Melanastera michali 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 michali

description: 44 Melanastera michali sp. nov.
(Figs 2A, 4B, 12E, 18I, 31T–Y)
Type material. Holotype ♂: Brazil: RORAIMA: 1 ♀, Uiramutã, Caramambatai, N5.1333 /1466, W60.5850 /5916, 970– 1200 m, 7–14.iv.2015, Miconia cf. cephaloides (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #161(1) (UFPR; dry).
Paratypes. Brazil: RORAIMA: 3 ♀, same as holotype but (NHMB; dry, slide; NMB-PSYLL0007935, NMB-PSYLL0007967 [LSMelmich-37], NMB-PSYLL0008039); 1 ♂, 1 ♀, same but Miconia sp. (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #161(15) (NHMB; slide; NMB-PSYLL0007951 [LSMelmich-37], NMB-PSYLL0007952 [LSMelmich- 37]).
Description. Adult. Coloration.Straw-coloured; head and thorax densely covered with dark brown dots.Antenna yellow, scape and pedicel brown, segments 4–8 apically and segments 9–10 entirely dark brown. Mesopraescutum with two brown patches at fore margin; mesoscutum with four broad orange longitudinal stripes margined with dark brown dots, and one or two median rows of dark dots. Forewing (Fig. 18I) light amber-coloured with irregular, very dense dark dots, often confluent, denser in males than in females; base and apex of pterostigma and apices of Rs, M 1+2, M 3+4, Cu 1a and Cu 1b dark brown. Femora with dark brown dots; pro- and mesotarsi brown. Abdominal sclerites and terminalia of male dark brown, of female straw-coloured with dark brown sternites.
Structure. Forewing (Fig. 18I) oval, widest in the middle, broadly rounded apically; wing apex situated in cell r 2, near apex of M 1+2; C+Sc weakly curved in distal quarter; pterostigma narrower than cell r 1, weakly widening to apical third; Rs weakly, irregularly convex; M longer than M 1+2 and M 3+4; Cu 1a irregularly convex, ending at M fork; surface spinules present in all cells, forming hexagons of a double row of spinules, spinules leaving very narrow spinule-free stripes along the veins, spinules absent from base of cell c+sc. Hindwing with 6 ungrouped or 3–4 + 2–4 grouped costal setae. Metatibia bearing 9–10 grouped apical spurs, arranged as 3–4 + 5–6, anteriorly separated by 3 bristles.
Terminalia (Fig. 31T–Y). Male. Proctiger weakly produced posteriorly; densely covered with long setae in apical two thirds. Subgenital plate irregularly ovoid; dorsal margin curved; posterior margin slightly sinuate; with a few moderately long setae. Paramere, in lateral view, lamellar in basal two thirds, acuminate in apical third; apex, in lateral view, blunt, in dorsal view, apex truncate, lacking sclerotised tooth, directed upwards and slightly inwards; outer face with dense, moderately long setae in apical half and long setae posteriorly; inner face with long setae subbasally and posteriorly, dense moderately long setae medially and short setae apically. Proximal segment of aedeagus with apical part strongly subdivided. Distal segment of aedeagus weakly curved in basal half, with dorsal margin sinuate; ventral process situated slightly distal of the middle of the segment, in lateral view, narrow, simple, lamellar, lacking lateral lobes, in dorsal view, ventral process lanceolate, broadest at apical third, slightly broader than apical dilation; apical dilation, in lateral view, long and broad, slightly expanding towards rounded apex, in dorsal view, oblong, widest subapically, rounded apically; sclerotised end tube short and weakly sinuate.—Female terminalia cuneate; densely covered with setae. Dorsal margin of proctiger, in lateral view, with a conspicuous bump distal to circumanal ring, strongly concave in apical third, apex pointed and upturned; in dorsal view, apex blunt; circumanal ring, in dorsal view, distinctly cruciform. Subgenital plate, in lateral view, pointed apically; in ventral view, apex truncate.
Fifth instar immature. Unknown (see comments).
Host plant. Miconia cf. cephaloides Michelang. (Melastomataceae) (see comments). The immatures are on the new flush and secrete a lot of flocculent wax (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz, pers. obs.).
Distribution. Brazil (RR).
Derivation of name. Dedicated to dearest husband of LŠS, Michal Štarha for his continuous help and support during this project.
Comments. Adults and immatures were collected on Miconia cf. cephaloides. The samples DB-DLQ#161(1) with adult M. michali sp. nov. from Miconia and #161(16) with adult M. stanopekari sp. nov. from? Virola, both with immatures, were inadvertently mixed in the laboratory (D. Burckhardt, pers. comm.). As the immatures are mostly young instars, they cannot be attributed at present to any of the two species.
Melanastera michali sp. nov. resembles M. brevicauda sp. nov.; see comments under the latter species.
The duckei -group
Description. Adult. Head, in lateral view, inclined at ≥ 45° from longitudinal axis of body. Vertex (Figs 12F–L; 13A, B) trapezoidal, covered with imbricate microsculpture and microscopical setae. Thorax weakly to strongly arched, covered with microscopical setae; metapostnotum with distinct longitudinal keel. Forewing (Figs 18J, 19A– H) uniformly coloured, with small brown dots (absent in M. lucens); pterostigma distinctly expanding towards the middle or apical third, longer than 4.0 times as wide; vein R 1 weakly convex or straight medially. Paramere, in lateral view, irregularly acuminate or lanceolate. Ventral process of the distal aedeagal segment, in lateral view, straight or hardly curved and with short apico-median lobe, more than half as long as apical dilation; in dorsal view, at least slightly wider than apical dilation, apico-median lobe mostly visible.
Immature. Antenna 10-segmented.
Comments. The group includes nine species from Brazil. One species from Costa Rica, viz. M. lucens (Burckhardt, Hanson & Madrigal), resembles the duckei -group in the structure of the distal segment of the aedeagus and may be closely related to it, but it differs from the Brazilian species in the bright orange body and the absence of dark dots on the forewings (the latter character it shares with olgae -group). Confirmed or probable hosts of five Brazilian species are Melastomataceae (Miconia), of two species Annonaceae (Guatteria, Xylopia), and one species develops on Myristicaceae (cf. Virola). For one species the host is unknown.
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 95-96, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5585.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/15007669