Pseudopolybia cryptica Somavilla & Menezes, 2021

Somavilla, Alexandre, Barroso, Paulo C. S., Aragao, Marcos, Mateus, Sidnei & Menezes, Rodolpho S. T., 2021, An integrative taxonomic and phylogenetic approach reveals a new Neotropical swarm-founding social wasp, Pseudopolybia cryptica sp. n. (Vespidae: Polistinae: Epiponini), Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny 79, pp. 25-35 : 25

Pseudopolybia cryptica Somavilla & Menezes sp. nov. Fig. 1A-I

Type locality.

Nova Mutum, Mato Grosso, Brazil.

Description.

Female (Fig. 1A, B, C ). Size: 13.0 mm. Forewing in length 9.5 mm. Head: (1) clypeus about 1.3 times wider than long, evenly convex in medial portion with lateral lobe flat; in contact with the eyes by less than the width of the antennal socket; lateral margins of the clypeus and upper margin sinuous; upper margin separated by less than the width of the antennal socket; apex of clypeus acute; entire surface of clypeus silver pubescent with yellowish and long bristles in apical portion; punctures very shallow and spaced; (2) frons and vertex with long and spaced bristles and yellowish pubescence; punctures shallow, medium sized, separated by approximately one diameter; (3) eyes with middle bristles and spaced; (4) malar space with half of the antennal socket; (5) mandible with approximately 2.3 times longer than wide; with a long bristle band in the lower region; (6) middle region of the gena with width smaller than the eyes in profile; silver pubescence evident; middle bristles spaced; punctures very shallow and spaced; (7) diameter of the medial ocellus, 0,24 mm; (8) interocelar distance, 0,22 mm; (9) posterior region of head without occipital carena. Mesosoma: (1) pronotum with short and dense pubescence, concentrated on lateral part; pronotal carina produced high, lamellated with long bristles in front; punctures shallow, separated by less than one diameter; (2) Mesepisternum with dorsal groove present, at least as anterior trace with the same pattern of punctuation but becoming sparser laterally; short and dense pubescence; scrobal furrow wide, shallow; (3) tegula globose; (4) scutum with dense pubescence, central area more shinning; punctuation small, shallow, separated by one diameter or more, becoming sparser centrally; with a thin line in the upper central region; (5) scutellum with the same pattern of punctuation in the scutum, with a thin line in the entire central region; (6) propodeum with dense silver pubescent; long yellowish bristles laterally; posterior margin of the propodeum not elevated, muscle propodeal valve not translucid; (7) propodeal muscle large. Metasoma: (1) Tergum I compressed, cap-shape; punctures very weak, spaced; short and dense goldenish pubescence; (2) tergum II wider than long; punctures very weak, spaced; short and dense goldenish pubescence, row of short bristles; (3) tergum III-VI punctures pubescence like tergum II; (4) sternum II-V with punctures very weak; short and dense goldenish pubescence. Color: Black, mandibles, and malar space is blackish and yellowish; the lateral and apical part of clypeus, inner orbits, two spots on base of antennal scape, and part of antennal pedicel yellowish; flagellomere brownish; gena with a small yellow band, sometimes reaching the gena basis. Scutum, scutellum, metanotum, and mesepisternum blackish; margin of pronotum in dorsal view, yellow; tegula black; legs black to dark-brown in the portion of tibiae and tarsi; wings hyaline and venation dark-brown; tergum I-VI and sternum dark brownish and without apical yellow bands.

Male (Fig. 1D ). Size: 11.0 mm. Forewing in length 8.5 mm. Like female except that the gena and clypeus are narrower and entirely yellow; the mandible is blackish and yellowish; the clypeus is covered with a long and dense golden pubescence; the frons is also yellowish in the interantennal area and antennal pedicel; small yellowish marks are present in the pronotal carina, end of tegula, anterior mesepisternum region, beneath of the coxae and femur; legs brownish. Male genitalia (Fig. 1E ): (1) Paramere more long than wide, approximately two times longer than wide at the middle, basal angle obtuse, apical angle broad, long and curved spine very pointed apically, with long and dense bristles, mainly on spine base; (2) aedeagus apical portion with intermediate denticulation, extended on the apical portion to the end of the median expansion, an area near serration darker, lateral margin straight, penis valve widely dilated and with a slight central entrance, ventral process rounded and dilated in the sides, forming a “U”, lateral apodema without a projection in the central curvature; (3) digitus pointed apically, with long and spaced hairs, punctation strong and forming a central band around the base of the digitus; (4) cuspis very pointed and tapering abruptly apically, with small and spaced hairs.

Nest

(Fig. 2 ). The single arboreal nest of the new species used for nest’s architecture description was collected by SM in the Buriti Farm, Nova Mutum, Mato Grosso, Brazil. It was in a rubber plantation close to a small lake. The spherical nest form flattened laterally was built around five meters from the ground in a rubber tree with thin branches incorporated in the upper part of the nest, and it measured approximately 42 cm in length and 27 cm wide (Fig. 2A and B ). The nest’s envelope is predominantly gray (Fig. 2B ) made with long fiber, typical of supple paper ( Wenzel 1998). The external envelope is composed of many layers of sheets, and in the upper part of the nest is very hard and the lateral downward to the entrance is soft. The fourteen spherical multipedicellate combs stacked downward, growing gradually at margins sometimes in contact with envelope, cocoon with simple caps (Fig. 2C, E and F ). The simple entrance hole at the bottom usually has than more one layer (Fig. 2D ).

Diagnosis.

Color black, with few yellow marks mainly on the face and mandibles, clypeus, inner orbits, base of antennal scape, antennal pedicel and gena; clypeus wider than long, in contact with the eyes by less than the width of the antennal socket; frontal furrow deep; tegula globose; tergum I-VI dark brownish; sternum dark brownish; tergum and sternum without apical yellow bands.

Etymology.

The specific epithet " Pseudopolybia cryptica " refers to the Greek word kryptikos that means hidden because the species was previously classified as Pseudopolybia compressa .

Distribution.

Approximate range of the new species is shown in Fig. 4 . To date, Pseudopolybia cryptica sp. n. has been recorded in Bahia and Mato Grosso Brazilian states.

Material examined.

Type material: Holotype ♀, ' Brasil, Mato Grosso | Nova Mutum, Buriti Farm | 13°51′90.3″S, 056°11′61.9″W | 23.viii.2000, Nest, S. Mateus leg.' ( INPA) . - Paratypes 1 ♂, 5 ♀, ' Brasil, Mato Grosso | Nova Mutum, Buriti Farm | 13°51′90.3″S, 056°11'61.9″W | 23.viii.2000, Nest, S. Mateus leg.' ( INPA) ; 1 ♂, 3 ♀, ' Brasil: Bahia, Lençóis | 12°35′17.0″S, 041°22′96.3″W | 23.x.2008, S. Mateus leg.' ( INPA) ; 1 ♂, 12 ♀, ' Brasil, Mato Grosso | Serra Dourada , 04.xi.1997 | S. Mateus & Noll leg.' ( INPA) ; 1 ♀, ' Brasil, Mato Grosso | Serra Dourada , 04.xi.1997 | S. Mateus & Noll leg.' (Colec ̧ão Entomolo ́gica " Prof. J.M.F.Camargo ") ; 1 ♀, ' Brasil, Mato Grosso | Serra Dourada , 04.xi.1997 | S. Mateus & Noll leg.' ( MZUSP) ; 1 ♀, ' Brasil, Mato Grosso | Serra Dourada , 04.xi.1997 | S. Mateus & Noll leg.' (AMNH) .

Phylogenetic position.

The new species is reconstructed as sister to P. compressa based on the analysis of partial sequences of COI and 16S and morphological characters (Fig. 3 ). The detected level of genetic divergence between the new species and other congeneric range from 8.29-18.44% for COI and 3.34-11.08% for 16S (Supplementary Table S3).

Figures

Figure 1. Pseudopolybia cryptica Somavilla & Menezes, new species. A: Female, lateral view. B: Female, dorsal view. C: Female face, frontal view. D: Male face, frontal view. E - I: Male genitalia. E: Paramere inner view. F: Aedeagus ventral view. G: Aedeagus lateral view. H: Digitus lateral view. I: Cuspis lateral view.

Figure 2. Nest of Pseudopolybia cryptica Somavilla & Menezes, new species. A: In situ. B: Frontal view. C: Internal comb view. D: Entrance. E: Comb lateral view. F: Comb ventral view.

Figure 3. Phylogeny of Pseudopolybia inferred from the combined Maximum likelihood analysis of molecules (mitochondrial markers COI and 16 S) and morphology, with molecular species delimitation analyses ABGD, bPTP, and mPTP (vertical bars). Values below to the nodes represent ultrafast bootstrap (left) and SH-aLRT (right) supports as reported by IQ-Tree.

Figure 4. Map of South and Central America showing the current geographic distribution of Pseudopolybia species. For locality information see Supplementary material S 1.