Griburius mokaya Sassi 2023, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Sassi, Davide
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Chrysomelidae
Griburius
Griburius mokaya

description: Griburius mokaya sp. nov.
(Figs 3, 8c)
Types. HOLOTYPE: m#, body, aedeagus and detached abdomen glued on the same card, // “ MEX, Chiapas, Parque Laguna Belgica 27-V-1987 D A Rider E. G. & T. J. Riley” [white label, printed] // “collected at mercury vapor & blacklight” [white label, printed] // “ Griburius mokaya sp. nov. HOLOTYPUS D. Sassi des.” [red label, printed] // (TAMU). PARATYPES (42 specimens): MEXICO, CHIAPAS: same data of the holotype (13m #3f#, ERPC, DSPC, TAMU); hwy 195 4.5 km N Ixtapa 3000’ 24.V.1987 D. A. Rider, E. G. & T. J. Riley at mercury vapor and blacklight (8m #8f#, ERPC); Mpio Villa Flores rd. to Agronomos Mexicanos 1200m (1f#, ERPC). MEXICO, VERACRUZ: 8 km N Fortin 20.IV.1978 (1f#, TAMU). COSTA RICA, GUANACASTE: Finca Jenny 31 km N of Liberia 300m VI.1989 (3m #2f#, BMNH, DSPC); 3 km SE R. Naranjo 11.IV.1993 (1f#, BYU). HONDURAS, FRANCISCO MORAZÁN: 5 km E Escuela Agricola Panamericana 2.VI.1993 (1f#, FSCA). PANAMA, CHIRIQUI: vic Hornito 42’’ 14-18.V.1996 (1f#, TAMU). All paratypes are labelled: // “ Griburius mokaya sp. nov. PARATYPUS D. Sassi des.” [red label, printed] //.
Type locality. Parque educativo Laguna Bélgica (Ocozocoautla, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico).
Etymology. Mokaya is the name given to some ancient Mesoamerica’s cultures located in particular along the Pacific Coast of today’s Chiapas, Mexico. The word Mokaya is a noun in the nominative singular, standing in apposition to the generic name (art. 11.9.1.2. I.C.Z.N., 4th edition).
Additional material examined. GUATEMALA: Ciudad de Guatemala 1.V.2022 (1, GBIF). HONDURAS: Francisco Morazán San Antonio de Oriente, El Zamorano 22.IV.2020 & 14.V.2020 (2, GBFI).
Further checked data from literature. Jacoby (1889) reported and shortly described a specimen from Guatemala, attributing it to Griburius equestris (Olivier, 1808), which should be considered as belonging to the new species. The datum was also mentioned in Riley et al. (2001) and correctly believed to belong to a taxon distinct from G. equestris. Additionally, this species is reported in Ordóñez-Reséndiz & López-Pérez (2021) for the Mexican States of Puebla, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Yucatan on the basis of material housed in the collections of the Museo de Historia natural de la Ciudad de México. These specimens have probably to be assigned to the new species but, given the difficulty until now to correctly identify the Mexican Griburius species, not comprehensively revised since the late 19 th century, the presence of the new species in the aforementioned Mexican states requires, in my opinion, further confirmation.
Distribution. Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama.
Diagnosis. The species is similar in morphology to G. equestris, from which it can be easily distinguished by the different shape of the aedeagal median lobe. Despite the variability of both species in the colouration, some remarkable differences can be pointed out on ventral surface. In males, median projection of the first abdominal ventrite is always yellow (black in G. equestris). Usually, the black spot on the pygidium is smaller, and the fifth abdominal ventrite is totally yellow (central part of it is the same usually black in G. equestris). In females (and in light coloured males) the distinction is easier, being the ventral surface usually almost totally yellow.
Description of male. Habitus in Fig. 3 a-c (HT), 3f-g (PT). BL = 2.9–3.3 mm, BW = 1.7–2.0 mm, PL = 1.0– 1.2 mm, PW = 1.4–1.7 mm. Interocular distance = 0.0–2.0%.
Head totally yellow, at times vertex and antennal insertions darkened. Labrum yellow as well. Head surface with sparse, very fine punctures and almost devoid of setosity. Mid-cranial suture shallow, but clearly detectable above and below the upper lobes of eyes. Upper lobes of eyes usually in contact along midline, so neither interspace nor mid-cranial suture visible in between. Ocular lines strictly adhering to ocular rim, sometimes marked with line of fine punctures along lower part of upper lobes. Ocular canthus large, angular. Antennae (Fig. 3h) with first 5 antennomeres yellow, 3-5 bright, subcylindrical; 6-11 darker, dull, more flattened and more diffusedly setose.
Pronotum yellow with two drop-shaped black spots on central part of disc, at sides of midline. Such spots at times smaller and rounded, or angulate, or even completely missing. Sometimes a hint of longitudinal brownish line near posterior margin, in front of scutellum. Pronotal shape elliptical, scarcely transverse, slightly flattened, clearly narrower than elytra. Lateral margins narrow, visible from above only along posterior half, slightly angulate just behind middle, where maximum width occurs. Surface moderately shiny with sparse, strongly impressed punctation evenly distributed across whole pronotal surface. Posterolateral impressions weakly impressed but still detectable.
Scutellum black or yellow, regularly rounded at apex or shortly truncated in almost straight line. Surface sparsely micropunctured.
Elytron yellow with three rounded black spots on disc, first one near basal margin between first and fifth rows of punctures, second one on humeral callus, third one just behind midline at about same distance from suture and lateral margin. Lateral margin and posterior part of suture black as well. Postmedian spot at times laterally extended to merge into marginal black pattern. Besides, anterior spots can coalesce to form a large transverse black band along basal margin (Fig. 3f). Again, size of elytral black markings sometimes more or less reduced. Epipleuron totally yellow or, more often, black along posterior half. Elytral outline lengthened, with sides almost straight and slightly convergent posteriorly. Lateral margins narrow, simultaneously visible up to humeral calli when seen from above. Elytral surface moderately shiny with strong, well-impressed punctation distinct up to posterior clivus, arranged in almost regular rows. Intervals flat. Postscutellar area perceptibly raised. Humeral callus prominent, impunctate. Epipleuron, impunctate, slightly rugulose with flat surface.
Pygidium totally yellow or with rounded black spot at apex. Surface bright, covered with shallow punctures and short, semi-erect pale setae.
Ventral parts of thorax black except for prosternal process and outer part of hypomera, being yellow. Abdominal ventrites yellow with central part of ventrites 1-4 light brown. Medial projection of ventrite 1 yellow. At times, in light coloured specimens, ventral parts totally yellow. Hypomera, mesoepimera and mesoepisterna shiny, with few, well-impressed punctures, almost devoid of setosity. Remainder of ventral surface matt, covered with short, regularly distributed setae and fine, shallow punctures. Prosternal process large, with sides fairly salient, almost straight between anterior coxae; surface almost flat, shallowly punctured, covered with semi-erect setae. Legs totally yellow.
Median depression on fifth abdominal ventrite indistinct, hardly detectable. Posterior margin of ventrite straight. Median lobe of aedeagus (Fig. 3 m-o) dorsoventrally flattened, terminated by triangular apex with slightly concave sides. In lateral view apex slightly bent dorsally. Ventral surface weakly convex towards apex. Setose depressions barely delimited, with few arcuate setae.
Female. Habitus in Fig. 3 d-e (PT). BL = 3.4–3.9 mm, BW = 2.1–2.4 mm, PL = 1.3–1.4 mm, PW = 1.8–2.1 mm. Interocular distance = 7.7–8.8 % of BL.
In females the eyes are smaller and more separated along midline, and mid-frontal suture clearly visible. In addition, dorsal black pattern is generally reduced, and black spots never tend to coalesce. Lastly, ventral parts are often completely yellow.
The fifth abdominal ventrite in females has a quite large, rounded, and deep pit. The bottom of the pit is glabrous, matt, usually yellow, but sometimes frankly black, impunctate but covered by tiny wrinkles. The vasculum of the spermatheca (Fig. 3i) is quite unusual. It is asymmetrical, with no clear-cut separation between a distal and a proximal lobe, hook-shaped, with proximal lobe gradually tapered but terminated with a slightly swollen end. The ampulla is brief, not pigmented. The duct and sperm gland insertions are short and straight. The duct is uniform in size, slender, quite rigid, straight, with a single turn near the vasculum. At the insertion of the ductus, the bursa copulatrix is shaped in a couple of membranous coils.
Remarks. In Griburius equestris the interocular distance in males is variable, but at least a little gap is always present between the upper lobes of the eyes (Fig. 13c). On the other hand, in G. mokaya specimens from Mexico the eyes are clearly in contact for a rather long tract (Fig. 3c). However, it should be noted that in the three Costa Rican males available for study the interocular distance is more similar to that of G. equestris than to the Mexican samples of G. mokaya. Moreover, the dorsal colouration seems to be rather variable in the new species, according to geographic parameters: in the type locality all the studied specimens show the “typical” pattern of black spots, while in the population from Ixtapa ventral parts are totally yellow in females, elytral spots are smaller and the pronotum is uniformly yellow (apart from a single male), being devoid of the two black rounded discal markings (Fig. 3 d-e). At the moment it is not considered opportune to assign the populations from Ixtapa and Costa Rica to distinct taxa, but it is hoped that additional material will be available to further investigate the matter.
description: Published as part of Sassi, Davide, 2023, Five new species of the genus Griburius Haldeman from Central America (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae, Cryptocephalinae), pp. 117-138 in Fragmenta entomologica (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) 55 (1) on pages 124-127, DOI: 10.13133/2284-4880/1465, http://zenodo.org/record/8148247