Nasutopedia laeta, Aguiar, 2018

Aguiar, Antonio J. C., 2018, New species of Nasutopedia from cloud forests of the Neotropical region (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Tapinotaspidini), Journal of Natural History (J. Nat. Hist.) 52 (35 - 36), pp. 2283-2300 : 2296-2299

Nasutopedia laeta sp. nov.

www.zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:91127D3B-F2C1-400B-9F2D-205241D7E593

Diagnosis and comments

Nasutopedia laeta sp. nov. is distinct from most other Nasutopedia species in the lamella of pronotal collar with lateral portions not uplifted and acute, disc of T2 mostly smooth with short pubescence on lateral third, and remaining terga with fine, dark brown pubescence homogeneously distributed, sterna strongly yellow on males, punctuation of clypeus, frons, mesoscutum and mesepisternum more coarse ( Figure 5 ). The males of N. laeta sp. nov. have bicolour terga and yellow sterna, while the females are completely black. Nasutopedia laeta and N. nigripes have lateral portions of pronotal lamella low; however, the first species is distinct from the former by the margins of T4 of females covered by dense marginal pubescence, and T4–T5 of males with margins completely covered by dense, short decumbent hairs. In N. nigripes , the T4 margin of females is glabrous and the margins of T4–T5 of males have the mid portion glabrous, with a decumbent fringe of hairs only on the lateral portions.

Description

Male (holotype). Maximum head width: 2.28; body length: 7.8; wing length, without tegula: 8.0; scape length: 0.61; F1: 0.22; F2: 0.1; F3: 0.22. Colour: Head and mesosoma mostly reddish brown, and terga bicolour, brownish orange and dark brown. Mandibles mostly pale yellow; labrum completely pale yellow; clypeus mostly dark brown with narrow pale yellow stripe on lower margin and lateral margins (ca. 0.5 pd); lower half of parocular area with a narrow yellow stripe; scape reddish brown with a large yellow mark on outer lateral surface; F1–F2 reddish brown, remain flagellomeres dark brown; gena completely reddish brown. Tegula with a pale yellow mark on anterior third; wing membrane dark brown infumated with numerous dark brown microtrichia; veins dark brown; pterostigma reddish orange; tarsomeres mostly brownish yellow. T1 mostly pale brown, with a dark brown mark on vertical surface and two small ones on horizontal surface; T2 brownish yellow on anterior half, and pale brown on posterior half, with a dark brown narrow line in the disc; T3–T5 mostly pale brownish yellow, with broad dark brown stripes on anterior and posterior margins – anterior brown stripe with an acute projection on the disc; T6–T7 completely pale yellow; sterna completely pale yellow.

Pubescence. Pubescence of head, mesepisternum mostly pale white pubescence; mesosoma with pale brown pubescence on mesoscutum, scutellum, and propodeum; legs with pale brown to dark brown pubescence; tibial scopa black with posterodistal portion white; terga with marginal bands of dark brown hairs; sterna with bands of pale yellow, almost white, hairs on its margins. Labrum with scattered hairs on lower margin, not forming a brush; clypeus with few decumbent simple hairs on its lower margin, and long stout setae on its disc and lateral third (ca. 1.5× F2); frons with numerous long stout hairs (ca. 1.5× F2), densely covering antennal scrobe, frons disc, vertex and upper parocular area; mesoscutum with short velvet hairs intermingled with numerous long erect setae (ca. 0.8× F2); scutellum with velvet pubescence, with numerous long erect setae on posterodorsal surface, forming two large tufts of plumose and simple setae (ca. 0.5–1.5× F2); mesepisternum with short whitish setae on lateral and ventral surface, intermingled with erect simple whitish hairs (ca. 2× F2); metapostnotum with numerous short plumose pale brown, almost white, setae; T1 with a very short marginal band of decumbent plumose setae on lateral margins; T2 with numerous fine short brownish hairs on lateral third of disc and marginal band composed by dark brown plumose hairs occupying the lateral third; T3 with numerous short simple setae distributed in most of the disc and marginal band of short plumose hairs occupying more than a third of the margin laterally, with a short, narrow area glabrous; T4–T6 with dense marginal band of short plumose hairs complete; T4 and T5 with numerous short fine simple setae covering the surface. S2–S3 with minute short hairs covering the surface, with a line of simple pale white setae on margins; S4 with a band of decumbent long plumose setae, forming fringes of convergent setae on lateral portions; S5 with short plumose setae restricted to lateral portions; S6 with simple setae restricted to the apices.

Integument sculpture. Disc of clypeus and supraclypeal area with dense coarse punctures, some contiguous (<0.5 pd), without micropunctures between the coarser ones; frons disc with dense fine punctures (ca. <0.5 pd); antennal scrobe with dense fine punctures (ca. <0.5 d); parocular area with numerous fine punctures (ca. 2 pd); mesepisernum with numerous fine punctures (ca. 1–3 pd), denser on lower third; mesoscutum with fine punctures (ca. 3 pd); scutellum with fine minute and fine punctures intermingled on posterolateral portions (ca. 1–3 pd), mid line and fore margin; disc with two smooth areas; metapostnotum with sparse fine punctures (> 3 pd), integument shiny between the punctures; vertical surface of T1 with dense fine punctures (ca. 1 pd), and horizontal surface smooth; T2 mostly smooth with dense fine punctures on lateral third; T3–T5 with dense fine punctures (ca. 2–3 pd), on T3 with a broad smooth area on posterior margin, on T4 with a narrow smooth area on posterior margin; sterna with dense fine punctures on its surface (ca. 1–2 pd). Structure: Scutellum billobed; lamella of pronotal collar not strongly raised, with lateral portions low, not closed.

Etymology

The species name laeta (‘laetus’ means joyful or happy) refers to the surprising discovery of this species, collected by Rodrigo Gonçalves.

Type material

Holotype male ( DZUP), ‘ Equador, Napo, Cosanga,\ Yanayaco Biological Station \ 12.xi.2008, 2100 m., R.Gonçalves’; 1 male ( MZSP), same data of the holotype; 1 female ( DZUP), same data of the holotype.

Figures

Figure 5. Nasutopedia laeta sp. nov.: holotype male: (a) head, frontal; (b) lateral view; (c) male paratype, metasoma. Scale bars: 0.5 mm.