Melanastera sebiferae 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 sebiferae

description: 63 Melanastera sebiferae sp. nov.
(Figs 13L, 20H, 36H)
Type material. Holotype ♀: Brazil: AMAZONAS: Manaus, Sede Embrapa, Campo Experimental, AM-010, km 29, S2.8950, W59.9733, 100 m, 27–30.iv.2014, Virola sebifera (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) 133(3) (UFPR; slide; [LSMelseb-63B]).
Paratypes. Brazil: AMAZONAS: 2 immatures, same as holotype but (NHMB; slide, 70% ethanol; NMB-PSYLL0008067, NMB-PSYLL0008081 [LSMelseb-63B]).
Description. Adult. Coloration. Brownish yellow; head and thorax with dark brown dots. Antenna pale yellow, segments 3–9 with dark brown apices, segment 10 entirely dark brown. Mesopraescutum with pale brown patches at fore margin; mesoscutum with four broad pale brown longitudinal stripes, margined by dark brown dots, and one or two median rows of dots. Forewing (Fig. 20H) yellow, with irregular, moderately dense, dark brown dots; base and apex of pterostigma and apices of Rs, M 1+2, M 3+4, Cu 1a and Cu 1b dark brown. Femora with brown patches.
Structure. Head, in lateral view, inclined 45° from longitudinal axis of body. Vertex (Fig. 13L) trapezoidal, slightly shorter than half as wide, with imbricate microsculpture and microscopic setae. Thorax moderately arched, with microscopic setosity. Forewing (Fig. 20H) obovate, widest in the middle, broadly and unevenly rounded apically; wing apex situated in cell r 2 near apex of M 1+2; C+Sc weakly curved in distal third; pterostigma about as wide as cell r 1 in the middle, widening to apical third; Rs weakly convex in basal two thirds, obliquely curved to fore margin apically; M longer than M 1+2 and M 3+4; Cu 1a irregularly convex, ending slightly proximal to M fork; surface spinules present in all cells, leaving very narrow spinule-free stripes along the veins, forming hexagons of a single row of spinules, spinules absent from base of cell c+sc. Hindwing with 4 + 3 grouped costal setae. Metatibia bearing 8–9 grouped apical spurs, arranged as 4 + (4–5), anteriorly separated by several bristles.
Terminalia. Male. Unknown.—Female terminalia (Fig. 36H) cuneate; covered with setae. Dorsal margin of proctiger, in lateral view, with a shallow hump distal to circumanal ring, concave in apical half, apex pointed, upturned; in dorsal view, apex subacute; circumanal ring, in dorsal view, cruciform. Subgenital plate, in lateral view, abruptly narrowing in apical third, apex pointed; in ventral view, apex blunt.
Fifth instar immature. Coloration. Pale yellow; antenna pale brown with dark brown apical segment; cephalothoracic sclerite, wing pads, legs and caudal plate pale brown.
Structure. Eye with one tiny, simple ocular seta dorsally. Antennal segments with following numbers of pointed sectasetae: 1(0), 2(1), 3(0), 4(2), 5(0), 6(2), 7(1), 8(1), 9(0), 10(0). Forewing pad with 9–11 large marginal and two smaller dorsal pointed sectasetae; hindwing pad with three large marginal and one smaller dorsal pointed sectasetae. Tarsal arolium broadly fan-shaped apically, 1.5 times as long as claws. Abdomen with two lateral pointed sectasetae anterior to circumanal ring. Caudal plate with anterior margin remote from anterior margin of extra pore fields; with two pointed sectasetae (one lateral and one sublateral) at anterior margin on either side, six pointed sectasetae (situated on tubercles in groups of 3 + 3) on either side laterally and more posteriorly, and five pointed subapical sectasetae near circumanal ring on either side dorsally. Extra pore fields forming continuous outer and inner bands, consisting of small oval and round patches; outer band moderately long medially, end pointing outwards. Circumanal ring small.
Host plant. Virola sebifera Aubl. (Myristicaceae).
Distribution. Brazil (AM).
Derivation of name. Named after its host, Virola sebifera.
Comments. Melanastera sebiferae sp. nov. differs from the other three Brazilian congeners developing on Virola spp. as follows: from M. falcata sp. nov. in the relatively shorter and wider forewing (FL/FW <2.1 versus> 2.5); from M. virolae sp. nov. in the dorsal margin of the female proctiger which is distinctly concave (versus straight) in apical third; and from M. stanopekari sp. nov. in the surface spinules of the forewing forming hexagons of a single (versus double) row of spinules.
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 118-119, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5585.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/15007669