Nesobasis rito, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Rivas-Torres, Anais
name: Rashni, Bindiya
name: Waqa-Sakiti, Hilda
name: Tuiwawa, Marika
name: Lorenzo-Carballa, María Olalla
name: Beatty, Christopher D.
name: Cordero-Rivera, Adolfo
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Odonata
Coenagrionidae
Nesobasis
Nesobasis rito

description: Nesobasis rito sp. nov. Rivas-Torres & Cordero-Rivera
(Figs. 1–3)
Holotype. ♂ (currently in ECOEVO, to be deposited at NZAC, accession number NZAC04231068; specimen code ACR-04869), Fiji, Vanua Levu, Drawa, Drawa River, altitude 52 m, collected on 31.v.2018, A. Rivas-Torres leg.
Paratypes. ♂ (currently in ECOEVO, to be deposited at USP, specimen code ACR-04868), Fiji, Vanua Levu, Drawa, Drawa River (same data as holotype), collected on 31.v.2018. A. Rivas-Torres leg.; ♂ (ECOEVO, specimen code 2011-184, Fiji, Vanua Levu, Navuturerega creek, C. Beatty leg.), collected on 16.ix.2011; ♂ (ECOEVO, specimen code 2011-208, Fiji, Vanua Levu, Navuturerega creek, C. Beatty leg.), collected on 16.ix.2011.
Paratypes. ♀ (currently in ECOEVO, to be deposited at NZAC, accession number NZAC04231069; specimen code 2009-138), Fiji, Vanua Levu, RaviRavi, C. Beatty leg., collected on 7.viii.2009; ♀ (ECOEVO, specimen code 2011-205, Fiji, Vanua Levu, Navuturerega creek, C. Beatty leg.), collected on 16.ix.2011.
Etymology. Named rito (noun in apposition) which in Spanish means ritual, to honour the local community rituals of Drawa village, which we enjoyed before finding the specimens, but also as an acronym of Ri vas- To rres, as an appreciation of the first author to her family’s continuous support.
Description of holotype. Figure 1 shows the habitus of the dried specimen, and the dorsal view of the last abdominal segments. Figure 5 illustrates several live individuals in the field.
Head. (Fig. 2a, c). Epicranium totally black; labrum pale blue, anteclypeus dark brown and postclypeus black; antefrons pale brown, and postfrons black; without postocular spots; antennae, occipital bar and border of postocular lobes black. Eyes pale green in life, dark brown in dried specimens but pale grey when immersed in ethylene glycol (Fig. 2b). Mandibles pale brown (Fig. 2c).
Thorax. (Fig 2b). Prothorax largely black, except anterior and posterior lobes, which have a pale brown bar, the same colour as the propleuron. In dorsal view, the posterior lobe appears slightly bilobed (Fig. 2a). Mesothorax with mesepisternum completely black, mesepimeron pale brown with a black longitudinal stripe occupying about half of its width, metepisternum pale brown with a small dark streak on the posterior end, and a small line at the posterior ventral border; metepimeron pale brown. The pale areas of the thorax are blue in life. In the dried specimen there is a bluish pruinescence covering the sides of the thorax (Fig. 1). Legs mainly pale black, with the coxae and trochanters pale brown, and the last third of tibiae reddish (Fig. 1).
Wings. (Fig. 2f). Hyaline, venation dark, 14 antenodals, pterostigma brown, about 0.8 mm width. A single line of cells distal of pterostigma.
Abdomen. (Fig. 1). Mostly black, S1 and S2 black dorsally, pale laterally (bluish alive, brown post-mortem); S3–6 black dorsally and pale ventrally; S7 black and pale ventrally, but with a blue ventral part, covering the last quarter; S8 black dorsally with two blue irregular spots posteriorly and two blue dots in the anterior part, blue laterally; S9 and S10 almost blue, with a dark area in the distal part of S10 dorsally.
Caudal appendages. (Fig. 2e, g). In dorsal view, only the cerci are clearly visible, convergent, with a terminal tooth and a small basal tooth (arrow in Fig. 2e) and covered with a dense pale pilosity. In lateral view, cerci and paraprocts slightly longer than S10. Cerci dark brown, oriented downwards and with rounded end. Paraprocts light brown basally and dark brown distally, almost horizontal, with rounded tip.
Genital ligula. (Fig. 3). Distal segment simple, similar to a spoon, without flagella, but with an indentation that creates a rounded lateral lobe in each side.
Measurements. Body length: 41.2, Hw: 23.8.
Male paratypes. The paratypes are very similar to the holotype. Specimen ACR-04868 has the general appearance of a younger specimen. The pale areas of thorax are bluish in life (as shown for other specimens in Fig. 5a–c) and the black stripe of mesepimeron broader, fused with the black mesepisternum (Fig. 2d). The distal blue spots in S8 are larger than in the holotype and drop-shaped (Fig. 2i). Caudal appendages very similar to holotype (Fig. 2h). Blue spots on S8 are reduced in specimen 2011-184. Specimen 2011-208 shows some pruinescence on the last abdominal segments, indicating it is an older individual.
Measurements. Specimen ACR-04868: Body length: 40.8, Hw: 23.8; specimen 2011-184: Body length: 40.2, Hw: 21.4; specimen 2011-208: Body length: 40.8, Hw: 22.0.
Female paratypes: Very similar to the male in general appearance (Fig. 4). The pale areas of the body were reddish in life (Fig. 5d–e) but pinkish in the preserved specimens (Fig. 4a, f). The pronotum is trapezoidal in dorsal view, with two small triangular expansions on the frontal border. The posterior lobe with a narrow elevated tubercle in lateral view (Fig. 4f). The valves of the ovipositor reach almost to the tip of the cerci (Fig. 4c, d). The pterostigma is uniformly light brown (Fig. 4e).
Measurements. Specimen 2009-138: Body length: 36.2; specimen 2011-205: Hw: 22.6; body length: 37.5, Hw: 22.8.
description: Published as part of Rivas-Torres, Anais, Rashni, Bindiya, Waqa-Sakiti, Hilda, Tuiwawa, Marika, Lorenzo-Carballa, María Olalla, Beatty, Christopher D. & Cordero-Rivera, Adolfo, 2021, Nesobasis rito sp. nov. (Zygoptera: Coenagrionidae), a new species of forest damselfly from Vanua Levu, Fiji, pp. 101-117 in Zootaxa 5082 (2) on pages 107-110, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5082.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5785300