, 230– 240 m, 14.ix.2011, Miconia formosa (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #5(4) (NHMB; dry, slide, 70% ethanol; NMB-PSYLL0007640, NMB-PSYLL0007636, NMB-PSYLL0008622 [LSMelcab-30], NMB-PSYLL0007637); 2 ♂, 1 ♀, same as holotype but (NHMB; slide; NMB-PSYLL0007638, NMB-PSYLL0007639, NMB-PSYLL0007641); 1 ♀, Morretes, Embrapa campus, S25.4515, W48.8723, 30.xi.2004, Miconia formosa (D.L. Queiroz) (NHMB; dry; NMB-PSYLL0007642).
Description. Adult. Coloration. Straw-coloured. Head and thorax with small dark brown dots; mesoscutum with brown longitudinal stripes. Antennal segments 3–8 with dark brown apices, segments 9–10 entirely dark brown. Forewing (Fig. 17F) amber-coloured with sparse brown dots; base and apex of pterostigma and apices of veins Rs, M 1+2, M 3+4, Cu 1a and Cu 1b dark brown. Femora with brown dots; tarsi brown. Abdominal tergites partly and sternites entirely dark brown.
Structure. Forewing (Fig. 17F) oval, broadest distal of the middle, broadly and evenly rounded apically; wing apex situated in cell r 2 near apex of M 1+2; C+Sc eakly curved in distal third; pterostigma slightly narrower than r 1 cell in the middle, weakly widening to apical two thirds; Rs almost straight in basal two thirds, obliquely curved to fore margin apically; M longer than M 1+2 and M 3+4; Cu 1a weakly irregularly curved, ending at level of M fork; surface spinules present in all cells, leaving narrow spinule-free stripes along the veins, forming hexagons of a double row of spinules, spinules absent from basal half of cell c+sc. Hindwing with 3–4 + 4 grouped costal setae. Metatibia bearing 8–10 grouped apical spurs, arranged as 3–4 + 4–6, anteriorly separated by 3 bristles.
Terminalia (Fig. 28M–R). Male. Proctiger tubular, in basal third weakly produced posteriorly; densely covered with long setae in apical two thirds. Subgenital plate, in lateral view, subglobular; dorsal margin strongly, irregularly curved, posterior margin curved; with moderately long setae. Paramere, in lateral view, asymmetrically lanceolate; apex, in lateral view, blunt, directed upwards; in dorsal view, apex blunt, directed upwards, slightly inwards and hardly posteriad, lacking distinct sclerotised tooth; outer face with sparse, moderately long setae mostly in apical half; inner face with dense, moderately long setae; posterior margin with long setae. Proximal segment of aedeagus with apical part strongly subdivided, bulbous. Distal segment of aedeagus with dorsal margin weakly curved in basal half; ventral process situated in apical third of segment, in both lateral and dorsal views, very short, simple, rounded, button-like, lacking lateral lobes; apical dilation, in lateral view, relatively large, subrectangular, base bearing a large membranous lobe at dorsal margin; in dorsal view, apical dilation elongate, with slightly truncate apex; sclerotised end tube short and weakly curved.—Female terminalia cuneate; densely covered with setae. Dorsal margin of proctiger, in lateral view, slightly convex distal to circumanal ring and distinctly concave in apical half, apex pointed, upturned; in dorsal view, apex blunt; circumanal ring, in dorsal view, distinctly cruciform. Subgenital plate, in lateral view, abruptly narrowing in apical half, pointed apically; in ventral view, apex blunt.
Fifth instar immature. Unknown.
Host plant. Adults were collected on Miconia formosa Cogn. (Melastomataceae), which is possibly a host.
Distribution. Brazil (PR).
Derivation of name. Named after Miconia cabucu, noun in apposition, one of the synonyms of the probable host M. formosa.
Comments. Melanastera cabucu sp. nov. resembles M. dimorpha sp. nov. in the knob-shaped ventral process of the distal aedeagal segment. The two species differ as outlined under M. dimorpha.
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 77-78, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5585.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/15007669