Curtara (Curtara) maculosa Laranjeira & Gonçalves & Takiya 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Laranjeira, Vanessa Cristina
name: Gonçalves, Clayton Corrêa
name: Takiya, Daniela Maeda
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadellidae
Curtara
Curtara maculosa

description: Curtara (Curtara) maculosa sp. nov.
(Figures 40–51, 96, 97)
Type locality. Parque Nacional do Itatiaia, Itatiaia, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil.
Diagnosis. Head and thorax (Figs 96, 97) dull yellow with small red punctures. Frons (Fig. 41) with red transverse bands over muscle impressions. Pronotum (Fig. 40) disk and apical half with dark punctures. Forewing (Fig. 43) dull yellow mottled with many dark brown spots and two dark brown longitudinal bands; outer discal cell without inner apical accessory vein. Male sternite VIII (Fig. 44) subtrapezoidal; lateral margins straight, slightly converging towards apex; posterior margin almost straight. Male pygofer (Fig. 45), in lateral view, subquadrangular; posterodorsal margin with a digitiform process with serrated inner margin (Fig. 46). Subgenital plate (Fig. 47), in ventral view, ligulate with apex rounded. Connective (Fig. 48) Y-shaped. Style (Fig. 49), in lateral view, with blade slender and curved dorsally; ventral margin smooth. Aedeagus (Figs 50, 51) atrium with a pair of elongated falcate processes, each subequal to shaft length; shaft elongated and tubular, with an apical pair of bifurcated processes with acute apices, each with ventral ramus long, tubular, and directed ventrally, approximately one-third of length of shaft, and dorsal ramus short, strongly curved anteroventrally.
Measurements (mm). Total length. Holotype male: 8.0.
Coloration. Head and thorax (Figs 96, 97) dull yellow. Crown (Fig. 40) with small red punctures between midline and ocelli. Ocellus red. Face (Fig. 41) dull yellow or brownish-yellow; frons with red transverse bands over muscle impressions; antennal pits and lorum region adjacent to clypeus, dark brown. Pronotum (Fig. 40) with small red spots near anterior margin; disk and apical half with dark punctures. Mesonotum (Fig. 40) with lateral angles dark brown; several red spots near scutoscutellar suture. Forewing (Fig. 43) dull yellow with many black mottled spots; with two dark brown longitudinal bands, one at basal two-thirds of median anteapical cell and another over inner discal cell extending to basal third of inner anteapical cell; veins yellow, crossveins between anteapical and apical cells dark brown; appendix with two fuscous brown spots, one basal and another apical. Legs dull yellow with dark punctures; metatibia with bases of macrosetae black.
Description. Head (Fig. 40) in dorsal view, crown median length approximately two-thirds of interocular width, transocular width about nine-tenths of pronotal humeral width; texture with irregular transverse striae, except oblique between ocelli; anterior margin strongly rounded slightly projected over anterior margin of eyes; ocelli equidistant of anterior margin and posterior margin and equidistant of the midline and eye. Head (Fig. 41), in ventral view, slightly wider than tall; frons 1.3 times longer than wide, texture shagreen; frontogenal suture distant from eye margin 1.5 times the diameter of the antennal scape; antennal ledge carinated and oblique, slightly extended over frons; clypeus 1.3 times longer than maximum width, lateral margins straight and parallel, slightly divergent apically, apex emarginated medially. Head (Fig. 42), in lateral view, with transition crown-face defined, thin, without transverse striae. Pronotum (Fig. 40), in dorsal view, lateral margins as long as length of eye. Forewing (Fig. 43) with m-cu1 anterad to R+M fork; m-cu2 anterad to r-m1; outer discal cell without inner apical accessory vein; appendix well developed, slightly wider than width of first apical cell. Metatarsomere I pecten with 4–5 platellae. Metatarsomere II apex with 2 platellae.
Male terminalia. Sternite VIII (Fig. 44), in ventral view, subtrapezoidal; 1.5 times wider than long; lateral margins straight, slightly converging towards apex; posterolateral margins rounded; posterior margin almost straight. Valve, in ventral view, with anterior margin slightly irregular; posterior margin truncated. Pygofer (Fig. 45), in lateral view, subquadrangular, as long as high; posterodorsal margin with a digitiform process with serrated inner margin (Fig. 46), posteroventral margin rounded; macrosetae dispersed at apical third; apex broadly rounded. Anal tube (Fig. 45) lightly sclerotized. Subgenital plate (Fig. 45), in lateral view, long, extending beyond apex of pygofer; in ventral view, (Fig. 47), ligulate; 3.2 times longer than maximum width; outer lateral margin slightly excavated medially; with long setae at basal third and short setae on apical two-thirds; inner lateral margin widely rounded; apex rounded. Connective (Fig. 48), in dorsal view, Y-shaped, arms robust, twice the length of stem; stem short and expanded apically; dorsal keel absent. Style (Fig. 48), in dorsal view, with outer lobe subquadrangular; in lateral view (Fig. 49), blade long and slender, curved dorsally, slightly narrowing towards apex; ventral margin smooth; apex acute. Aedeagus (Figs 50, 51) with preatrium underdeveloped; dorsal apodeme developed, lateral margins not projected laterally; atrium with a pair of elongated falcate processes, each as long as shaft, curved anterodosally, slightly enlarged at middle third, and apex acute; shaft elongated, tubular, symmetrical, and sinuous, basal portion, in lateral view, curved forming a V, preapical portion with a pair of bifurcated processes with apices acute: ventral ramus long and tubular, approximately one-third of length of shaft, and directed ventrally, and dorsal ramus short, strongly curved anteroventrally.
Etymology. The species epithet refers to the black mottled spots spread throughout the forewings.
Material examined. Holotype male: “ Brazil, RJ, Itatiaia, PNI\ 04.X.2014, S 22°23’38.9’’, W\ 44°39’59.7’’\ 2255m, Ponto\ 7, Monteiro et al.”, (DZRJ).
Taxonomic notes. Curtara (Curtara) maculosa sp. nov. differs from other Curtara species by the following set of characteristics: male pygofer (Figs 45, 46) with posterodorsal margin with a digitiform process with serrated inner margin; subgenital plates (Fig. 47), in ventral view, ligulate; connective (Fig. 48) Y-shaped; style (Fig. 49), with blade slender and curved dorsally, with ventral margin smooth; aedeagus (Figs 50, 51) with a pair of elongated falcate atrial processes, shaft with a pair of apical bifurcated processes, each with ventral ramus long and directed ventrally and dorsal ramus short and strongly curved anteroventrally.
Curtara (Curtara) maculosa sp. nov. was collected at PNI only at 2,255 m a.s.l.
description: Published as part of Laranjeira, Vanessa Cristina, Gonçalves, Clayton Corrêa & Takiya, Daniela Maeda, 2024, Curtara DeLong & Freytag, 1972 (Cicadellidae: Iassinae: Gyponini) from Parque Nacional do Itatiaia, Southeastern Brazil: description of six new species and new species records, pp. 547-571 in Zootaxa 5458 (4) on pages 558-560, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5458.4.4, http://zenodo.org/record/11548094