Viracocha Tirant & Santos-Silva 2015, gen. nov.
Creators: name: Tirant, Stéphane Le
name: Santos-Silva, Antonio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Cerambycidae
Viracocha

description: Viracocha gen. nov.
Type species. Viracocha limogesi sp. nov.
Description. Body elongate. Head prognathous, about as long as wide (excluding mandibles); distinctly elongate behind eyes. Frons vertical, transverse, moderately large. Antennal tubercles prominent, acuminate towards apex; inner side divergent towards eye. Eyes proportionally small; lower eye lobes much wider than upper eye lobes; linkage between lobes little narrower than upper eye lobe; upper eye lobes well-separated on vertex. Apex of genae projected forward, moderately rounded. Mandibles in males longer than two-thirds of head length; from base to apex curved upward; inner margin pluridentate in large males, vaguely dentate in small males and females; apex acute, obliquely curved inward. Mandibles in females as in male, but little longer than half head length; inner margin as in small males. Maxillary palpomere IV distinctly longer than III, but shorter than II+III. Submentum punctate, slightly depressed, moderately well-delimited. Antennae in male filiform, 12-segmented, longer than 1.5 times body length; outer apex of antennomeres III–XI projected; dorsal surface of antennomeres III–VII longitudinally sulcate; antennomere III almost twice length of scape. Antennae in female serrate, 11-segmented, shorter than body; antennomeres III–VI dorsally longitudinally sulcate.
Prothorax elongate, sub-cylindrical; without lateral tubercles. Pronotum centrally without sexual punctation, without tubercles; lateral sides in male with moderately coarse, abundant punctures, interspersed with minute, dense punctures. Prosternum with sexual punctation in male, formed by moderately fine, abundant punctures on basal three-fourths, interspersed with minute, dense punctures. Prosternal process about as wide as one-fourth of procoxal cavity; parallel-sided, abruptly sloping near apex of coxae. Scutellum small, triangular. Elytra parallel-sided, about 2.5 times as long as width across humeri; base wider than prothorax; apex truncate; with short, sparse setae near apex.
Ventrite V in male little longer than IV; in females, about twice as long as IV. Legs moderately long; hind legs longer than fore- and middle legs. Femora clavate; inferior outer apex of profemora and inner apex of meso- and metafemora with short, but distinct spine. Tibiae laterally flattened, mainly meso- and metatibiae. Tarsomere I slightly shorter than II–III together.
Diagnosis. Viracocha gen. nov. shares with Steinheilia Lane, 1973 and Streptolabis Bates, 1867 the prognathous head with elongate mandibles. Streptolabis also shares with Viracocha antennae 12-segmented in male and 11-segmented in female. It is possible that males of Steinheilia also have antennae 12- segmented, but we could not examine specimens. Viracocha differs from Steinheilia as follows: body slender; elytra about 2.5 times as long as width across humeri; head distinctly more elongate behind eyes. In Steinheilia the body is distinctly wider, the elytra is, at most, 2.0 times as long as width across humeri, and the head is slightly elongate behind eyes. From Streptolabis it differs by the body slender, by the elytra not enlarged towards apex, and not reticulate. In Streptolabis the body is wider, and the elytra are enlarged towards apex and distinctly reticulate. Photographs of Steinheilia and Streptolabis are available from https://apps2.cdfa.ca.gov/publicApps/plant/bycidDB/wdefault.asp
Viracocha gen. nov. also resembles Phimosia Bates, 1870 and Trachelissa Aurivillius, 1912, but differs by the head prognathous (hypognathous in Phimosia and Trachelissa), and by the long mandibles (short in Phimosia and Trachelissa).
Etymology. Viracocha is the great creator god in the Inca mythology, a civilization which lived in Peru, country of the type locality of the new species. Masculine gender.
description: Published as part of Tirant, Stéphane Le & Santos-Silva, Antonio, 2015, New genus and species of Trachyderini (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Cerambycinae) from Peru, pp. 1-5 in Insecta Mundi 2015 (425) on page 2, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5182253