Melanastera inconspicuae, Serbina & Malenovský & Queiroz & Burckhardt, 2025

Serbina, Liliya Š., Malenovský, Igor, Queiroz, Dalva L. & Burckhardt, Daniel, 2025, Jumping plant-lice of the tribe Paurocephalini (Hemiptera: Psylloidea: Liviidae) in Brazil, Zootaxa 5585 (1), pp. 1-164 : 75-76

29 Melanastera inconspicuae sp. nov.

( Figs 3A, B, 10I, 17C, 28A–F)

TypE matErIaL. HOLOtypE ♂: Brazil: PARANÁ: Bocaiuva do Sul, Sítio do irmão do Arnaldo Soares , S17.6439, W46.7007, 980 m, 3.xii.2015, Miconia inconspicua (D.L. Queiroz) #682(1) ( UFPR; dry).

Paratypes. Brazil: Paraná: 4 ♂, 10 ♀, 3 immatures, 1 skin, same as holotype but ( MMBC, NHMB, UFPR; dry, slide, 70% ethanol; NMB-PSYLL0006055, NMB-PSYLL0007978, NMB-PSYLL0007903, NMB-PSYLL0007908, NMB-PSYLL0007913 [LSMelinc-97], NMB-PSYLL0007914 [LSMelinc-97], NMB-PSYLL0007915, NMB-PSYLL0007916) .

Description. Adult. Coloration. Yellow, head and thorax with irregular brown patches, mesoscutum with longitudinal brown bands. Antennal segments 3–8 with brown apices, segments 9–10 entirely brown. Forewing ( Fig. 17C) yellow with sparse, faint brown dots mostly in apical half of wing; apices of veins Rs, M 1+2, M 3+4, Cu 1a and Cu 1b dark brown, sometimes indistinct. Femora with a subapical transverse brown band.

Structure. Forewing ( Fig. 17C) oval, widest in the middle, broadly evenly rounded apically; wing apex situated in cell r 2, slightly remote from apex of M 1+2; C+Sc distinctly bent in distal third; pterostigma distinctly narrower than cell r 1 in the middle, weakly widening to apical third; Rs relatively straight in proximal three quarters, moderately curved to fore margin apically; M longer than M 1+2 and M 3+4; Cu 1a irregularly curved, ending at about same level with M fork; surface spinules present in all cells, leaving relatively narrow spinule-free stripes along the veins, forming hexagons of a single and/or double rows of spinules. Hindwing with 4 + 2–3 grouped costal setae. Metatibia bearing 6–9 grouped apical spurs, arranged as 3–5 + 3–5, anteriorly separated by 1–2 bristles.

Terminalia ( Fig. 28A–F). Male. Proctiger tubular, weakly produced posteriorly; densely covered with long setae in apical two thirds. Subgenital plate, in lateral view, irregularly ovoid; dorsal margin curved; posterior margin relatively straight; with dense, long setae mostly posteriorly. Paramere irregularly lanceolate, strongly narrowed in apical third; apex, in lateral view, blunt, directed upwards, in dorsal view, narrowly blunt, directed upwards and inwards, lacking distinct sclerotised tooth; both outer and inner faces with dense, moderately long setae; posterior margin with longer setae. Proximal segment of aedeagus with apical part moderately subdivided. Distal segment of aedeagus with dorsal margin sinuate in basal half; ventral process situated slightly distal of the middle of the segment, in both lateral and dorsal views, simple, long and narrow, lamellar, in dorsal view, subparallel-sided; apical dilation, in lateral view, relatively narrow, subparallel-sided, rounded apically, with a large membranous sack at dorsal margin basally; in dorsal view, apical dilation broad, subrectangular, truncate apically; sclerotised end tube short and weakly curved.—Female terminalia cuneate; covered with setae. Dorsal margin of proctiger, in lateral view, with a small hump distal to circumanal ring, weakly concave in apical third, apex subacute, turned slightly upwards; in dorsal view, apex blunt; circumanal ring, in dorsal view, vaguely cruciform. Subgenital plate, in lateral view, abruptly narrowing in apical third, apex pointed; in ventral view, apex blunt.

Fifth instar immature. Coloration.Pale brown;antenna gradually becoming darker towards apex;cephalothoracic sclerite, wing pads, legs and caudal plate brown.

Structure. Body sparsely covered with minute clavate and narrowly lanceolate setae. Eye with one short simple ocular seta dorsally. Antennal segments with following numbers of pointed sectasetae: 1(0), 2(2—one large and one small), 3(0), 4(2), 5(0), 6(2), 7(1), 8(1), 9(0), 10(0). Forewing pad with 4–5 marginal pointed sectasetae, lacking sectasetae dorsally; hindwing pad with 1–2 marginal and 1–2 dorsal pointed sectasetae. Metatibiotarsus short; tarsal arolium broadly fan-shaped apically, 1.3 times as long as claws. Abdomen with 2–3 pointed sectasetae laterally on either side anterior to caudal plate. Caudal plate with anterior margin relatively remote from anterior margin of extra pore fields; with 4–5 (1 or 2 + 3) pointed sectasetae on either side laterally, and with three pointed sectasetae subapically, on either side of circumanal ring dorsally. Extra pore fields forming continuous outer and inner bands, consisting of large and small oval and round patches; outer band short medially, end pointing outwards. Circumanal ring small.

Host plant. Miconia inconspicua Miq. ( Melastomataceae ).

Distribution. Brazil (PR).

Derivation of name. Named after its host, M. inconspicua .

Comments. Within the the trematos -group, Melanastera inconspicuae sp. nov. resembles M. clavata sp. nov. in the long, simple, lamellar ventral process of the distal aedeagal segment, the sinuate dorsal margin of the female proctiger and the minute narrowly lanceolate setae covering the body of the immature. Melanastera inconspicuae differs from M. clavata in the following characters: paramere, in lateral view, broader and with more strongly sinuate anterior margin; ventral process of the distal aedeagal segment narrower, with subparallel margins, in dorsal view; FP/HW> 0.75 (versus <0.75).