Russelliana brevigenis Serbina & Burckhardt, 2017, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Serbina, Liliya
name: Burckhardt, Daniel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Psyllidae
Russelliana
Russelliana brevigenis

description: Russelliana brevigenis sp. nov.
(Figs 8 F, 11G, 16F, 21F, 26F, 30F)
Russelliana solanicola, Serbina et al. (2015): 51, table 3 (in part.), nec Tuthill, 1959.
Material examined. Holotype ♂: Chile: IV Region, Province Elqui, along road from Viñita Baja to Condoriaco, 29°45'S 70°50'W, 1000–1400 m, 4.xii.1993, Solanaceae, dry slope with Trichocereus and various shrubs (D. Burckhardt) #7 (MHNG, dry).
Paratypes: Chile: 1 ♂, 1 ♀, III Region, Province Huasco, ca 10 km W Domeyko, 28°57'S 70°55'W, 600 m, 6.xii.1993,? Lycium sp., steppe (D. Burckhardt) #14 (MHNG, dry); 2 ♂, IV Region, Province Elqui, 15 km SW Viñita Baja, 29°50'S 70°50'W, 450 m, 4.xii.1993,? Lycium sp., sparse scrub (D. Burckhardt) #6 (MHNG, dry); 14 ♂, 11 ♀, 14 immatures, same as holotype (D. Burckhardt) #7 (BMNH, MHNG, dry); 1 ♂, 3 ♀, 1?, same but 15 km E Vicuña, 30°10'S 70°40'W, 850 m, 5.xii.1993, Solanaceae, river bed with Baccharis and dry slope with small shrubs (D. Burckhardt) #10 (MHNG, dry); 3 ♀, same but? Lycium sp. (D. Burckhardt) #10 (NHMB, dry); 2 ♂, 5 ♀, same but 16 km N Chapilca, nr Río Turbio, road to Llanos de Huanta, ca 80 km E La Serena, 1100 m, 17.xii.1995, Lycium sp., very dry quebrada with some scattered shrubs, mainly Baccharis, and Prosopis tamarugo trees, with grass along the river (D. Burckhardt) #2(3) (MHNG, dry); 6 ♂, 7 ♀, 11 immatures, same but ca 45 km ENE La Serena, Viñita Baja to Condoriaco, 800–1000 m, 19.xii.1995, Lycium sp., quebrada and mountain slope (D. Burckhardt) #10(3) (MHNG, dry, on slide, 70 % ethanol).
Description. Coloration. Head including genal processes pale yellow, genae pale yellow to brown; clypeus yellow. Eyes pale yellow to brown, ocelli red. Antenna yellow, segments 4–8 with dark brown apices, segments 9– 10 entirely dark brown. Pronotum pale yellow, sometimes with yellow dot in the middle; mesopraescutum pale yellow with two orange patches along the fore margin and often with two yellow to pale orange patches posteriorly; mesoscutum pale yellow with four broad orange and, in the middle, one narrow pale yellow to pale orange longitudinal stripes; mesoscutellum pale yellow along the margin, yellow to orange in the middle. Metanotum pale yellow. Forewing with pale yellow veins and colourless membrane with indistinct brown patch along vein Cu1b and yellowish shadows in apical part of cells r1, r2, m1, m2 and cu1. Legs pale yellow, sometimes with slightly darker distal tarsal segments, meracanthus of metacoxa pale yellow. Abdomen and terminalia yellow. Paramere slightly darker apically. Female proctiger dark in apical third, subgenital plate with dark apex.
Structure. Head, in profile, inclined from longitudinal body axis at 45°. Vertex subtrapezoidal with indented foveae, anteriorly produced into transverse lobe on either side of mid-line, with raised hind margin around lateral ocelli, covered with short setae; genal processes very short, conical, subacute apically, covered with moderately long setae. Forewing oval, broadly, evenly rounded apically; vein C+Sc hardly curved, pterostigma long, vein Rs weakly sinuous, almost straight apically; vein M about as long as either of veins M1+2 and M3+4; surface spinules absent; radular spinules covering triangular areas along the margin of cells r2, m1, m2 and cu1. Metatibia with 7 apical spurs.
Terminalia. Male. Proctiger tubular; densely covered with moderately long setae, forming longitudinal rows posteriorly. Subgenital plate short, subglobular; with sparsely spaced long setae restricted to median part. Paramere irregularly subtrapezoidal; with apico-anterior process on long pedicel, median recurved hump with apically sclerotised tooth, and long, strongly bulged apico-posterior lobe; both hump and lobe of subequal length and slightly shorter than process; outer face sparsely covered with moderately long setae in anterior and posterior parts, inner face sparsely covered with moderately long setae. Distal segment of aedeagus elongate; with long, straight anterior process, one horn-shaped apical and one angular apico-posterior tubercles; lateral lobes long, dilated towards apex which is concave.—Female. Proctiger cuneate, pointed apically; dorsal margin, in profile, slightly convex; densely covered with moderately long setae in apical half. Subgenital plate cuneate, with short apical process; relatively sparsely covered with long setae, dorsal margin with few bristles.
Host-plant. Lycium sp. (Solanaceae).
Distribution. Chile (III–IV Regions).
Derivation of name. From Latin brevis = short and gena = cheek, referring to the short genal processes.
Comments. A few specimens from Chile (6 ♂, 7 ♀, 11 immatures, IV Region, Province Elqui, ca 45 km ENE La Serena) previously assigned to Russelliana solanicola in Serbina et al. (2015) belong to R. brevigenis sp. nov.
Russelliana brevigenis resembles R. adunca, caunda and didyma; see comments under R. adunca. R. brevigenis differs from the three species in very short genal processes. It differs from R. caunda and didyma in shorter setae covering the female terminalia, from R. caunda in a very long, strongly curved median hump of the paramere, and from R. didyma in the presence of surface spinules in the apical part of the forewing membrane, a long apico-posterior lobe of the paramere with a strongly constricted base, a relatively straight anterior process of the distal segment of the aedeagus, and a relatively stout apex of the female proctiger.
description: Published as part of Serbina, Liliya & Burckhardt, Daniel, 2017, Systematics, biogeography and host-plant relationships of the Neotropical jumping plant-louse genus Russelliana (Hemiptera: Psylloidea), pp. 1-114 in Zootaxa 4266 (1) on pages 17-18, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.575325