Protumida Monné and Wappes, 2014

Monné, Miguel A. & Wappes, James E., 2014, Description of Protumida insularis, a new genus and species of the tribe Desmiphorini (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae) from Panama, Insecta Mundi 2014 (374), pp. 1-4 : 1-2

Protumida Monné and Wappes , new genus

Type species. Protumida insularis Monné and Wappes , new species, here designated.

Description. Head. Deflexed, broad, convex dorsally, flattened anteriorly with vertical frons, densely covered with grayish-white, appressed pubescence. Median frontal line extending from clypeal margin to between eye lobes. Eyes coarsely faceted, deeply notched, lower lobe about twice the height of the gena below it; lobes connected by 1–2 rows of ommatidia, partially covered by pubescence in the connection; upper lobes separated by about twice their greatest width. Antennae with 11 antennomeres, covered with dense appressed pubescence. Scape cylindrical, not enlarged apically, without cicatrix, extending to posterior fourth of pronotum; antennomere III one and one-half times the length of the scape.

Thorax. Densely pubescent. Prothorax with rounded lateral prominences, provided with several glabrous minute granules. Pronotum with anteromedial and posteromedial prominences each side of the middle, limited anteriorly and posteriorly by transverse sulcus; slightly constricted before anterior and posterior margins, anterior constriction with single row of punctures, posterior constriction without row of punctures. Prosternal process one-third times width of procoxa, projected behind by small tubercle. Procoxal cavities closed. Mesosternum covered with long tawny hairs; mesosternal process as wide as mesocoxal cavity, with minute tubercle in anterior margin. Mesocoxal cavities open externally to epimera. Metasternum covered with appressed tawny pubescence similar to those of the abdomen.

Elytra. Covered with grayish pubescence; humeri with slightly projecting, minute, rounded tubercle; epipleuron subvertical. Basal third of elytra with oblique carina from humeri to suture, provided medially with glabrous longitudinal crest, armed with backward projecting, obtuse tooth. Elytral apices truncate, without projections.

Legs mostly uniformly pubescent with appressed grayish hairs; femora fusiform; mesotibiae lacking external preapical groove; first metatarsal segment as long as the remaining tarsal segments together; tarsal claws divaricate.

Etymology. Latin adjective referring to the protuberant and gibbous body. Gender feminine.

Remarks. The characters listed by Breuning (1974) to define the tribe Desmiphorini ( Rhodopinini sensu Breuning ): scape with or without cicatrix, pronotum with or without lateral tubercles, metepisterna narrowed, mesocoxal cavities open or closed to epimera, mesotibiae with or without external sinus, are contradictory and useless with only “the tarsal claws divaricate” making sense in his diagnosis. Protumida is placed in the tribe Desmiphorini based on a combination of characters: tarsal claws divaricate, middle tibiae without an external sinus, and mesocoxal cavities open externally to epimera. Most desmiphorine genera are cylindrical or subcylindrical and previously only two genera ( Coeloprocta Aurivillius, 1926 and Anisopeplus Melzer, 1934 ) have the body robust and thick (averaging 1.1 to 1.4 times elytral length to humeral width). Protumida differs from Coeloprocta and Anisopeplus by the rounded lateral prominences of the prothorax, elytra with an oblique carina from humeri to suture, provided medially with a glabrous longitudinal crest, projected behind in an obtuse tooth, and humeri with minute, slightly projecting, rounded tubercle; in Coeloprocta and Anisopeplus the prothorax is armed laterally with prominent conical tubercles, the elytra lack oblique carina, the basal crest is rounded and the humeri are distinctly, acutely tuberculate.