Quissunego Santos-Silva & Bezark, 2024, gen. nov.
Creators: name: Santos-Silva, Antonio
name: Bezark, Larry G.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Cerambycidae
Quissunego

description: Quissunego gen. nov.
Type species: Quissunego confusus sp. nov., here designated.
Etymology. Latin, “ Quissunego ” (Quis sun ego?) (Who am I?), allusive to the complicated process of including the type-species in a genus. Masculine gender.
Description. Male. Body widened, slightly flattened, less than 10 mm in the type species. Frons subsquare. Eyes moderately coarsely faceted; upper eye lobes wide, distance between them slightly larger than width of one upper lobe; lower eye lobes distinctly longer than genae; area of connection between eye lobes distinctly narrower than upper lobe.Antennae 11-segmented, distinctly longer than body; scape gradually widened from base to middle, then subparallel-sided slightly narrowed on apical fifth without apical modification, not reaching posterior margin of prothorax, with one long, erect dark seta near apex of ventral surface; pedicel cylindrical, slightly longer than wide; antennomeres III–XI filiform, without tufts of setae; III and IV similar same length, the longest, with a few short, erect, fine setae ventrally. Prothorax wider than long; anterior constriction narrow, well marked; sides slightly rounded and divergent from anterior constriction to lateral tubercles, then convergent to posterolateral angles; lateral tubercles large, as a continuation of the lateral margin, located slightly before posterior quarter. Pronotum without tubercles; sparsely, coarsely punctate on anterior 3/4, abundantly punctate on posterior quarter, punctures not following toward sides of prothorax. Prosternal process strongly narrowed centrally, then strongly widened posteriorly; narrowest area distinctly shorter than one-tenth of procoxal width. Mesoventral process narrow, gradually narrowed from base to posterior fifth, then moderately widened; narrowest area about one-eight mesocoxal width. Scutellum semicircle shaped. Elytra without tubercles and erect setae; subparallel-sided on anterior half, slightly narrowed just after humeri, then gradually convergent toward apex; apex slightly oblique and concave, with rounded outer and sutural angles; humeral angles not projected; humeral and dorsal carinae and centrobasal crest absent. Femora pedunculate-clavate; femoral clubs strongly widened; metafemora reaching apex of elytra. Tibiae cylindrical, without modifications. Metatarsomere I longer than II–III together.
Remarks. The key from Monné et al. (2020a) leads Quissunego gen. nov. to the alternative of couplet “40” with Lepturges (Lepturges) Bates, 1863. However, the lateral tubercles of the prothorax are distinctly distant from the posterolateral angles of the prothorax, making it very artificial to consider the new species as belonging to Lepturges (Lepturges). Furthermore, the femoral clubs are much stouter than in the species currently included in Lepturges (Lepturges). The key from Monné et al. (2020b) leads Quissunego gen. nov. to the alternative of couplet “56,” and in it to Lophopoenopsis Melzer, 1931. Although included in a key to genera without erect setae on elytra, we now know that the type species of Lophopoenopsis, L. singularis Melzer, 1931, has erect setae on elytra, which are absent in Quissunego. Using the key by Dillon (1956), which includes only a few American genera of Acanthocinini, Quissunego is included in the alternative of couplet “31” with Lepturges (Lepturges). Finally, using the key to North American genera of Acanthocinini from Linsley & Chemsak (1995), Quissunego is included in the alternative of couplet “10” with Sternidius LeConte, 1853, which has the mesoventral process very wide, while it is very narrow in Quissunego.
Quissunego is similar to Leiopus (Leiopus) Audinet-Serville, 1835, but differs by the upper eye lobes wide (narrow or moderately narrow in Leiopus (Leiopus )), and the punctures on the posterior region of the pronotum do not follow toward sides of the prothorax (following toward sides of the prothorax in Leiopus (Leiopus), at least in the type species of the genus).
The key from Monné et al. (2020b) can be updated as follows, with the exclusion of Lophopoenopsis:
56(55). Distance between upper eye lobes larger than three times width of one upper lobe.... Luteolepturges Monné & Monné, 2012
– Distance between upper eye lobes slightly larger than width of one upper lobe..................... Quissunego gen. nov.
description: Published as part of Santos-Silva, Antonio & Bezark, Larry G., 2024, New species, notes and record of New World Acanthocinini (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae, Lamiinae), pp. 167-185 in Zootaxa 5551 (1) on pages 177-178, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5551.1.8, http://zenodo.org/record/14390234