Myrsidea sychrai Price, Johnson
Creators: name: Price, Roger D.
name: Johnson, Kevin P.
name: Dalgleish, Robert C.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2008
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Phthiraptera
Menoponidae
Myrsidea
Myrsidea sychrai

description: Myrsidea sychrai Price, Johnson, and Dalgleish, new species
(Figs. 10–11)
Type host. Cyanocompsa cyanoides (Lafresnaye, 1847), the Blue-black Grosbeak.
Female. Head with strongly developed hypopharyngeal sclerites; gula with 5 setae on each side. Dorsoventral metathorax and abdomen as in Fig. 11. Metanotal posterior margin with 16–17 setae; metasternal plate with 8–9 setae. Tergite I much enlarged with pronounced tapered medioposterior convexity, this resulting in distortion of tergites II–V. Tergal setae, except on I, with continuous row across segment. Tergal setae: I, 12–15; II, 18–21; III, 24–26; IV, 25–32; V, 25–32; VI, 26–30; VII, 20–26; VIII, 14–16. Postspiracular setae on III, V, and VI not>0.20 long, and VII extremely long (>0.35). Pleurites: I–II with relatively uniform short setae; III-VII with fine longer setae toward midline; VIII with long seta flanked on each side by much shorter seta. Sternal setae: II, 4 in each aster, less often 5, 18–22 marginal between asters, 15–22 anterior; III, 26–33; IV, 39–42; V, 42–47; VI, 34–37; VII, 15–19; VIII–IX, 26–30. Anus with 34–44 ventral, 36–38 dorsal fringe setae. Dimensions: TW, 0.55–0.56; HL, 0.31–0.35; PW, 0.33–0.34; MW, 0.51–0.55; AWIV, 0.65–0.71; ANW, 0.26–0.27; TL, 1.54–1.63.
Male. Head, thorax, absence of median gap in abdominal tergal setal rows, lengths of postspiracular setae, and chaetotaxy of abdominal pleurites as for female (Fig. 10), except for 13 marginal metanotal setae, 8 metasternal plate setae, and continuous tergal setal row on I. Tergal setae: I, 17; II, 23; III–IV, 25; V, 28; VI, 24; VII, 21; VIII, 14. Sternal setae: II, 4 in each aster, 16 marginal between asters, 15 anterior; III, 27; IV, 37; V, 39; VI, 35; VII, 21; VIII, 12. Genital sac sclerite distorted but perhaps close to M. johnklickai (Fig. 6). Dimensions: TW, 0.48; HL, 0.31; PW, 0.31; MW, 0.41; AWIV, 0.53; GL, 0.42; TL, 1.36.
Type material. Holotype female (to USNM), ex C. cyanoides, COSTA RICA: Wilson Botanical Garden, Las Cruces, Cota Brus, Puntarenus, 11 June 1992, Fisher. Paratypes: (to INHS) 1 female, (to USNM) 2 females, 1 male, same data as holotype.
Remarks. This is the first of two species that differ from the previous three by having the majority to all of the abdominal tergal setae in a complete row across the segment, without a median gap. Both sexes of M.
sychrai differ from the following species by being larger in all dimensions, by having more metasternal setae and more setae on tergites III–VI, and by having longer postspiracular setae on VII. The female is conspicuously different by having a much enlarged tergite I and different sizes of tergites II-V (Fig. 11 vs Fig. 12). The male has more anterior setae on sternite II and more total setae on sternites III–VI.
This is the second new species of Myrsidea to be described from C. cyanoides in this paper. The type series was collected only in Costa Rica at a site similar to that where a series of M. johnklickai was collected. However, the hosts for these two new species had only a single species on each and we have confidence in the uniqueness of these species.
Etymology. This species is named in honor of Oldrich Sychra, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Science, Brno, Czech Republic, in recognition of his work on the taxonomy of Neotropical lice.
description: Published as part of Price, Roger D., Johnson, Kevin P. & Dalgleish, Robert C., 2008, Five new species of Myrsidea Waterston (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae) from saltators and grosbeaks (Passeriformes: Cardinalidae), pp. 1-10 in Zootaxa 1873 on pages 6-9, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.184026