Phaeoxantha (Phaeoxantha) paranocturna, Moravec & Dheurle, 2023

Moravec, Jiří & Dheurle, Charles, 2023, Taxonomic and nomenclatorial revision of the Neotropical genus Phaeoxantha Chaudoir (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae), Zootaxa 5386 (1), pp. 1-83 : 22-25

Phaeoxantha (Phaeoxantha) paranocturna sp. nov.

( Figs 67–84 )

Type locality. Brazil: village of Sao Gabriel, Rio Maraú region on the border of the states of Amazonas and Pará.

Type material. Holotype ♂ in CCJM (later in SDEI), labelled: “ Brazil, Amazon, November 3/94 / Satere Indian Reservation / Sao Gabriel village , on sand / at night, M. Hrabovsky lgt.” [green-blue, printed] // . Allotype ♀ in CCJM, with same locality label as holotype . Paratype ♂ in CCJM with same locality label. The type specimens labelled: “ Holotype (Allotype or Paratype respectively) / Phaeoxantha (Phaeoxantha) / paranocturna sp. nov. / det. J.Moravec & C. Dheurle ” [red, printed].

Differential diagnosis. Although obviously close to P. (P.) nocturna , the new species is immediately distinguished by its very small body (not exceeding 9 mm in males, 10.8 mm in female allotype) and particularly by its uniformly ochre-cinnamon coloured elytra (lacking black areas), which are widest above the middle and with almost glabrous surface appearing almost smooth due to extremely shallow punctures throughout, forming a tile-like mosaic, except for few (2–4) dark umbilicate (tubercle-like) punctures on elytral base ( Fig. 82 ).

Description. Body ( Figs 67–68 , 73 ) very small, males (HT and PT) 8.90–9.00 mm long, 3.70 mm wide, female (AT) 9.80 mm long, 4.10 mm wide; dorsally uniformly ochre-cinnamon coloured (lacking black areas).

Head ( Figs 74–75 ) 3.00– 3.05 mm wide including large eyes, slightly wider than pronotum, but notably narrower than body and appearing notably short (as the temples are merged into anterior pronotal lobe), cinnamon-brownish, slightly darker than pronotum and elytra, appearing glabrous.

Frons merging with clypeus in middle and entirely confluent with vertex, ochre-cinnamon to brownish or with pale reddish spots (which are in fact filtered from inside head structure due to partly translucent surface); all fronsvertex surface glabrous and almost smooth (extremely finely coriaceous).

Clypeus reddish-brown, glabrous and almost smooth, with indistinct elongate-transverse wrinkles.

Genae ochre-brown, partly blackened, with distinct ventral edge acutely projecting anteriad, glabrous and smooth; gula almost black.

Labrum ( Figs 77–79 ) ochraceous, 4-setose, short and transverse, uniform in both sexes, length 0.55–0.60 mm, width 1.60–1.75 mm, with arcuate outer margins and small, mostly blunt, darkened four teeth separated by shallow excision on either side.

Mandibles ( Figs 74–76 ) ochraceous, except for blackened teeth margins and apices, normally shaped with three teeth (and basal molar), but sexually dimorphic: subsymmetrical in male ( Figs 75–76 ), asymmetrical in female ( Fig. 74 ); terminal teeth long and acute.

Palpi ( Fig. 75 ). Both maxillary and labial palpi ivory-yellow to ochre-testaceous, markedly elongate (as in other species of the genus), terminal palpomeres of maxillary palpi moderately spatulate-dilated, while those of labial palpi more elongate.

Antennae ( Figs 67–68 , 73–75 ). Scape with one apical seta, ochraceous to cinnamon-brownish, other antennomeres ivory to ochre-yellow, gradually cinnamon-darkened posteriad.

Thorax. Pronotum ( Fig. 80 ) shaped as in P. (P.) nocturna but with outer margins more arcuate and more attenuated posteriad, 2.25–2.35 mm long, 2.70–2.90 mm wide; surface of anterior lobe very shallowly punctate (forming a tile-like mosaic); outer margins of disc rather distinctly serrate, arcuate-convex and attenuated towards much narrower posterior lobe; discal surface moderately convex, appearing glabrous and smooth, ochre-brownish, darkened in middle and with irregular pale reddish spots (filtered from inside due to the pale and partly translucent surface); posterior lobe with surface as in the anterior lobe but with occasional small tubercles and a row of larger tubercles within the shallow sulcus which separate posterior lobe from disc; proepisterna, mesepisterna and metepisterna ochre-brownish, smooth and glabrous (female mesepisterna lacking any pit of coupling sulcus; female metepisterna indistinctly minutely punctate); prosternum brownish, smooth except for several punctures alongside procoxae; mesosternum brown or partly blackened, with sparse minute punctures; metasternum darker, with scattered punctures; all ventral thoracic sterna glabrous.

Elytra ( Figs 81–84 ) mutually moderately ovoid, widest somewhat above the middle, 5.60–6.30 mm long, outer margins only slightly attenuated towards arcuate anteapical angles, then obliquely arcuate towards subacute to shortly rounded apices; dorsally visible epipleural margins finely serrate, more distinctly on anteapical angles, serrulation becoming shallower and more irregular towards humeri; elytral surface ochre-cinnamon coloured, almost glabrous except for only occasional, barely visible microsetae on anteapical and apical areas, and appearing almost smooth due to extremely shallow punctation throughout, forming a tile-like mosaic on the surface, except for few (2–4) dark umbilicate (tubercle-like) punctures on elytral base ( Fig. 82 ).

Legs ( Figs 67–68 , 73 ). Trochanters with one seta, ochre to testaceous, metatrochanters partly brownish; coxae brownish-testaceous, smooth and glabrous, mesocoxae with one subapical sensory seta; metacoxae with thin, rather sharp, blackened edge; other leg segments basically concolorous with dorsal body surface, tibiae and particularly tarsi much paler except for notably darkened last three distinctly dilated male protarsomeres, femora with rows of rather short and stiff setae which are denser on tibiae, with notably long but pale thorns at tibial apices.

Abdomen. Ventrites smooth and glabrous except for one minute sensory seta at either side of posterior margins near the middle.

Aedeagus ( Fig. 70 ) rather short and stout, length 2.50 mm, width 0.50 mm, apex short and rounded, indistinctly emarginate dorsally; in ventral and dorsal view distinctly voluminous above the middle and conically attenuated towards blunt apex ( Figs 71–72 ).

Distribution and ecology. The type locality, the village of Sao Gabriel (area of a reservation of indigenous people) lies in the Rio Maraú region on the border of the Brazilian states of Amazonas and Pará. According to the label data, adults were taken on sandy beach during the night.

Figures

FIGURES 67–72. Phaeoxantha (P.) paranocturna sp. nov., Brazil, San Gabriel village. 67–68—habitus: 67—♂, 8.9 mm, HT (CCJM, later in SDEI); 68—♂, 9 mm, PT (CCJM); 69—labels of HT; 70–72—aedeagus in its left, ventral and dorsal views, PT (CCJM). Bars = 1 mm.

FIGURES 73–79. Phaeoxantha (P.) paranocturna sp. nov., Brazil, San Gabriel village. 73—habitus, ♀, 9.8 mm, AT (CCJM); 74–75—head: 74—♀, AT (CCJM); 75—♂, PT (CCJM); 76—mandibles, ♂, PT; 77–79—labrum: 77—♂, HT (CCJM, later in SDEI); 78—♂, PT (CCJM); 79—♀, AT (CCJM). Bars = 1 mm.

FIGURES 80–84. Phaeoxantha (P.) paranocturna sp. nov., Brazil, San Gabriel village. 80—pronotum, ♂, HT (CCJM, later in SDEI); 81–84—elytron: 81—♂, HT; 82–83—ditto, detail of surface; 84—♀, AT (CCJM). Bars = 1 mm.