Microvelia sousorum, dos Santos & Rodrigues & Couceiro & Moreira, 2021

dos Santos, Suzane E., Rodrigues, Juliana M. S., Couceiro, Sheyla R. M. & Moreira, Felipe F. F., 2021, Gerromorpha (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from the Metropolitan Region of Santarem, Brazil, including three new species of Microvelia Westwood, 1834 (Veliidae: Microveliinae), Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 68567-68567 : 68567

Microvelia sousorum sp. n.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: recordedBy: S.E. Santos; sex: apterous?; Location: country: Brazil; stateProvince: Pará; municipality: Mojuí dos Campos; locality: Igarape Agua Fria ; verbatimLatitude: 02°47'19.7"S; verbatimLongitude: 54°38'40.9"W; Event: verbatimEventDate: 24.IX.2020; Record Level: type: PhysicalObject; institutionCode: CEIOC 81765; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: recordedBy: S.E. Santos; sex: 1 apterous?; Location: country: Brazil; stateProvince: Pará; municipality: Mojuí dos Campos; locality: Igarape Agua Fria ; verbatimLatitude: 02°47'19.7"S; verbatimLongitude: 54°38'40.9"W; Event: verbatimEventDate: 24.IX.2020; Record Level: type: PhysicalObject; institutionCode: CEIOC 81766; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Description

Apterous male

BL 1.62, HL 0.32, HW 0,44, ANT I 0.21, ANT II 0.13, ANT III 0.28, ANT IV 0.42, INT 0.25, EYE 0.09, PL 0.23, PW 0.46; FORE LEG: FEM 0.46, TIB 0.34, TAR I 0.18; MID-LEG: FEM 0.54, TIB 0.38, TAR I 0.08, TAR II 0.12; HIND LEG: FEM 0.57, TIB 0.60, TAR I 0.09, TAR II 0.10.

Head dorsally yellowish-brown, lighter on sides and anterior third, dark-brown on insertion of trichobothria; ventrally pale-yellow. Antenna dark-brown, except antennomere I yellowish-brown. Eye reddish. Labium yellowish-brown, except apex of article III and entire IV dark-brown. Pronotum yellowish-brown, lighter on transverse band on anterior third and at middle of posterior two-thirds, dark-brown around punctures adjacent to anterior margin and between anterior and posterior lobes (Fig. 18 A, C). Metanotum pale-yellow, darker centrally. Ventre of thorax pale-yellow, anterior margins of meso- and metasterna dark-brown. Acetabula, coxae, trochanters and ventre of femora pale-yellow; dorsum of femora pale-yellow basally, dark-yellow towards apex; fore tibia yellowish-brown, dark-brown on apical third; middle and hind tibiae brown, lighter ventrally on proximal half; tarsi brown. Abdominal mediotergite I yellowish-brown, pale yellow on sides; II dark-brown, yellowish-brown on sides and anterior margin; III yellowish-brown, anterior margin dark brown, small pale-yellow patch at middle; IV yellowish-brown; V and VII yellowish-brown, each with longitudinal light-yellow band at middle; VI light-yellow. Abdominal laterotergite II pale-yellow, III-VI yellowish-brown on anterior half, pale-yellow on posterior half; VII yellowish-brown. Sides of abdomen yellow, dark-brown around opening of scent glands and on anterior margins of segments II-III. Ventre of abdomen yellow, dark-brown on sides of segments I-II (Fig. 18 B). Terminalia yellowish-brown.

Head with silvery pubescence adjacent to mesal margins of eyes and on posterior third; impressed median line inconspicuous; clypeus with long setae. Antenna long, reaching abdominal segment I; covered with short brown setae, with longer, lighter setae on antennomere IV. Antennomere I widest, slightly curved laterally, thickened towards apex; II wider than III-IV, thickened towards apex; III cylindrical, thinner than IV; IV fusiform, at middle subequal to II in thickness. Labium reaching middle of mesosternum.

Pronotum completely covering mesonotum, but not metanotum (Fig. 18 C); anterolateral angles rounded; anterior third covered with silvery pubescence; circular punctures on a transverse row adjacent to anterior margin; another centrally interrupted transverse row posterior to yellowish band; two submedian punctures posteriorly displaced from latter row; posterior margin slightly concave at middle. Metanotum almost 1/3 as long as pronotum, unpunctured; posterior margin rounded. Propleuron with dense, short, light setae, many small punctures and a posterior row of larger punctures; meso- and metapleuron unpunctured, without depressions. Ventre of thorax without elaborated ornamentation, except two dark punctures on both pro- and mesosternum near coxae. Legs covered with short brown setae, with some longer setae on dorsal surfaces of femora and tibiae. Fore tibia straight, slightly thicker on apex than on base, without apical spine. Hind femur slightly thicker than middle femur, ventrally with a row of distally increasing spines on proximal two-thirds (Fig. 18 E). Hind tibia straight.

Abdominal mediotergites covered with short setae. Mediotergite I shorter than II, with posterior margin slightly concave centrally; II with silvery pubescence medially; IV-VII with median line depressed; posterior margins of II-VI straight or almost straight; VII slightly concave (Fig. 18 D). Abdominal sterna IV-VII depressed medially, with two longitudinal bands of dense, long setae laterally; posterior margin of VII slightly concave (Fig. 18 E). Terminalia (Fig. 19 ) well-exposed; abdominal segment VIII dorsally with about two-thirds the length of mediotergite VII; posterior margin concave dorsally (Fig. 19 C), ventrally curved, not notched (Fig. 19 D). Proctiger exposed dorsally only by apex (Fig. 19 A); posterior margin rounded (Fig. 19 E). Pygophore convex, posterior margin rounded; parameres symmetrical (Fig. 19 G).

Apterous female

BL 1.73, HL 0.35, HW 0.47, ANT I 0.19, ANT II 0.12, ANT III 0.26, ANT IV 0.40, INT 0.28, EYE 0.09, PL 0.26, PW 0.56; FORE LEG: FEM 0.46, TIB 0.33, TAR I 0.18; MID-LEG: FEM 0.48, TIB 0.37, TAR I 0.07, TAR II 0.13; HIND LEG: FEM 0.54, TIB 0.56, TAR I 0.10, TAR II 0.14.

Colouration and structure similar to apterous male, but larger and more robust (Fig. 20 ). Head dorsally with both sides of the anterior half black. Pronotum with anterior lobe black, except for a transverse pale-yellow band at middle and a straight yellowish-brown longitudinal band. Ventre of thorax pale-yellow, dark at prosternal groove and posterior margin of prosternum. Hind femur without spines. Abdominal mediotergite I with posterior margin straight; II dark-brown, with silvery pubescence; III yellowish-brown, anterior margin and middle patch black with silvery pubescence; VIII yellowish-brown with median pale-yellow band. Mediotergites V-VIII with median line depressed, with small transverse grooves. All abdominal laterotergites with anterior half dark-brown and posterior half pale-yellow. Abdominal laterotergites elevated to about 90°. Posterior margin of abdominal mediotergite VIII slightly rounded, with long setae. Abdominal sterna pale-yellow, covered with short setae, with straight median stripe slightly darker on segments IV-VII, sides with a dark-brown longitudinal stripe; silvery pubescence on dark stripe of sterna V-VI. Sterna V-VII slightly depressed at middle.

Diagnosis

This new species can be grouped with other South American Microvelia in which the pronotum completely or almost completely covers the mesonotum, but not the metanotum and the terminalia is well-exposed, not deeply inserted into the pregenital abdomen: M. chilena Drake & Hussey, 1955, M. costaiana Drake & Hussey, 1951, M. nessimiani Moreira & Rúdio, 2011, M. mimula White, 1879, M. novana Drake & Plaumann, 1955, M. quieta Drake & Carvalho, 1954 and M. sarpta Drake & Harris, 1936.

Microvelia sousorum sp. nov. is most similar to M. novana (Fig. 21 ), known only from the type specimens from Santa Catarina State, southern Brazil. They can be separated by the shapes of the posterior margins of the pronotum (slightly concave at the middle in M. sousorum sp. nov. vs. rounded in M. novana ), male abdominal mediotergite VII (slightly concave at the middle vs. straight) and male abdominal sternum VIII (straight vs. concave) and by the presence of spines on the hind femur of males in the new species, which are absent in M. novana .

Etymology

This species is named in honour of Carlos Sousa and Diego Sousa, colleagues who were both instrumental in our fieldwork. In addition, Carlos is SES’ husband and gave all the necessary support for her to obtain her Master’s degree, which resulted in this paper.

Figures

Figure 18. Microvelia sousorum sp. nov., apterous male, holotype A. Habitus, dorsal view; B. Habitus, ventral view; C. Head and thorax, dorsal view; D. Abdomen, segments III-VII and terminalia, dorsal view; E. Abdomen and hind femora, ventral view. Scale bars: (A and B) 1 mm, (C) 0.5 mm, (D and E) 0.2 mm.

Figure 19. Microvelia sousorum sp. nov., male terminalia A. Dorsal view B. Ventral view C, D Abdominal segment VIII: C. Dorsal view; D. Ventral view; E-G Genital capsule: E. Dorsal view; F. Lateral view; G. Ventral view. Scale bars: 0.2 mm.

Figure 20. Microvelia sousorum sp. nov., apterous female paratype, habitus A. Dorsal view; B. Ventral view. Scale bars: 1 mm.

Figure 21. Microvelia novana, apterous male holotype deposited in the Entomology Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) A. Habitus, dorsal view; B. Habitus, ventral view; C. Labels.