Polana (Nihilana) villara DeLong, 1979

Polana (Nihilana) villara DeLong, 1979 View in CoL comb. nov.

Polana (Polana) villara DeLong, 1979: 153 View in CoL .

Remarks. The aedeagus of P. villara has processes at one-third length of the shaft that are not homologous to the basolateral pair present in species of the subgenus Polana . Therefore, this species is transferred to the subgenus Nihilana .

DeLong (1980) described six new species of Polana from Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Panama and USA (Florida). In the abstract it is clear that two species, P. caputa and P. carla are placed in the subgenus Polana , and the other four species are placed in the subgenus Nihilana , there misspelled as ‘ Nililana ’. However, the taxonomic notes for P. caputa mention that the species is placed in the subgenus Polanana whereas those for P. carla mentioned that the species is placed in the subgenus Polana . These two species are also compared with two species that belong to the subgenus Polanana , P. truncata DeLong & Freytag, 1972 and P. falsa DeLong & Freytag, 1972 . According to DeLong & Freytag (1972), the subgenus Polanana is recognized by the absence of processes on the basodorsal portion of the pygofer and on the basal portion of the aedeagus.

Polana robusta , placed in the subgenus Nihilana is compared with two species of the subgenus Polana , P. gelera DeLong & Freytag, 1972 and P. spindella DeLong & Freytag, 1972 , misspelled as ‘ gelara ’ and ‘ spinella ’ by the author.

The other three species described in this paper, P. tortora , P. scutica , and P. cochlea are compared with species of the subgenus Nihilana , and have genital features compatible with the subgenus Nihilana (male pygofer with pair of processes with hooked apex and aedeagus without pair of lateral processes at base) and therefore are correctly placed in Nihilana .

Considering that the information in DeLong’s (1980) abstract is valid, the following combinations are proposed: