Afronaso spinosa Chmurova & Webb, 2016, sp. n.
Creators: name: Chmurova, Lucia
name: Webb, Michael D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Caliscelidae
Afronaso
Afronaso spinosa

description: Afronaso spinosa sp. n.
(Figs 1, 2)
Description. Length. Male: 2.9–3.4mm (mean 3.1mm, 5 specimens)
Colour (male, Fig. 1 A–C). Generally black to blackish brown. Metope, including proboscis, with yellowish marking at base. Coryphe, pronotum and scutellum medially and costal area of fore wings with dark pits. Anteclypeus and rostrum yellowish brown except apically. Hind legs with yellowish brown markings at dorsal surface of femora, tibiae, base of first tarsomere and on third tarsomere. Coxae and trochanters of all legs with brown or yellowish patches. Propleura brown dorsally, yellowish ventrally. Abdominal tergites with longitudinal irregular yellowish lines medially to last tergite. Abdominal sternites edged with yellow posteriorly and a thin light brown longitudinal stripe medially reaching to tip of abdomen. Thickness and intensity of yellow markings varies with some specimens almost completely black or blackish brown.
Habitus. Coryphe and metope joined at about 150° angle (Fig. 2 A). Coryphe hexagonal with lateral margin angled to fore margin; posterior margin straight; slightly depressed each side of mid-line (Fig. 1 C). Metope completely visible from above, greatly extended into a finger-like proboscis, cylindrical except slightly laterally compressed at apex, variably tapering to rounded apex in dorsal view, tip medially carinate and sometimes indistinctly laterally carinate, carinae joining at tip; transversely striate basally; strong lateral ledge from below antennae and around eye (Fig. 2 A). Postclypeus large and swollen. Rostrum with apical segment quadrate in lateral view; pre-apical segment three times longer than apical segment. Antennal pedicel with rounded apical process (Fig. 2 B). Pronotum short, shorter than coryphe, flat, without carinae, anterior margin convex and posterior margin straight. Scutellum twice as long as pronotum, without carinae but with a faint median ridge. Brachypterous with fore wings reaching to second visible abdominal tergite, venation obscure (Fig. 1 A). Fore legs with laterally flattened femur and tibiae. Anterior-dorsal margin of tibiae expanded leaf-like, posterior-ventral margin of femur also relatively well expanded (Fig. 2 C,D). Hind tibia with single lateral spine (Fig. 2 F). First metatarsomere approximately as long as second and third metatarsomeres combined, first and second apically with two lateral spines either side of a pad with small pimples (Fig. 2 F).
Male genitalia. Anal tube (10th segment) rounded and slightly longer than wide in dorsal view, gradually tapering to blunt apex in lateral view (Fig. 2 E). Pygopher very short with hind margin concave, without processes (Fig. 2 H). Style broad in lateral view, upturned apically and produced into an elongate acute processes (capitulum), without lateral tooth, caudo-dorsal angle widely rounded (Fig. 2 G). Aedeagus surrounded by weakly sclerotized hood-like phallobase, the latter forming a more strongly sclerotized ring around aedeagus from which a dorsally projecting strut arises from each side, extended caudally as a pair of broad, laterally compressed asymmetrical lobes, more strongly sclerotized posteriorly, ventro-posterior corner of lobes with several thick black spines. Aedeagus elongate, distal part cylindrical, dorso-ventrally flattened in anterior part, ending in a small nose-like process at the posterior end (in lateral view), with two subapical recurved ventral processes (Fig. 2 I,J).
Type material examined. Holotype Ƌ, pinned, with genitalia in a separate microvial: “ Zambia, Nkwaji, riverine forest, dung pitfall trap, 20 Oct.–3 Nov. 2013, R. Smith, H. Takano, L. Chmurova and L. Smith ” (NHM). Paratypes. 6 Ƌ, the same data as the holotype, except 1 Ƌ from “carrion pitfall” and 3 Ƌ from “dry evergreen forest” (NHM).
Additional material examined. 1 Ƌ: “ Zambia, Nkwaji, open dambo savannah, yellow pan trap, Oct. 2013, R. Smith, H. Takano, L. Chmurova and L. Smith, (NHM). 1 Ƌ, same data except: “ pitfall trap, 20 Oct.–3 Nov. 2013 ” (ZIN).
Etymology. This species is named after the spines on the phallobase lobes of the penis.
Remarks. This species can be distinguished by the strongly recurved ventral aedeagal processes and the several thick black spines on the caudal lobes of the phallobase, the latter similar to those found in Gwurra aphrodite Linnavuori (see Gnezdilov & Bourgoin 2009, Fig. 93-94). The species does not run easily to a genus in the key given by Gnezdilov & Bourgoin (2009). It runs to the first part of couplet 7 as its fore tibia are expanded but this choice leads only to two genera neither of which resemble our species. Disregarding this couplet, the species runs to Afronaso Jacobi which is very similar externally but lacks the features of the male genitalia noted above. We therefore tentatively include the species in Afronaso but conclude that it could be placed into a new genus or subgenus in the future.
description: Published as part of Chmurova, Lucia & Webb, Michael D., 2016, Two new planthopper species (Hemiptera, Fulgoroidea, Caliscelidae) collected in pitfall traps in Zambia, pp. 316-322 in Zootaxa 4154 (3) on pages 317-318, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4154.3.6, http://zenodo.org/record/255100