Guyalna nadae, Gogala & Šporar & Sanborn & Maccagnan, 2015

Gogala, Matija, Šporar, Katja, Sanborn, Allen F. & Maccagnan, Douglas H. B., 2015, New Cicada Species Of The Genus Guyalna (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) From Brazil, Acta Entomologica Slovenica 23 (2), pp. 105-116 : 107-112

Guyalna nadae sp. nova

Etymology

The species is dedicated to Prof. Nada Gogala, the wife of one of the authors (MG) and the grandmother of another (KŠ), who also took part in the field investigations in Pirenópolis, Brazil and sadly passed away just a couple of month later after returning home to Slovenia.

Morphology

The following material is available: Brazil, Goiás, Pirenópolis , 15° 50.6’S, 48° 57.5’W, 10. 9. 2013, K. Šporar, M. Gogala leg. (Holotype ♂ , 2♀ paratypes).

Additional material: Brazil, Goiás, Iporá ( Morro do Macaco ), 30. 7. 2011, D.H.B. Maccagnan leg. (1♀) (CE-UEG 224). Brazil, Goiás, Iporá, 29.9.2011, D.H.B. Maccagnan leg. (4♂) (CE-UEG 225-228). Brazil, Goiás, Iporá, 16° 24.73’S, 51° 10.44’W, 14. 9. 2015, D.H.B. Maccagnan leg. (10♂, 2♀) (CE-UEG 234-244 and 253). Brazil, Goiás, Iporá, 16° 24.73’S, 51° 10.44’W, 27. 8. 2015, D.H.B. Maccagnan leg. (5♂, 3♀) (CE-UEG 245-252). Brazil, Goiás, Diorama , 21. 8. 2013, D.H.B. Maccagnan leg. (4♀) (CE-UEG 229-232). Brazil, Goiás, Diorama, 16° 14.85’S, 51° 16.93’, Cerrado Stricto Sensu , Ligth Trap, 20. 9. 2013, D.H.B. Maccagnan leg. (1♀) (CE-UEG 233).

The body length of Guyalna nadae sp. nova is 13.5 mm in the male and 12.9 and 13.6 mm in the females ( Figs. 1, 2 ). Measurements were made only on type material.

The ground colour of the body is dark brown to pale yellow marked with black.

The head is wider than mesonotum, dark brown, black transverse mark across vertex enclosing ocelli extending around medial margin of eye to black behind the eye. Dorsal head with short silvery and golden pile, longer posterior to eye. Ocelli red, eyes ochraceous. The head width is 5.9 mm for males and 5.6 – 5.8 mm for females. Width of the eyes seen from above is 1.4 mm and the distance between the eyes 3.4 mm. Ventral head with black fascia between postclypeus and eye. The postclypeus is dark brown, centrally sulcate with transverse ridges pale yellow, a black median fascia on dorsal surface that extends along the ventral side of the postclypeus. The anteclypeus is also dark brown with the exception of the median yellow keel. Rostrum dark brown with a black tip reaching sternite III in males or the middle of sternite V in females ( Fig. 6 ). Antennal segments black, flagellum dark brown.

The pronotum is trapezoidal with straight lateral part of pronotal collar, brown with ochraceous anterior margin, with black marks on either side of midline or black band along the midline (see Figs. 12 , 13 ), anterior mark pyramidal, medial mark extending into paramedian fissure, posterior transverse mark across midline, black mark within lateral fissure encircling scute as it continues through ambient fissure, which extends laterally across lateral pronotal collar ( Figs. 1, 2, 8 ). Width of pronotum is 5.8 (♂) and 5.5 mm (♀) and the anterior width 4.5 mm (♂) and 4.3 mm (♀). The length of the pronotum is 2.2 (♂) and 2.1 (♀) mm. The mesonotum is dark brown with orange yellow markings between lateral and submedian sigilla ( Fig. 8 ). This orange yellow coloration also surrounds the submedian sigilla with the exception of the brown middle deltoid field in front of the cruciform elevation and anterior half of lateral surface. Sigillae, lateral margin, and scutal depressions black. The cruciform elevation (scutellum) is also yellow darker on posterior with black transverse mark between anterior arms and laterally between anterior and posterior arms. Wing groove dark brown with ochraceous lateral margin. Mesonotum with short silvery pile along anterior margin and laterally, longer pile between arms of cruciform elevation and in wing groove ( Fig. 8 ). Metanotum black, laterally yellow. Ventral thoracic segments dark brown with lighter margins covered with short white pubescence.

The fore wings (tegmina) are slender and much longer than the hind wings ( Figs. 1, 2 ). The length of tegmina in males is 19.6 and in females 19.6 – 19.7 and the width 6.5 (♂) and 6.4 mm (♀). The length-width ratio of the tegmina is 3 (♂) and 3.1 (♀). The length of the hind wings is 9.4 mm (♂) and 9.9 mm (♀). The number of apical cells is 8 in the fore wings and 6 in the hind wings. Fore and hind wings hyaline, venation black except ochraceous costal margin, proximal median vein almost to node, proximal median vein 3+4, proximal cubitus anterior, proximal cubitus posterior+anal vein 1, and spot on costal margin just distal to node. Cubitus anterior curving forming arched cubital cell. Hind wing venation similarly colored. Basal membranes grayish black.

The legs are pale yellow, coxae and femora darker, tawny around the tibio-tarsal joints and distal tarsus and do not differ in the sexes. Fore femora with three spines, ochraceous primary spine angled, ochraceous secondary spine largest and upright with small, black, upright tertiary spine. Pretarsal claws tawny with setiform parempodia. Legs with short white pile, tibial spurs and tibial combs castaneous.

Operculum yellow, in the form of right triangle with rounded posterolateral angles, with sinuate posterior margin, barely covering tympanal cavity, covered with short white pubescence ( Fig. 9 ). Medial margin rounded not reaching midline. Meracanthus is yellow, more or less triangular, very long in females, with outer lateral edges folded ventrally ( Fig. 9 ). The female operculum reaches medially only to meracanthus. Basal part black.

Timbal has a large timbal plate with 2 long ribs and is partly covered by the timbal cover ( Fig. 3 ). Tergites of the abdomen are black with the posterior margins castaneous. Tergites covered with long silvery and black pile, silvery pile more dense laterally and posteriorly, golden pile centrally especially on the anterior tergites. Black pile forms an arch on dorsum. Timbal cover tawny, incomplete exposing timbal dorsally, anterior margin curled posteriorly, straight to anterior extension, black along anterior margin of timbal cavity, anterior apex semicircular, ventral margin slightly angled ventrally. Abdominal sternites are more or less brown to yellow covered with short white and also golden pile. Sternites and epipleurites are anteriorly darker. Sternite VIII in males much shorter (0.6x) than sternite VII. The structure of the female genitalia is seen in Figs 6 and 7 . Female sternite VII with single medial notch, posterior margin straight, angled to curved lateral posterior margins. Female abdominal segment 9 black dorsally and along ventral medial margins, dark brown laterally, ochraceous posteriorly, covered with long silvery pile, dense golden pile on posteroventral margin. Dorsal beak extending just beyond black anal styles. Posterior margin of abdominal segment 9 sinuate.

The male genital segment is shown in Figs 4 and 5 . Pygofer black with rounded distal shoulder, dorsal beak absent. Pygofer upper lobe flattened against pygofer, pygofer basal lobe flattened with straight apex. Median uncus lobes short, recurved dorsally and rounded at terminus. Lateral uncus lobes curving under median uncus lobes, lateral margin curving away from median uncus lobe, posterior margin with curved extension under median uncus lobe, medial margins angled toward midline. Aedeagus strongly curved with a long basal plate attached at the lower lobe of the pygofer.

Female gonocoxite IX dark brown. Gonapophysis IX and X black. Ovipositor sheath extends beyond dorsal beak. Dorsal beak extending just beyond anal styles. Long golden pile on ovipositor sheath.

Acoustics

We were able to record two types of song produced by G. nadae sp. nova, the calling song and the courtship song. The calling song is a simple repetition of long echemes with a repetition rate of 1.6 s-1 ( Table 1 , Fig. 10 ). The duration of echemes is 535±70 ms (mean±st.dev.) and the interecheme interval is 79±18 ms (N=214). The courtship song we were able to record just once and therefore the number of the measured echemes is much smaller (N=39) ( Table 2 ). The duration of echemes during the courtship song was much shorter, 72±15 ms and the interecheme intervals 307±154 ms but the repetition rate was slowly changing (average: 2.6 s-1, Fig. 11 ).

Frequency spectrum of the calling song has the maximum at 11 kHz, 5% and 95% frequencies at 9.4 and 12.4 kHz (measured with special routine in Raven software). The courtship song has these values slightly shifted to lower frequencies (10, 8.8 and 11.7 kHz).

Ecology

We found the first specimens near the hotel Pousada dos Pireneus on a small tree ( Fig. 12 ) near the soccer field. One of the authors (DHBM) found this species in the municipality of Iporá and Diorama (about 300 kilometres from Pirenópolis) with high abundance in the urban areas and beside highways. Its distribution is probably bound to the open spaces of biome Cerrado, Brazilian Savanna, a hotspot of biodiversity ( Myers et al. 2000) surrounding Pirenópolis and the Iporá region. The occurrence of the adults of Guyalna nadae is from August until the beginning of October at the end of a dry season (with relative humidity about 25% and temperatures reaching over 30°C). Between September and October begins in the same area the emergence of several other species of cicadas (e.g. G. cuta , G. platyrhina , Fidicinoides pronoe (Walker 1850) , different species of Ariasa spp. and Dorisiana sp. ). They are all singing at the same time. In general, you can find G. nadae also singing in chorus with a synchronization on the echeme production.

Figures

Figs 1-9: 1 - Guyalna nadae sp. nova habitus male; 2 - Guyalna nadae sp. nova habitus female, same scale; 3 - right timbal with timbal cover; 4 - male genital segment, treated with KOH, lateral view; 5 - idem, ventral view; 6 - female ventrum with terminalia and tip of the rostrum; 7 - idem, lateral view; 8 - latero-dorsal view of the male holotype; 9 - male, sternum with the left operculum and meracanthus. Figures 3 - 8 made with the Leitz multifocus system.

Fig. 12. Female Guyalna nadae sp. nova, sitting and about to start feeding on a tree.

Fig. 13. A male specimen of Guyalna nadae sp. nova from the Iporá collection (CE_UEG 251).

Fig. 10. Guyalna nadae sp. nova, oscillogram and spectrogram (above) of the calling song selection (made by Seewave package in R platform: wl = 512, wn = “hanning”).

Fig. 11. Guyalna nadae sp. nova, oscillogram and spectrogram (above) of the courtship song with transitions from and toward a normal calling song (made by Seewave package in R platform, for details see Fig. 10).