Melanastera minutiflorae 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 minutiflorae

description: 58 Melanastera minutiflorae sp. nov.
(Figs 13G, 20C, 35G–L)
Type material. Holotype ♂: Brazil: CEARÁ: Ubajara, ICMBIO headquarters, S3.8389, W40.9393, 860 m, 2‒ 7.vii.2016, Miconia minutiflora (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #212(4) (UFPR; dry).
Paratypes. Brazil: CEARÁ: 8 ♂, 12 ♀, 13 immatures, same as holotype but (NHMB, MHNG, MMBC, UFPR, USNM; dry, slide, 70% ethanol; NMB-PSYLL0005917, NMB-PSYLL0007649, NMB-PSYLL0007650, NMB-PSYLL0007725, NMB-PSYLL0007726 [LSMelmin-28], NMB-PSYLL0007727 [LSMelmin-28], NMB-PSYLL0007724, NMB-PSYLL0007719); 13 ♂, 28 ♀, 67 immatures, 21 skins, Ubajara, Parque Nacional de Ubajara, S3.8368 /8371, W40.8980 /9096, 780‒ 820 m, 1‒7.vii.2016, Miconia crenata (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #211(9) (MMBC, NHMB; dry, 70% ethanol; NMB-PSYLL0005915, NMB-PSYLL0007743, NMB-PSYLL0007729, NMB-PSYLL0007728, NMB-PSYLL0007740, NMB-PSYLL0007651, NMB-PSYLL0007652, NMB-PSYLL0007653); 1 ♂, 2 ♀, 4 immatures, same but Planalto, S3.8416, W40.9100, 840 m, 5‒6.vii.2016, Miconia pusilliflora (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #218(5) (NHMB; 70% ethanol; NMB-PSYLL0005918); 14 ♂, 8 immatures, 1 skin, Tianguá, Parque Nacional de Ubajara, Torres, S3.7983, W40.9050, 880 m, 6.vii.2016, Miconia pusilliflora (D. Burckhardt & D.L. Queiroz) #220(7) (NHMB; 70% ethanol; NMB-PSYLL0005921).
Description. Adult. Coloration. Orange; head and thorax with brown dots. Antenna brownish yellow, segments 3–9 with brown apices, segment 10 entirely brown. Mesopraescutum with orange to pale brown patches at fore margin; mesoscutum with four broad and one narrow medial orange to pale brown longitudinal stripes. Forewing (Fig. 20C) yellow with irregular, moderately dense, brown dots; apices of pterostigma and Rs, M 1+2, M 3+4, Cu 1a and Cu 1b dark brown. Femora with dark patches. Abdomen sclerites partly dark brown.
Structure. Forewing (Fig. 20C) oval, widest in the middle, broadly rounded apically; wing apex situated in cell r 2, near the apex of M 1+2; C+Sc slightly convex in distal third; pterostigma slightly narrower than cell r 1 in the middle, widening to apical third; Rs relatively straight in basal two thirds, obliquely curved to fore margin apically; Cu 1a irregularly convex, ending slightly proximal of M fork or at the level of M fork; surface spinules present in all cells, forming hexagons of a single row (male) or a double row of spinules (female), spinules leaving narrow spinule-free stripes along the veins, absent from basal third of cell c+sc. Hindwing with 4 + (2–4) grouped costal setae. Metatibia bearing 8–10 grouped apical spurs, arranged as (4–5) + (4–5), anteriorly separated by 3 or more bristles.
Terminalia (Fig. 35G–L). Male. Proctiger weakly produced posteriorly; densely covered with long setae in apical two thirds. Subgenital plate irregularly ovoid; dorsal margin curved; posterior margin relatively straight; with long setae. Paramere, in lateral view, asymmetrically lanceolate; apex, in lateral view, narrow, directed anteriad, in dorsal view, apex blunt, directed upwards, slightly inwards and slightly anteriad, lacking distinct sclerotised tooth; both outer and inner faces with dense moderately long setae; posterior margin with moderately long setae. Proximal segment of aedeagus with apical part broad, strongly subdivided. Distal segment of aedeagus thick in basal half, with sinuate dorsal margin; ventral process situated in the middle, in lateral view, ovoid, with small tubular apical extension directed ventrad, in dorsal view, ovoid part much broader than apical dilation; apical dilation narrow, in lateral view, subparallel-sided, weakly widening towards rounded apex, dorsal margin almost straight subapically, in dorsal view, apical dilation subparallel-sided, rounded apically; sclerotised end tube moderately long and almost straight.—Female terminalia cuneate; densely covered with setae. Dorsal margin of proctiger, in lateral view, hardly convex distal to circumanal ring, concave in apical third, apex pointed, slightly upturned; in dorsal view, apex blunt; circumanal ring, in dorsal view, vaguely cruciform. Subgenital plate, in lateral view, abruptly narrowing in apical third, apex pointed; in ventral view, apex blunt.
Fifth instar immature. Coloration. Pale yellow; antenna pale yellow to pale brown, segment 10 with dark brown apex; cephalothoracic sclerite, wing pads, legs and caudal plate pale brown.
Structure. Eye with one short simple ocular seta dorsally. Antennal segment with following numbers of pointed sectasetae: 1(0), 2(2—one large, one small), 3(0), 4(2), 5(0), 6(2), 7(1), 8(1), 9(0), 10(0). Forewing pad with 5– 6 marginal pointed sectasetae; hindwing pad with two marginal pointed sectasetae; both pads lacking sectasetae dorsally. Tarsal arolium narrowly fan-shaped apically, slightly longer than claws. Abdomen with four (2+2) pointed sectasetae on either side laterally anterior to caudal plate. Caudal plate with anterior margin relatively close to anterior margin of extra pore fields; with four (2 + 2) 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. Miconia crenata (Vahl.) Michelang., Miconia minutiflora (Bonpl.) DC., M. pusilliflora (DC.) Naudin (Melastomataceae).
Distribution. Brazil (CE).
Derivation of name. Named after one of its hosts, Miconia minutiflora.
Comments. Melanastera minutiflorae sp. nov. differs from the other species of the smithi -group as indicated in the keys (see also comments under M. cinerascentis sp. nov.).
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 112-113, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5585.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/15007669