Apagomerella nordestina, Júnior & Souza & Machado & Iannuzzi, 2025

Apagomerella nordestina sp. nov.

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Figs 2–3

Diagnosis

Scape with orangish tegument mostly on the ventral surface, dark brown on the remaining surface ( Fig. 3A–B). Prothorax with anterior margin narrower than the posterior margin ( Fig. 3A). Pronotum is densely covered with light yellow pubescence laterally and on the post-mid portion centrally, mostly hiding the tegument ( Fig. 3A). Elytra do not have light pubescence on the elytral suture and lateral margin ( Fig. 3A, C). Ventrites II–IV are densely covered by light yellow pubescence laterally, hiding the tegument ( Fig. 3B).

Etymology

The specific epithet ‘ nordestina ’ is the feminine gentilic of the Brazilian Northeast Region. Noun in apposition.

Type material

Holotype

BRAZIL – Pernambuco • ♀; Santa Cruz do Capibaribe, Serra do Pará; [ 7°51′58′′ S, 36°24′3′′ W]; F.M.G. Las-Casas leg.; J.O. Silva Jr det. 2025; CE-UFPE 008037 . GoogleMaps

Description

Holotype (female)

COLORATION. Tegument mostly dark brown; yellow in part of maxilla; light brown in part of maxilla, and labium (except palpomeres); orangish on mandible at basal half, posterior region of anteclypeus, most of postclypeus (except lateroanterior margin, dark brown), most of frons (except slender mid-lateral area adjacent to antennal tubercle, dark brown), most of gena (except posterolateral area behind lower ocular lobe, dark brown), vertex, antennal socket, scape at ventral face (except basally and apically, brownish and dark brown, respectively), pedicel at basal ring, most of antennomere III (except midbasal portion dorsally and apical ring, dark brown), most of antennomeres IV–VII (except apical rings, dark brown), antennomere VIII at basal half, antennomeres IX–XI at basal rings, most of pronotum and propleura (except posterior regions, dark brown), mesonotum at small area medially, elytron at outer margin at basal half, procoxa, most of mesocoxa (except mid portion, dark brown), trochanters, profemur, mesofemur at basal half and subapical portion, protibia at basal region and ventrally at basal half and post-mid portion, mesotibia at basal half ventrally, and part of tergum; black on mandible at apical region, labrum, and anteclypeus at anterior region; brownish on distal palpomeres at apex, antennal tubercle at inner portion posteriorly, scape at basal ring, prosternum, prosternal process, elytron at inner margin basally, mesoventral process, metepimerom medially, and metafemur at basal region and inner face; reddish-brown on tarsal claws.

HEAD. Maxilla and labium sparsely covered by brownish pubescence, except labial palpomere II, moderately covered by whitish pubescence. Mandible mostly glabrous, covered by dense white pubescence on laterobasal half, with some long yellow erect setae; with apex bifid, with superior tooth longer than inferior tooth. Labrum rounded at anterior and lateral margins; with some large punctures and long yellow erect setae medially. Anteclypeus with anterior margin slightly convex and lateral margin oblique. Postclypeus with anterior margin straight, moderately covered by white pubescence, sparser centrally. Frons strongly oblique towards posterior axis (lateral view), slightly depressed between antennal tubercle; mostly glabrous, with some short white setae surrounding lower eye lobe, sparsely covered by yellowish pubescence on posterior region, with a few brownish long erect setae; with medium-sized and large punctures densely distributed, sparser anteriorly. Gena slightly oblique at anterolateral region, rounded at anterior margin (frontal view), with deep reentrance anteriorly near postclypeus; densely covered by white pubescence at anterior region (except small anterolateral portion, glabrous), sparsely covered by white pubescence on mid region, moderately covered by whitish pubescence on posterior region (except area behind eye, glabrous), with some long light yellow erect setae on anterolateral portion; with small punctures densely distributed on mid and posterior regions. Antennal tubercle moderately prominent, with some brownish setae, densely distributed on area surrounding lower eye lobe, with dense yellowish pubescence on area surrounding upper eye lobe and area behind antennal socket; with some small punctures anteriorly. Lower eye lobe prominent, expanded laterally, more than two times anterior region of gena in length (frontal view), rounded at anterior and outer margins, slightly convex at inner margin, and oblique at posterior margin, divided from upper eye lobe by three rows of ommatidia in narrowest area; upper eye lobes distant one each other about 1.5 times one lobe width, subelliptical, wider at inner portion. Vertex slightly convex, moderately covered by yellowish pubescence, sparser medially, with a few brownish long erect setae; with small punctures densely distributed. Antennal socket mostly glabrous, moderately covered by yellowish pubescence on posterior margin. Antenna a little shorter than body; finely covered by brownish setae, denser dorsally, sparsely covered by yellowish setae on scape ventrally, with some long light yellow erect setae on ventral face of scape, with some long brown erect setae on inner face of all antennomeres, more frequent on antennomeres I–IV, with a few short dark brown, light brown and yellowish erect setae along all surface; scape gradually widened to mid region, subequal in width along posterior region; pedicel and flagellomeres subequal in width; antennomere III slightly curved on ventral face medially; antennomere

IV–XI straight. Antennal formula based on antennomere III length: scape = 0.71, pedicel = 0.14, IV = 0.96, V = 0.5, VI = 0.42, VII = 0.38, VIII = 0.35, IX = 0.31, X = 0.3, XI = 0.33.

PROTHORAX. Slightly widened from anterior margin towards posterior margin; sparsely covered by yellowish pubescence on mid-anterior region of pronotum and on posterior region of prosternum, sparsely covered by whitish pubescence on anterior region of prosternum and on prosternal process, moderately covered by yellowish pubescence on anterior and mid regions of propleura, finely covered by whitish pubescence on posterior region of pronotum and propleura, with a few brownish erect setae on propleura and prosternum, with sparse light yellow and light brown erect setae on pronotum; with small punctures densely distributed on pronotum (visible only in areas not hidden by dense pubescence) and anterior region of propleura. Prosternal process very slender, slightly expanded laterally at posterior region.

PTEROTHORAX. Scutellum with lateral margin oblique and posterior margin straight; finely covered by brownish pubescence. Elytron moderately covered by brown pubescence, sparser at basal region, with abundant short erect dark brown setae along all surface, more frequent on basal region, with short erect light yellow setae on lateral margin at basal half; with medium-sized punctures on basal region dorsally, with small punctures on remaining surface, densely distributed; humerus and apex rounded. Meso- and metathoracic sclerites finely covered by brownish pubescence, except mesoventral process and anterolateral region of metaventrite, moderately covered by yellowish pubescence, and posterior margin of metaventrite, densely covered by whitish pubescence. Mesanepisternum with small punctures, moderately distributed. Mesoventral process subequal in width at anterior portion, slightly expanded laterally at posterior portion.

LEGS. Coxae finely covered by yellowish pubescence on pro- and mesocoxae, brown on metacoxa. Trochanters mostly finely covered by light yellow pubescence, with dense light yellow pubescence on posterior margin, with some long erect light brown setae. Femora mostly sparsely covered by light brown pubescence on pro- and mesofemur, brown on metafemur, with some long erect yellowish and light brown setae, more frequent on posterior region, with dense whitish pubescence on ventral and anterior regions of profemur, with dense light yellow pubescence insterspersed with light brown pubescence on posterior region of mesofemur, with dense light brown pubescence on posterior region of metafemur; mesofemur a little longer than pro- and metafemora. Tibiae slightly expanded from base until post-mid region, subequal until apex in width; sparsely covered by yellowish pubescence on ventral face at basal and mid portions and outer face basally of protibia, brown on ventral face of protibia at apical portion, meso- and metatibiae at basal and mid portions, denser at apical portion, with dense yellowish pubescence on inner face of protibia, with dense light brown pubescence on outer face of mid region of mesotibia and apical region of metatibia, with some short and long erect brown setae on outer face at apical half of protibia, with some short and long erect light brown and brown setae on meso- and metatibiae, more frequent on outer face and apically. Tarsi sparsely covered by brownish pubescence, with some erect and long erect setae along all surface, more frequent marginally, with dense light brown pubescence on ventral face of tarsomeri IV; protarsomerus I subequal to II–IV in length, meso- and metatarsomeri I longer than II–IV, respectively. Tarsal claws bifid and divergent, with inner teeth about a half of outer teeth length.

ABDOMEN. Ventrites sparsely covered by brown pubescence on ventrites I and V totally, ventrite II on mid region and mid-lateral region anteriorly, and ventrites III–IV medially, with dense brown pubescence on posterior margin of ventrite I, and posterior margin of ventrites II–IV medially, with some long erect setae along all surface, brown on areas with brown pubescence and light yellow on areas with light yellow pubescence, more frequent on lateral margin of all ventrites and posterior region of ventrite V; ventrite I wider, with remaining ventrites gradually decreasing in width, ventrites I–IV individually slightly narrowed from anterior towards posterior margin; ventrite V strongly narrowed from anterior towards posterior margin, a little longer than ventrite IV, with shallow median reentrance at posterior margin.

MEASUREMENTS (mm). Total length: 8.07, elytral length: 6, pronotum length: 1.36, humeral width: 1.93, pronotum width: 1.71, genal width: 1.1.

Remarks

The new species is differentiated from the other two species in Apagomerella by the presence of dense light-yellow pubescence on the ventrites; the different pattern of light denser pubescence on the pronotum, on the lateral region and post-mid portion centrally in the new species, only on the lateral region in A. dissimilis , and on the mid-anterior portion and along mid longitudinal band in A. versicolor ; and the absence of light dense pubescence on the elytron along lateral margin, apex, and elytral suture. The new species is herein assigned to Apagomerella because of the following shared characters with its congeneric species: lower ocular lobe longer than anterior portion of the gena in frontal view (not examined in A. dissimilis ); antennomere III filiform, subequal or with similar length to scape and antennomere IV; prothorax without lateral projections; elytron without carinae, with elytral apex rounded; and tarsal claws with inner teeth shorter than outer teeth (not examined in A. dissimilis ). Apagomerella dissimilis is known from Costa Rica, while A. versicolor is distributed in the Brazilian Southeast and South regions, Argentina, and Paraguay ( Tavakilian & Chevillotte 2024). Hence, the new species represents the first record of Apagomerella for the Brazilian Northeast Region ( Fig. 2).

Comments on the genus

Gilmour (1962) described Apagomerella briefly, based only on male specimens of A. suturella (= A. versicolor ), pointing out the scape longer than antennomere III and mesotibia sulcate dorsally. The latter character is in fact absent in A. versicolor , which presents only a dense pubescent coverage on the outer face of mesotibia. This is also the case for the new species. The mesotibial sulcus is a common feature in many groups of Lamiinae (e.g., Acanthoderini and Onciderini ), but it is absent in Hemilophini ( Lacordaire 1872; Martins & Galileo 2014a). The mesotibial sulcus usually is surrounded by a dense coverage of setae, then, possibly for this reason, Gilmour (1962) misinterpreted this character in Apagomerella . Martins & Galileo (2014a) redescribed the genus mentioning, among other characteristics, the antenna reaching the elytral apex in the antennomere IX in females, scape subequal to antennomere III and IV individually in length, antennomere XI about half of antennomere X in length, prothorax wider anteriorly than the “base” [posterior margin], and ventral surface of the body without coverage of dense pubescence [free translation from Portuguese]. Apparently, Martins & Galileo (2014a) based their redescription only on A. versicolor , since this character set does not properly represent A. dissimilis , the other species of the genus. In A. dissimilis , the antenna almost reaches the elytral apex in females (as in the new species), the anterior margin of the prothorax is a little narrower than the posterior margin, and the ventral surface of the body is partially covered by dense pubescence (on the mesoventral sclerites) ( Galileo & Martins 2005). Besides, antennomere XI is subequal or just a little shorter than antennomere X in all the species of the genus. The new species resembles some fireflies ( Lampyridae ) in its coloration pattern, as do the other two species of the genus (see photos in Bezark 2025). This similarity in the coloration pattern with Lampyridae is also observed in many genera of Hemilophini (e.g., Hemilophus Audinet-Serville, 1835 and Pyrobolus Chevrolat, 1838 ), indicating potential mimicry associations among these groups ( Linsley 1961; Nascimento et al. 2010), although there have been no fieldwork studies focused on this topic.