Lamaxa Bartlett & Kennedy, 2018, new genus
Creators: name: Bartlett, Charles R.
name: Kennedy, Ashley C.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Delphacidae
Lamaxa

description: Lamaxa, new genus
(Figures 7–18, 25–26, 36, 38, 40–42)
Type species. Malaxa occidentalis Muir, 1926.
Description. Color. Brownish-orange with brown and paler markings; wings clear with characteristic dark (and sometimes pale) markings. Structure. Body slender and elongate; length (from apex of vertex to tip of tegmina) males x ‾ = 4.97 mm (4.71–5.33 mm, n=5); females x ‾ = 5.31 mm (5.10–5.62 mm, n=6). Head much narrower than pronotum (Figs. 7, 10), carinae concolorous. Lateral carinae of clypeus, frons (~metope) and vertex (~coryphe) distinct, other carinae obscure, especially near fastigium. Frons elongate and parallel-sided, widest near frontoclypeal suture, narrowed to fastigium (Figs. 9, 12; l:w x ‾ = 2.6:1). Vertex longer than broad at base (l:w x ‾ = 1.4:1), distally narrowing and projected slightly in front of eyes; submedian carinae uniting before fastigium, basal compartments longer than wide. Rostrum reaching or exceeding metathoracic trochanters. Antennae cylindrical, both segments very long (Figs. 10, 12), surpassing apex of clypeus (and apex of mesonotum), segment I close to half length of II (ratio I:II 0.4–0.5:1), length antennal segment I x ‾ = 0.47 mm, II  = 1.05 mm. Pronotum shorter than vertex in middle line, lateral carinae usually not attaining hind margin. Mesonotum longer in middle line than vertex and pronotum together. Wings elongate, much longer than abdomen, nodus at about 2/3 length, apex acutely rounded (Fig. 36). Spinal formula of hind leg 5-7-5 (or 5-6-5). Calcar thick, concave on inner surface, without teeth along the hind margin, with an apical tooth. Pygofer irregularly quadrilateral in lateral view (Fig. 26). In caudal view, opening carinate, with midventral forked process (Figs. 13, 25), broad lamellate medioventral processes absent. Dorsocaudal margins of pygofer expanded and inflected to partially enclose anal tube (Fig. 42), diaphragm evident, armature absent. Gonostyli broad basally, basal angles prominent, diverging and narrowed distally to apically to blunt or acute apex (Figs. 25, 40). Aedeagus elongate and tubular with large, flattened, poorly sclerotized subapical process (Figs. 14, 38; representing a flagellum?). Anal tube (anal segment) small, without processes.
Remarks. Lamaxa differs from Malaxa acutipennis in having a parallel-sided wing with a rounded apex (vs. pointed with an arched leading wing edge in Malaxa acutipennis); antennae are similar in proportion but nearly twice as long in Lamaxa than Malaxa acutipennis (and lacking the ventral carina on I); the genitalia of Lamaxa bear a forked projection on the pygofer opening, whereas Malaxa acutipennis is simple; and the dorsocaudal margin of the pygofer is expanded in Lamaxa but not in Malaxa. The aedeagus of Lamaxa is slightly curved and caudally directed, bearing weakly sclerotized apical projections (vs. downcurved in Malaxa acutipennis).
Lamaxa differs from the Chinese Malaxa in structural proportions along with distinctive features of the male genitalia. Lamaxa is larger than the Chinese Malaxa, the vertex is more elongate, the lateral carinae of the pronotum are laterally curved, usually not reaching the hind margin, and the spinulation of the hind leg is 5-7-5 (or 5-6-5) (instead of 5-6-4). More distinctly, in Lamaxa, the anal tube is without processes, whereas in Chinese Malaxa, the anal tube bears a single (sometimes 2), large usually strongly asymmetrical process(es). In Lamaxa, the dorsocaudal angle of the pygofer is projected (simple in Chinese Malaxa), and the midventral portion of the pygofer opening bears a forked process, whereas in Chinese Malaxa, there are “two broad lamellate medioventral processes, between of them with a V-like emargination” (Hou et al. 2013: 867), although these are reduced in some species. In Chinese Malaxa, the aedeagus is downcurved and C-shaped, whereas in Lamaxa the aedeagus is slightly curved and caudally directed, bearing weakly sclerotized apical projections, missing from Chinese Malaxa.
Species included are Lamaxa gracilis (Fennah, 1945) and Lamaxa occidentalis (Muir, 1926). Two female specimens, probably representing additional species of Lamaxa were examined (listed below under ‘females tentatively assigned to Lamaxa ’). One was a specimen from Honduras that was similar to the coloration of Lamaxa occidentalis, except that the face (frons, genae, clypeus) were broadly black except for a strongly contrasting pale stripe above the frontoclypeal suture, also bearing more substantially embrowned wings. The second, from southern Brazil, was very pale yellowish with weakly marked wings, a dark longitudinal line along both segments of the antennae, and partially embrowned legs.
Etymology. The new genus name “ Lamaxa ” is an anagram of “ Malaxa ”, and is to be understood as feminine in gender.
description: Published as part of Bartlett, Charles R. & Kennedy, Ashley C., 2018, A review of New World Malaxa (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea: Delphacidae), pp. 511-528 in Zootaxa 4441 (3) on pages 516-517, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4441.3.5, http://zenodo.org/record/1301482