Eurysthea vandenberghei, Santos-Silva & Heffern & Botero, 2022

Santos-Silva, Antonio, Heffern, Daniel & Botero, Juan Pablo, 2022, Description of a new species of Eurysthea Thomson (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Cerambycinae), Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (Pap. Avulsos Zool., S. Paulo) 62, pp. 1-3 : 1-3

Eurysthea vandenberghei sp. nov.

Eurysthea vandenberghei Santos-Silva et al., 2021: 532 (nomen nudum).

Description. Holotype female. Integument mostly dark brown, almost black on some areas; mouthparts mostly reddish brown with irregular dark brown areas, except palpomeres dark brown with apex reddish brown; anteclypeus and labrum dark brown anteriorly, reddish brown posteriorly; antennae gradually lighter toward apex. Elytra with large, transverse orangish-brown macula dorsally just before middle (anterior margin slightly projected forward along suture); posterior half slightly lighter than basal area, except dark margins. Femoral peduncles orangish brown. Tibiae brown on narrow basal area, orangish-brown toward dark brown apex. Apex of tarsomere V dark reddish brown. Apex of abdominal ventrites 1-4 reddish brown.

Frons moderately depressed on each side of medi- an groove, except triangular area close to clypeus; sides forming wide carina from antennal tubercles to clypeus; coarsely, confluently punctate (general appearance rugose), except obliquely striated triangular central area close to clypeus; with abundant yellowish-brown pubescence not obscuring integument, slightly shorter laterally, except glabrous triangular area close to clypeus. Area between antennal tubercles and beginning of upper eye lobes finely, densely punctate, except smooth median groove; with abundant yellowish-brown pubescence not obscuring integument. Remaining surface of vertex distinctly lower than area between antennal tubercles; finely, densely punctate, except glabrous median groove (median groove widened between upper eye lobes); with short, abundant yellowish-brown pubescence not obscuring integument, except glabrous medi- an groove. Area behind upper eye lobes finely, densely punctate; with moderately abundant yellowish-brown pubescence not obscuring integument, slightly denser close to eye, and a few long, erect yellowish-white setae close to eye. Area behind lower eye lobes almost smooth close to eye; remaining surface finely, moderately abundantly punctate close to upper eye lobe, longitudinally striate-punctate toward ventral surface; with short, suberect, moderately sparse yellowish-brown setae close to eye, sparse yellowish-brown pubescence on punctate area, glabrous on striate-punctate area; with a few long, erect yellowish-white setae close to eye toward inferior area. Median groove distinct from clypeus to prothoracic margin. Antennal tubercles with sculpturing as on frons, except smooth apex; with yellowish-brown pubescence not obscuring integument, except glabrous apex. Genae finely, abundantly punctate on posterior half close to eye, smooth on anterior half; with yellowish-brown pubescence not obscuring integument on punctate area, glabrous on smooth area. Gulamentum smooth, glabrous on center of posterior half, transversely striate, with sparse yellowish-brown pubescence on sides of posterior ⅔ and central area close to smooth posteri- or half; anterior area depressed, opaque, with minute, sparse tubercles, and both, short and long yellowish setae, distinctly sparser centrally.Wide central area of postclypeus moderately concave; finely, abundantly punctate, punctures coarser, sparser centrally; wide central area with yellowish-brown pubescence not obscuring integument, denser, with long, erect setae of same color interspersed laterally; sides smooth, glabrous. Labrum coplanar with anteclypeus at posterior half, inclined at anterior half; sides of posterior half with small, minutely, densely punctate depression, each one with erect, both short and long yellowish-brown setae; center of anterior half with transverse band of long brownish setae directed forward. Distance between upper eye lobes 0.83 times length of scape (0.36 times distance between outer margins of eyes); in frontal view, distance between lower eye lobes 1.25 times length of scape (0.54 times distance between outer margins of eyes). Antennae 1.15 times elytral length, reaching posterior seventh of elytra; with yellowish-brown pubescence partially obscuring integument; with long, erect yellowish setae ventrally on scape, pedicel, and antennomeres III-VII (setae shorter and sparser toward VII); dorsal surface of scape, pedicel and apex of antennomeres III-X with long, erect, sparse yellowish setae (setae shorter toward X); inner apex of antennomeres III-VI with spine (spine distinctly short in V and VI); spine of antennomeres III-IV shorter than diameter of apex of the antennomere. Antennal formula (ratio) based on length of antennomere III (without spine): scape = 0.70; pedicel = 0.23; IV = 0.86; V = 0.94; VI = 0.94; VII = 0.90;VIII = 0.76; IX = 0.69; X = 0.57; XI = 0.55.

Thorax. Prothorax wider than long, sides moderately tuberculate centrally, divergent from anterolateral tubercles to middle, convergent toward posterolateral angles. Pronotum with median longitudinal carina from anteri- or fifth to posterior fifth (carina more distinct from apex of anterior third); with large, almost M-shaped carina on posterior ⅔; coarsely, moderately abundantly punctate; with abundant yellowish-brown pubescence not obscuring integument, denser on lateral“arms” of M-shaped carina, slightly dense on anterior third and sides of posteri- or third; with long, erect, moderately abundant yellowish setae on anterior third and sides of posterior third. Sides of prothorax coarsely, sparsely punctate; with abundant yellowish-brown pubescence not obscuring integument, denser, yellower around lateral tubercle; with long, erect, sparse yellowish setae interspersed. Prosternum finely, sparsely punctate on posterior third, transversely striate on anterior third; with yellowish-brown pubescence not obscuring integument, distinctly sparser anteriorly, and with long, erect, abundant yellowish setae interspersed. Prosternal process distinctly narrowed toward apex; with pubescence and setae as on posterior area of prosternum. Ventral surface of mesothorax with moderately abundant yellowish-brown pubescence not obscuring integument, distinctly sparser on center of anterior area of mesoventrite. Mesoventral process gradually narrowed toward emarginate apex; with both, short and long, decumbent yellowish-brown pubescence partially obscuring integument. Metanepisternum and sides of metaventrite with abundant yellowish-brown pubescence partially obscuring integument, and long, suberect yellowish setae interspersed (suberect setae almost absent on metanepisternum); central area of metaventrite with both, short and long yellowish setae distinctly not obscuring integument, except glabrous area of metathoracic discrimen. Scutellum with dense golden pubescence. Elytra. Moderately coarsely, abundantly punctate,with coarser punctures interspersed, especially on posterior ⅔; apex rounded, with sutural angle slightly projected; with abundant yellowish-brown pubescence almost obscuring integument (pubescence not obscuring punctures), and long, erect, sparse yellowish setae interspersed. Legs. Procoxae slightly tab-shaped close to trochanter. Femora pedunculate-clavate (profemora less so); apex of femora with short rounded lobe; peduncles with both, short and long erect yellowish-brown setae distinctly not obscuring integument (short setae more decumbent); clubs with abundant yellowish-brown pubescence not obscuring integument, and long, erect setae interspersed.Tibiae with both, short and long yellowish-brown setae not obscuring integument (shorter setae denser on apex of dorsal and lateral surfaces), except posterior ⅔ of ventral surface of protibiae with dense, bristly yellowish-brown pubescence; sides of tibiae not longitudinally carinate. Metatarsomere I distinctly longer than II-III together (about as long as 0.75 times length of II-V).

Abdomen: Ventrites with yellowish pubescence not obscuring integument, sparser centrally, and long, erect setae of same color interspersed (erect setae more brownish on posterior area of 5). Apex of ventrite 5 truncate.

Dimensions in mm (♀): Total length, 23.85; prothorax length, 3.20; anterior width, 3.10; posterior width, 3.30; widest prothoracic width, 3.95; humeral width, 5.15; elytral length, 15.30.

Type material: Holotype ♀ from NICARAGUA, Jinotega: Cerro Diablo , 1,300-1,500 m, 09-10.IV.2005, E. van den Berghe leg. ( TAMU, formerly DHCO).

Etymology: It is a pleasure to name this species for Dr. Eric van Berghe, collector of the holotype, who has provided the second author and others in the scientific community with numerous specimens from Nicaragua and Honduras for over 30 years.

Remarks. Eurysthea vandenberghei sp. nov. differs from all other species of the genus, except E.sordida (Erichson, 1847) , and E. llinasi Taboada-Verona & Botero, 2018 , by the outer apical angle of the elytra rounded. It differs from E. sordida (see photographs on Bezark, 2022) by the elytra with distinctly shorter pubescence (longer in E. sordida ), presence of large orangish-brown macula on elytra (absent in E. sordida ), and femora bicolorous (unicolorous in E. sordida ). Eurysthea vandenberghei can be easily separated from E. llinasi (see photographs of the holotype on Bezark, 2022), by the elytra with transverse large orangish-brown macula about middle (with invert- ed V-shaped band, from about apex of anterior quarter to about middle prolonged along suture to about posterior third, and almost V-shaped yellow band in posterior quarter in E. llinasi ).

AUTHORS’ CONTRIBUTIONS: ASS, DH, JPB: Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing; ASS, JPB: Methodology, Writing – original draft, Visualization, Investigation. All authors actively participated in the discussion of the results, they reviewed and approved the final version of the paper.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: Authors declare there are no conflicts of interest.

FUNDING INFORMATION: This project did not use any external financial support.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: We thank Eric van den Berghe (Zamorano University, Honduras) for sending the specimen used to describe the new species. We express our sincere thanks to Igor Dimitri Forero (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia) for alerting us about the problem with the validity of the name proposed before. We also thank Miguel Alonso-Zarazaga (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Spain) for the help to solve the problem of the validity of the name,and Larry G. Bezark (Sacramento, California, USA) for reviewing the manuscript.