Memoan Silveira & Mermudes
Creators: name: Silveira, Luiz Felipe Lima Da
name: Mermudes, José Ricardo M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Lampyridae
Memoan

description: Memoan Silveira & Mermudes gen. nov.
(Figs 1–11)
Type species. Memoan ciceroi sp. nov., by monotypy.
Etymology. Memoan, an Amerindian name for firefly reported by the portuguese explorer Gabriel Soares de Souza (1587). It is derived from Mamoan, which means firefly in indigenous Tupi-Guarani language (Papavero et al., 2009). Gender male.
Diagnosis. Frons with antennal sockets obliquely inserted on tubercles (FIG. 3); antennae subserrate (FIGS 1– 2), antenommeres II–IX compressed; labial palp one-segmented and obconic (FIG. 5); pronotum and elytra alveolate (FIGS 1–6); pleuroventral suture (between mesanepisternum and mesosternum) conspicuous (FIG. 4).
Description. Head. (FIGS 1–7) Completely covered by pronotum. Frons strongly tuberculate, tubercles contiguous. Vertex plane. Eyes large, as wide as half of pronotal anterior opening, approximate ventrally, with the distance between ventral margins smaller than pedicel length; dorsal margins subparallel. Antennal sockets obliquely inserted on tubercles, distance between the sockets shorter than socket diameter. Antennae elevenjointed, antenommeres III–IX compressed and serrate, X–XI fused and cylindrical. Mouthparts subprognathous. Labrum connate to fronto-clypeus, clypeolabral suture indistinct. Mandibles falcate, acuminated apically. Labial palp one-segmented, obconic. Gular sutures and tentorial pits contiguous.
Thorax. (FIGS 4, 7–8) Pronotum wider than long, with sides slightly divergent posteriorly; alveolate with irregular, deep punctures, except by elevated, medially constrained areas; Prosternum with posterior process truncated posteriad, with width at base greater than prosternum length. Elytra six times longer than wide; humeri prominent and rounded, four rudimentary costae; with dense and widespread deep punctures; with bristles emerging from a globular base, and a sparse, minute pale vestiture (200x); epipleura narrow, nearly 1/5 of elytral width. Wings with complete radial cell, and reduced crossveins; bifurcate MP3+4; C with stout setae. Pleuroventral suture (between mesanepisternum and mesosternum) conspicuous. Prosternum transverse. Suture between mesanepisternum and mesepimeron conspicuous. Median line of metasternum reaching mesosternum. Legs with pro and mesotrochantin bristled; prosternal coxae oblong, inclined obliquely; bristled anteriad, laterally glabrous; without tibial spurs; tarsomeres I–IV decreasing in length apically, the fourth bilobate; with paired simple claws.
Abdomen. (FIGS 9–13) Eight visible ventrites (abdominal sternites II–IX); lanterns on the ventrites V and VI; spiracles dorsal; posterolateral margins of terga produced and acute. Pygidium trilobate.
Biology. Nocturnal, continuously glowing. They emanate a sweet scent, similar to marzipan frosting.
Remarks. McDermott’s key to Lampyridae tribes would lead Memoan to Photinini (Lampyrinae), because it has “simple” mandibles (falcate, gradually tapering to apex), dorsal spiracles, “simple” antennae (filiform or serrate, compressed or not), and a scarse secondary pubescence, although notably scarcer than the typical dense vestiture of Photinini. However, the new genus has characteristics rare or absent in Photinini, but common to other lampyrids, like the Amydetinae and Lampyrinae: Cratomorphini (see Table 1). The fused distal antenommeres, for example, can be found in the Cratomorphini Aspisomoides Zaragoza-Caballero, 1995. But Memoan have many affinities with the Amydetinae, such as continuous glow (e.g. Amydetes Illiger, 1807, at least some Magnoculus McDermott, 1964; but also in the Photinini Phausis reticulata Say, 1825, although not in the other species of the genus); ventral approximate eyes (e.g. some Magnoculus, but also in Oculogryphus Jeng, 2007, which is a Lampyridae incertae sedis, and many Lampyrini and Luciolinae); two para-sagital elevations on the prothorax, a notable feature of Magnoculus; a widespread deep puncture (e.g. Magnoculus), which is present in the pronotal margins of many Lampyrinae taxa (e.g. Pleotomini) but not in the Photinini; distinct pleuroventral suture (e.g. Amydetes, Oculogryphus); aedeagus with rounded apices of phallus and parameres (e.g. Amydetes); absence of tibial spurs, as in Amydetes and Magnoculus (present on the Photinini studied to date, but also absent in Oculogryphus). Indeed, it could be a rather difficult task to distinguish a Lampyrinae from an Amydetinae; while the former have the wider morphological variability within Lampyridae, Amydetinae, generally with complex antennae, can have “simple” antennae (some Vesta Laporte, 1833); and the secondary pubescence – typical of Photinini (undoubtly found at least in Ethra Laporte, 1833).
description: Published as part of Silveira, Luiz Felipe Lima Da & Mermudes, José Ricardo M., 2013, Memoan ciceroi gen. et sp. nov., a remarkable new firefly genus and species from the Atlantic Rainforest (Coleoptera: Lampyridae), pp. 79-87 in Zootaxa 3640 (1) on pages 80-81, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3640.1.6, http://zenodo.org/record/283657