Melanastera truncata 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 truncata

description: 51 Melanastera truncata sp. nov.
(Figs 12L, 19F, 33N–S)
Type material. Holotype ♂: Brazil: PARANÁ: Curitiba, Parque Tanguá, S25.3816, W49.2850, 930 m, 6.ii.2013, Miconia cinerascens (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #90(7) (UFPR; slide; [LSMeltru-26]).
Paratypes. Brazil: PARANÁ: 1 ♂, 2 ♀, same as holotype but (NHMB; slide; NMB-PSYLL0008144 [LSMeltru- 26], NMB-PSYLL0008145 [LSMeltru-26], NMB-PSYLL0008147 [LSMeltru-26]).
Description. Adult. Coloration. Yellow; head and thorax with dense, dark brown dots. Antennal segments 1–2 partly brown, segments 4–9 brownish apically, segment 10 entirely brown. Mesopraescutum with brown patches at fore margin; mesoscutum with four longitudinal brown stripes. Forewing (Fig. 19F) yellow with sparse, irregular brown dots; apex and base of pterostigma and apices of Rs, M 1+2, M 3+4, Cu 1a and Cu 1b dark brown. Femora with brown patches. Female terminalia with brown apex.
Structure. Forewing (Fig. 19F) oval, broadest in the middle, broadly and evenly rounded apically; wing apex situated in cell r 2 near apex of M 1+2; C+Sc weakly curved in distal third; pterostigma slightly narrower in the middle than cell r 1, distinctly widening to the middle; Rs weakly convex; M longer than M 1+2 and M 3+4; Cu 1a irregularly curved, ending at M fork; surface spinules present in all cells, leaving narrow spinule-free stripes along the veins, forming hexagons of a double row of spinules in apical third of the wing. Hindwing with 4 + 4 grouped or 7 ungrouped costal setae. Metatibia bearing 8–9 grouped apical spurs, arranged as 4 + 4–5, anteriorly separated by 3 bristles.
Terminalia (Fig. 33N–S). Male. Proctiger weakly produced posteriorly; densely covered with moderately long setae in apical two thirds. Subgenital plate irregularly ovoid; dorsal margin strongly curved; posterior margin weakly convex; with moderately long setae. Paramere, in lateral view, lanceolate; apex, in lateral view, narrow, subacute, directed upwards and slightly inwards, in dorsal view, apex triangular, subacute, directed upwards and slightly inwards, lacking distinct sclerotised tooth; outer face with dense, moderately long setae in apical two thirds; inner face with dense, moderately long setae; posterior margin with long setae. Proximal segment of aedeagus with apical part moderately subdivided. Distal segment of aedeagus almost straight in basal half, with weakly sinuate dorsal margin; ventral process situated slightly distad of the middle of segment, in lateral view, spatulate, truncate apically; in dorsal view, ventral process much broader than apical dilation, subcircular; apical dilation, in lateral view, relatively narrow, subparallel-sided, rounded apically; in dorsal view, apical dilation widening towards apex; sclerotised end tube moderately long and almost straight.—Female terminalia cuneate; densely covered with setae. Dorsal margin of proctiger, in lateral view, sinuate, apex upturned, pointed; in dorsal view, apex blunt; circumanal ring, in dorsal view, distinctly cruciform. Subgenital plate, in lateral view, abruptly narrowed in apical half, pointed apically; in ventral view, apex blunt or truncate.
Fifth instar immature. Unknown.
Host plant. Adults were collected on Miconia cinerascens Miq. (Melastomataceae) which is a possible host.
Distribution. Brazil (PR).
Derivation of name. From the Latin adjective truncatus = truncate, referring to the shape of the ventral process of the distal segment of aedeagus.
Comments. Within the duckei -group, Melanastera truncata sp. nov. is characterised by the spatulate, apically truncate ventral process of the distal aedeagal segment.
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 103-104, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5585.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/15007669