Wanatispa, Borowiec & Świętojańska & Sekerka, 2019

Borowiec, Lech, Świętojańska, Jolanta & Sekerka, Lukáš, 2019, Revision of the tribe Cryptonychini (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae) of New Caledonia, Zootaxa 4690 (1), pp. 1-71 : 60-61

Genus Wanatispa gen. nov.

Type species. Wanatispa rutai sp. nov., present designation.

Etymology. Dedicated to our friend Dr. Marek Wanat of University if Wrocław, Poland for his significant achievements in knowledge of the fauna of New Caledonia.

Description. Moderately large beetles, body length 13.0– 15.2 mm. Antennae 11-segmented. Body thin and elongate, more than 3 × as long as wide. Head slightly longer than wide, interocular plate rectangular, flat, nearly continuous with vertex. Interantennal process moderately long, at most 0.8 × as long as antennomere I, strongly flattened laterally forming sharp keel and acute apically. Frontoclypeus elongate, mostly smooth with several setose punctures, with median keel. Labrum convex, tuberculate. Prosternum with prosternal collar, prosternal process between coxae as wide as or slightly wider than half width of coxa, then regularly expanded apically, its surface mostly smooth and shiny with very fine and sparse punctures. Pronotum almost cylindrical, only slightly narrowed anterad, without lateral carina or with obtuse lateral carina only in basal ⅔ length, without lateral tubercles or projections, anterior margin convex, anterior corners without tubercles, posterior corners with small and sharp tubercle. Punctation of pronotal disc moderately coarse to coarse and sparse, interspaces smooth and shiny with sparse, very small secondary punctation. Elytra without or with short scutellar row of punctures, eigth rows in humeral part, eigth or ten rows behind middle and ten or twelve rows apically. Interval 3 broad and elevated, other intervals mostly not or only slightly elevated in apical part. Lateral plates of thorax with several large punctures, central part of metaventrite smooth and shiny, abdomen smooth and shiny. Legs slim, fore tibiae with preapical excavation ventrally, mid and hind tibiae almost parallelsided. Sexual dimorphism indistinct, manifested only in structure of last ventrite.

Distribution. Two species endemic to New Caledonia.