Melanastera amazonica 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 amazonica

description: 17 Melanastera amazonica sp. nov.
(Figs 9G, 15J, 25A–F)
Type material. Holotype ♂: Brazil: AMAZONAS: Manaus, Bairro Tarumã-Açu, BR- 174 km 1, S2.9466, W60.0333, 100 m, 2.v.2014, Annona foetida (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #134(2) (UFPR; dry).
Paratypes. Brazil: AMAZONAS: 5 ♂, 4 ♀, 13 immatures, 2 skins, same as holotype but (MMBC, NHMB; dry, slide, 70% ethanol; NMB-PSYLL0007735, NMB-PSYLL0007673, NMB-PSYLL0007750–NMB-PSYLL0007754, NMB-PSYLL0007757 [LSMelama-13]); 1 ♀, Rio Preto da Eva, Embrapa, Fazenda Rio Urubu, S2.4300 /4683, W59.5616 /5683, 50–100 m, 23–24.iv.2014 (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #131 (NHMB; dry; NMB-PSYLL0007674); 1 ♂, 1 ♀, 13 immatures, same but S2.4716, W59.5900, 120 m, 25.iv.2014, Guatteria sp. (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #132(3) (NHMB; 70% ethanol; NMB-PSYLL0007733).— MATO GROSSO: 2 ♂, Sinop, road to Cláudia, S11.7468, W55.3674, 360 m, 5.vi.2014 (L.A. Pezzini & A.M.B. Sedano) #287 (NHMB; dry, slide; NMB-PSYLL0005588 [voucher 53-1]).
Material not included in type series. Brazil: AMAZONAS: 4 ♂, 4 ♀, 6 immatures, Manaus, Sede Embrapa, Campo Experimental, AM- 10 km 29, S2.8950, W59.9733, 100 m, 27–30.iv.2014, Guatteria megalophylla (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #133(7) (NHMB; 70% ethanol; NMB-PSYLL0007732 [LSMelama-57]); 2 ♂, 5 ♀, 18 immatures, 1 skin, Iranduba, Embrapa, Campo Experimental, Caldeirão, S3.2516 /2566, W60.2216 /2233, 30–50 m, 14–17.iv.2014, Guatteria sp. (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #125(7) (NHMB; slide, 70% ethanol; NMB-PSYLL0007730, NMB-PSYLL0007763–NMB-PSYLL0007765 [LSMelama-29]).
Description. Adult. Coloration. Body whitish with dark brown dots. Vertex in the middle of either half with orange patch. Antenna yellowish, scape and pedicel light brown, segments 3–8 with brown apices, segments 9–10 entirely dark brown. Pronotum with transverse orange-brown patch on either side; mesopraescutum with two orange patches at fore margin; mesoscutum with four broad orange longitudinal stripes, margined by brown dots, and a row of dots in the middle; mesoscutellum with three and metanotum with one narrow longitudinal stripes, consisting of brown dots. Forewing (Fig. 15J) yellow with brown, moderately dense dots, covering the whole wing except for nodal line which appears slightly lighter; base and apex of pterostigma and apices of veins Rs, M 1+2, M 3+4, Cu 1a and Cu 1b dark brown. Femora with brown dots. Abdomen and terminalia brown. Younger specimens with less expanded dark colour.
Structure. Forewing (Fig. 15J) ovoid, broadest in apical third, broadly, slightly unevenly rounded apically; wing apex situated in cell r 2 close to apex of M 1+2; C+Sc curved in apical third; pterostigma broader than cell r 1 in apical third, strongly convex; Rs weakly convex in basal two thirds, stronger curved apically; M longer than M 1+2 and M 3+4; Cu 1a moderately irregularly curved, ending at M fork; cell cu 1 moderately wide; surface spinules present in all cells, dense, leaving narrow spinule-free stripes along the veins, forming hexagons of a double row of spinules, sparse in basal half of cell c+sc. Hindwing with 7–10 ungrouped or 7 + 3 grouped costal setae. Metatibia bearing 5–6 grouped apical spurs, arranged as 2–3 + 3–4, anteriorly separated by 4–6 bristles.
Terminalia (Fig. 25A–F). Male. Proctiger weakly produced posteriorly; densely covered with long setae in apical two thirds. Subgenital plate irregularly ovoid; dorsal margin slightly curved, posterior margin sinuate; with long setae on most of the surface. Paramere, in lateral view, subtriangular, narrowing from base to apex; paramere apex, in lateral view, blunt, directed upwards and slightly anteriad, in dorsal view, apex subacute, directed upwards, inwards and slightly anteriad, bearing a small sclerotised tooth; outer and inner faces with dense, long setae; posterior margin with longer setae. Proximal segment of aedeagus with apical part moderately subdivided. Distal segment of aedeagus with dorsal margin weakly sinuate in basal half; ventral process situated slightly distal of the middle of the segment, shovel-like, in lateral view, relatively short and broad, with a sclerotised base ventrally and with claw-like apex directed dorsad; in dorsal view, ventral process slightly broader than apical dilation, subcircular, and with short, broad, apically truncate median lobe arising from the base ventrally; apical dilation, in lateral view, slightly widening towards rounded apex on ventral side, with a small membranous sack at dorsal margin basally; in dorsal view, apical dilation elongate, with subparallel margins, rounded apically; sclerotised end tube short and weakly curved.—Female terminalia cuneate; densely covered with setae. Dorsal margin of proctiger, in lateral view, weakly concave distal to circumanal ring, apex subacute; in dorsal view, apex pointed; circumanal ring, in dorsal view, distinctly cruciform. Subgenital plate, in lateral view, gradually narrowing to apex in apical half, pointed apically; in ventral view, apex blunt.
Fifth instar immature. Coloration. Pale yellow; antenna brownish yellow to pale brown, gradually becoming darker towards apex; cephalothoracic sclerite, wing pads, legs and caudal plate brownish yellow to pale brown.
Structure. Eye with one short, simple ocular seta dorsally. Antennal segments with following numbers of pointed sectasetae: 1(0), 2(1), 3(0), 4(2), 5(0), 6(2), 7(1), 8(1), 9(0), 10(0). Forewing pad with five marginal pointed sectasetae; hindwing pad with two marginal pointed sectasetae; both wing pads lacking sectasetae dorsally. Tarsal arolium broadly triangular apically, 1.5 times as long as claws. Abdomen with 2–3 lateral pointed sectasetae on each side anterior to caudal plate. Caudal plate with anterior margin close to anterior margin of extra pore fields; with 5–6 pointed sectasetae on either side laterally, and three pointed sectasetae subapically, on either side of circumanal ring dorsally. Extra pore fields forming continuous outer and inner bands, consisting of small oval patches; outer band long medially, end pointing outwards. Circumanal ring small.
Host plants. Annona foetida Mart., Guatteria megalophylla Diels (Annonaceae).
Distribution. Brazil (AM, MT).
Derivation of name. Latinised form of the name Amazonas, the State in Brazil, where the species was collected.
Comments. Melanastera amazonica sp. nov. resembles M. cacantis sp. nov., M. francisi sp. nov., M. olgae sp. nov., M. roraima sp. nov., M. tubuligera sp. nov. and M. xylopiae sp. nov. in the apically broadly, unevenly rounded forewing with broad pterostigma, the paramere apex bearing a small sclerotised tooth, and the claw-like ventral process of the distal segment of the aedeagus. It differs from these species in the absence of a posterior lobe on the paramere. From M. olgae it differs in the dotted forewings (versus uniformly coloured), from M. cacantis, M. francisi, M. roraima and M. tubuligera in the less densely spaced dark dots on the forewing, and from M. xylopiae in the triangular (versus narrowly lanceolate) paramere and the shorter apical dilation of the distal segment of the aedeagus.
Some specimens from sample DB-DLQ#134(2) collected on A. foetida differ considerably from the remainder of the sample, as well as from other samples (DB&DLQ#125(7) and DB&DLQ#133(7), from Guatteria spp.) in the molecular markers: the uncorrected p-distance between them being 14% for COI and 13.3% for cytb. Although no morphological differences have been found between these specimens, the high genetic distance would suggest that M. amazonica sp. nov. may represent a complex of cryptic species.
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 57-58, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5585.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/15007669