Russelliana didyma 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 didyma

description: Russelliana didyma sp. nov.
(Figs 8 L, 12C, 17C, 22C, 26L, 31B)
Russelliana solanicola, Serbina et al. (2015): 50, table 3 (in part.), nec Tuthill, 1959. Russelliana disparilis, Syfert et al. (2017): 5, table 1 (in part.), nec Tuthill, 1964.
Material examined. Holotype ♂: Chile: IV Region, Province Limarí, Parque Nacional Fray Jorge, Quebrada La Vaca, 30°40'S 71°40'W, 100–200 m, 15–17.xii.1992, Lycium chilense, mediterranean scrub (D. Burckhardt) #27 (MHNG, dry).
Paratypes: Argentina: 1 ♀, Province Catamarca, San Fernando, NE Tinogasta, 4.xi.1991, Prosopis sp. (L. E. Peña) (NHMB, 70 % ethanol); 2 ♀, Province La Rioja, Guandacol, 1–3.xii.1983 (L. E. Peña) (MHNG, dry); 2 ♂, 2 ♀, Province Mendoza, Santa Rosa, Ñacuñán, 8.viii.1996, Atamisquea emarginata [Capparis atamisquea] (G. Debandi) (NHMB, dry); 3 ♂, 4 ♀, 1 immature, same but Mendoza Valley, Potrerillos to Cacheuta, 1200 m, 17.i.1997, Lycium sp., low scrub (D. Burckhardt) #10(3) (MHNG, on slide, 70 % ethanol); 1 ♂, 8 immatures, same but Lycium sp. / Verbena sp. (D. Burckhardt) #10(4) (MHNG, 70 % ethanol); 45 ♂, 55 ♀, same but Potrerillos, 1300 m, Lycium sp., steppe with shrubs (D. Burckhardt) #11(1) (MHNG, 70 % ethanol); 5 ♂, 11 ♀, same but km 18 Mendoza to Villa Vicencia, 700 m, 18.i.1997, Lycium sp., pampa (D. Burckhardt) #13(3, 4) (MHNG, 70 % ethanol, on slide); 1 ♂, 2 ♀, 1?, same but Zoológico, vii.1997 (S. Roig) (NHMB, dry); 9 ♂, 27 ♀, Province San Juan, La Ciénaga, 6.iii.1992 (L. E. Peña) (NHMB, on slide, 70 % ethanol). Chile: 6 ♂, 2 ♀, 1 immature, IV Region, Province Limarí, Parque Nacional Fray Jorge, 250 m, 7–9.xii.1990, Lycium chilense, open mediterranean scrub (D. Agosti & D. Burckhardt) #2 (MHNG, NHMB, dry, on slide); 9 ♂, 9 ♀, 1?, same as holotype (D. Burckhardt) #27 (BMNH, MHNG, NHMB, dry).
Description. Coloration. Head including genal processes pale yellow, vertex pale yellow along the margin, yellowish to orange in the middle; clypeus yellow to dark brown. Eyes pale yellow to brown, ocelli orange to red. Antenna yellow to brownish, segments 3–8 with dark brown apices, segments 9–10 entirely dark brown. Pronotum pale yellow and distinctly paler than mesonotum, often with yellow dot in the middle; mesopraescutum pale yellow, often with two big orange patches along the fore margin and two orange patches posteriorly; mesoscutum pale yellow, often with four broad and, in the middle, one narrow orange longitudinal stripes; mesoscutellum pale yellow along the margin, often orange in the middle. Metanotum yellow to orange. Forewing with pale yellow veins and colourless to yellowish membrane with indistinct brown patch along vein Cu1b, sometimes with indistinct brownish shadows in apical part of cells r1, r2, m1, m2 and cu1 and at base of cell m2. Legs pale yellow to brownish, sometimes with darker femora, meracanthus of metacoxa pale yellow. Abdomen yellow to brown; terminalia pale yellow to orange. Male proctiger and paramere slightly darker apically. Female terminalia lighter ventrally, with dark apex.
Structure. Head, in profile, strongly inclined from longitudinal body axis (> 45°). Vertex subtrapezoidal with indented foveae, anteriorly produced into transverse tubercle on either side of mid-line, with slightly raised hind margin around lateral ocelli, covered with short setae; genal processes conical, slender, subacute apically, distinctly shorter than vertex, covered with moderately long setae. Forewing oval, broadly, evenly rounded apically; vein C+Sc weakly curved, pterostigma long, vein Rs weakly sinuous, slightly curved to fore margin 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 7–8 apical spurs.
Terminalia. Male. Proctiger tubular; sparsely covered with moderately long setae. Subgenital plate short, subglobular; with sparsely spaced long setae. Paramere irregularly subtrapezoidal; with apico-anterior process on long pedicel, long median, slightly recurved median hump with apically sclerotised tooth, and small apicoposterior lobe; both process and lobe of subequal length and distinctly shorter than hump; outer face sparsely covered with moderately long setae mostly in apical part, inner face sparsely covered with moderately long setae and with few longer setae along anterior margin at base. Distal segment of aedeagus moderately elongate; with long hook-shaped anterior process, one small, raised apical and one small apico-posterior tubercles; lateral lobes long, dilated towards apex which is concave.—Female. Proctiger cuneate, pointed apically; dorsal margin, in profile, almost straight to weakly sinuous; densely covered with long setae. Subgenital plate cuneate, with short apical process; sparsely covered with long setae, dorsal margin with a row of bristles.
Host-plant. Lycium chilense Bertero (Solanaceae).
Distribution. Argentina (Catamarca, La Rioja, Mendoza, San Juan), Chile (IV Region).
Derivation of name. From Latin didymus = twin for its close resemblence to Russelliana adunca, brevigenis and caunda.
Comments. Some specimens from Argentina (45 ♂, 55 ♀, Province Mendoza, Mendoza Valley, Potrerillos; 5 ♂, 11 ♀, same but km 18 Mendoza to Villa Vicencia; 9 ♂, 27 ♀, Province San Juan) previously assigned to Russelliana solanicola in Serbina et al. (2015) belong to R. didyma sp. nov. The female specimens from Argentina (2 ♀, Province La Rioja, Guandacol) assigned to Russelliana disparilis in Syfert et al. (2017) belong to R. didyma sp. nov.
Russelliana didyma resembles R. adunca, brevigenis and caunda; see comments under R. adunca. R. didyma differs from the three species in a very short apico-posterior lobe of the paramere, a hook-shaped anterior process of the distal segment of the aedaegus, and in a narrow apex of the female proctiger. It differs from R. adunca and brevigenis in longer setae on the female terminalia, from R. brevigenis and caunda in the absence of surface spinules in the apical part of the forewing, from R. brevigenis in long genal processes, and from R. caunda in a longer median hump of the paramere.
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 25-26, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.575325