Myxia belinda Bahder & Bartlett & Barrantes Barrantes & Zumbado Echavarria & Humphries & Helmick & Goss & Ascunce 2019, sp. n.
Creators: name: Bahder, Brian W.
name: Bartlett, Charles R.
name: Barrantes Barrantes, Edwin A.
name: Zumbado Echavarria, Marco A.
name: Humphries, Alessandra R.
name: Helmick, Ericka E.
name: Goss, Erica M.
name: Ascunce, Marina S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cixiidae
Myxia
Myxia belinda

description: Myxia belinda sp. n.
(Figures 4–9)
Type locality. Costa Rica, Alajuela, Reserva Privada el Silencio de Los Angeles, Hotel Villa Blanca.
Diagnosis. A remarkable species displaying a significant degree of sexual dimorphism with males yellow and females orange and black. Forewing pterostigma conspicuous. The medioventral process of the pygofer is subtriangular. The gonostyli (dorsal view) bear anterior facing hooks arising approximately midlength. Aedeagus simple, apex hooked right bearing flagellum. Phallobase ventrally projecting, subtending aedeagus, and bearing four stout elongate projections.
Description. Color. General body color (males): bright, yellow, legs paler (Fig. 4A, B). Wings transparent, veins yellow. General body color (females) bright orange (Fig. 4C, D). Lateral carinae of head and abdominal tergites black. Wings transparent, veins orange.
Structure. Body length males (n= 15): 5.98–6.04 mm with wings and 3.99–4.02 mm without wings; females (n =8): 6.39–6.42 mm with wings and 4.11–4.13 mm without wings. Head. Head in lateral view obtusely rounded, more evident in female than male (Fig. 5C, F). Vertex broadest basally, weakly narrowing distally; posterior margin medially notched, anterior margin truncate (Fig. 5B, E). Median carina of vertex present near posterior margin, becoming obsolete distally near eyes. Transverse apical carina present at fastigium. Vertex length males: 0.25–0.27 mm; females: 0.36–0.38 mm. Vertex width at hind margin males: 0.52–0.54 mm; females 0.51–0.53 mm. Vertex width at distal margin males: 0.22–0.24 mm; females: 0.23–0.25 mm. Frons roughly triangular, narrowest between eyes then broadening nearly to frontoclypeal suture, then abruptly narrowing; clypeus an inverse triangle, lateral margin profile continuous with frons (Fig 5C, F); frontoclypeal suture slightly concave. Median carina present on frons, 1/3 obsolete (Fig. 5). Frons width (dorsal), males: 0.22–0.23 mm; females: 0.22–0.23 mm; frons width (widest part) males: 0.57–0.59 mm; females: 0.62–0.63 mm. Frons width (frontoclypeal suture) males: 0.43–0.44 mm; females: 0.45–0.46 mm. Frons length (midline) males: 0.75–0.76 mm; females: 0.80–0.81 mm. Frons length (lateral margin) males: 0.85–0.86 mm; females: 0.87–0.88 mm. Clypeus length, males: 0.71–0.72 mm; females: 0.78–0.79 mm. Lateral ocelli conspicuous, below leading margin of compound eye, anterior to antennae; median ocellus obscure, near frontoclypeal suture. Antennal pedicle very short, scape bulbous bearing irregularly arranged rhinia, flagellum elongate, bristlelike.
Thorax. Pronotum very short, anteriorly convex, conforming hind margin of head; posteriorly broadly acute (Fig. 5B, F); median carina present, lateral pronotal carinae arising near midlength of eye, arched laterally to ventral margin. Paradiscal fields of pronotum (lateral view) foliate, extending ventrad to antennae. Pronotum length at midline males: 7.0– 0.08 mm; females: 0.09–0.10 mm. Pronotal carinae terminating on the ventral margin. Mesonotum level with dorsal margin of head in lateral view (Fig. 5C, F) with three subparallel longitudinal carinae (lateral reaching hind margin, median reaching scutellum, Fig. 5B, E). Mesonotum length at midline males: 1.16–1.18 mm; females: 1.22–1.24 mm. Mesonotum width males: 1.19–1.20 mm; females: 1.23–1.24 mm.
Forewing (Fig. 6) with conspicuous pterostigma, wing margin entirely enclosed by sclerotized vein; veins punctate with setal bases. CuA fork much distal from ScP+R fork (‘inner marginal’ cell—cell C5—much shorter than ‘outer marginal’ cell—cell C1). Branching pattern: ScP 1 branched, RA 1 branched, RP 3 branched, MP 4 branched, CuA 2 branched; CuA and CuP distally merged. Pcu and A1 meeting proximad of ScP+R fork, combined Pcu+A1 reaching wing margin proximad of claval apex. Wings well exceeding abdomen, forewing length males: 5.00– 5.02 mm; females: 5.45–5.46 mm.
Male Terminalia. Pygofer in lateral view robust, widest ventrally, narrowed dorsad, anterior and caudal margins sinuate (Fig. 7A). Pygofer opening with ventral median process that, in ventral view, is subtriangular, widest at base, attenuating distally to rounded apex (Fig. 7B). Gonostyli proximally diverging, distally converging; widest in ventral view near midlength at rounded dorsomedial projection, distally narrowed, terminating in a pair of rounded knobs (Fig. 7). Anal tube in lateral view robust, irregular in shape, broadening distad (stout and short in the sense of Kramer, 1979; Fig. 7), ventral margin at diagonal, weakly concave; in caudal view, ventral margin asymmetrically notched. Anal column elongate. Aedeagus simple, shaft without processes, distally blunt, apex curved rightward with fine, elongate subapical dorsal projection. Phallobase surrounding aedeagal base, projecting caudally beneath aedeagus; subtending portion bearing 4 projections (Fig. 8 A-C): one elongate ventral (anteriorly projecting), two elongate on right side (one proximad, projecting caudally, one midlength, strongly retrorsely arched), one short left side (projecting lateral), plus pointed apex.
Female Terminalia. Gonoplac oblong, mildly crescent shaped reach ventral margin of segment 10 (Fig. 9A & C). Segment 10 wider than long in dorsal view (Fig. 9B) and widest on ventral margin in lateral view with dorsal margin approximately 2/3 width of ventral margin (Fig. 9C). Gonapophyses slightly sclerotized basally and heavily sclerotized in distal 2/3 (Fig. 9D); bulbous in basal third; irregularly sinuate on inner and outer margins (Fig. 9D)
Plant associations. Palm (Geonoma sp.), Arecaceae.
Distribution. Costa Rica (Alajuela).
Etymology. The specific name is given in honor of the lead author’s mother, Belinda Miller Bahder. The specific name is feminine.
Material examined. Holotype male “ Costa Rica, Alajeula / Los Angeles Cloud Forest / Brian W. Bahder / 15 May 2018 / aspirated from Geonoma sp. palm // Holotype/ Myxia / belinda ” (FSCA); Paratypes, Los Angeles Cloud Forest [15 May 2018] (14 males, 8 females, FLREC).
Remarks. The most notable feature of this species is the brilliant orange coloration of the adult female and while sexual dimorphism is known in Haplaxius, especially the commonly studied H. crudus, the difference observed in the new taxon appears more extreme than other described species in Haplaxius.
In form, Haplaxius delta (Kramer) has a similar medioventral process on the pygofer. Also, in ventral view, the gonostyli of H. delta are very similar with the difference being that the lateral teeth in H. delta do not hook towards the anterior, which is seen in Myxia belinda sp. n. In lateral view, the gonostyli still differ only slightly with the dorsal process in H. delta being a rounded hook rather than a simple rounded end as is in Myxia belinda sp. n. There is a noticeable difference in the anal tube where the terminus in H. delta is distinctly down curved whereas this is not seen in Myxia belinda sp. n. Additionally, the aedeagus in H. delta is significantly different with no spines arising on the basal half and the spines present situated on the left side, not the right as in Myxia belinda sp. n. The aedeagus in H. delta has a rather robust and blunt terminus and does not terminate in an acute, upward facing hook as seen in Myxia belinda sp. n. Based on the terminalia, H. delta is closest to the novel taxon but differs significantly in the aedeagus. Furthermore, both females and males are known from H. delta and the color scheme from H. delta is that both males and females are yellow as well as being substantially smaller.
This species is unique in that is also possesses features of Myndus, pronotal carinae terminating on the ventral margin and not the lateral margin, but also lack the denticle of the forecoxae (Fig. 6), a feature of Haplaxius. This combination further supports its establishment as a novel genus as well as species.
description: Published as part of Bahder, Brian W., Bartlett, Charles R., Barrantes Barrantes, Edwin A., Zumbado Echavarria, Marco A., Humphries, Alessandra R., Helmick, Ericka E., Goss, Erica M. & Ascunce, Marina S., 2019, A new genus and species of cixiid planthopper (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Fulgoroidea) from the Reserva Privada el Silencio de Los Angeles Cloud Forest in Costa Rica, pp. 65-81 in Zootaxa 4701 (1) on pages 74-78, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4701.1.5, http://zenodo.org/record/3557837