Malacoscylus licae, Júnior & Souza & Machado & Iannuzzi, 2025

Malacoscylus licae sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:

Figs 2, 4

Diagnosis

Frons does not have projections in males ( Fig. 4D). Elytral tegument is mostly dark brown, with two contrasting yellowish areas, one along the elytral suture at the basal half, and another sublaterally along area of the humeral carina, both covered by dense yellow pubescence; elytron with one pair of prominent longitudinal striae dorsally, from the base until the apical region, about equally placed on the area between the elytral suture and humeral carina, subequal to the humeral carina in length, fused in the apical region; with humerus rounded ( Fig. 4A). Metaventrite with large very depressed area at the mid-posterior region ( Fig. 4B).

Etymology

The specific epithet is a feminine genitive noun, in honor of Prof. Dr Lica Haseyama, a Brazilian entomologist specialist on Diptera .

Type material

Holotype

BRAZIL – Bahia • ♂; Amargosa , Faz.[enda] Sr. Alcides – Boqueirão Colonha; 13°08′11′′ S, 39°39′46′′ W; elev. 544 m; 18 Jul. 2009; A.R. Calor and L.C. Lecci leg.; light; J.O. Silva Jr det. 2025; MZSP 50307 View Materials . GoogleMaps

Description

Holotype (male)

COLORATION. Tegument mostly dark brown; brown on gulamentum, mandible at basal half and post-mid region, labrum at lateral margin, anteclypeus at anterolateral portion, postclypeus at anterior margin, gena at anterior margin and posterior region, frons at posterior region, vertex (except sublateral portion, dark brown), antennal tubercle at inner portion, antennal socket at anterior portion, prosternal process, elytron at lateral margin at basal half (except anterior portion, light brown), mesoventral process at posterior and mid portions, and coxae partially; black on mandible at apical region; orangish on most of labrum (except lateral margin, brown), most of anteclypeus (except anterolateral portion, brown), most of postclypeus (except anterior margin, brown), frons at anterior and mid regions, gena at anterior region (except anterior margin, brown), and tarsal claws partially; yellowish on maxillary palpomeres I–III, labial palpomeres I–II, antennomere IV at basal and mid portions, antennomeres V–IX at basal rings, pronotum at lateral portion, coxae partially, trochanters, profemur at basal and mid portions, mesofemur at basal half, and metafemur at basal portion; light brown on maxillary and labial palpi at apex of distal article, and coxae partially; reddish brown on tarsal claws partially.

HEAD. Mandible mostly glabrous, with dense light yellow pubescence on laterobasal half; with simple apex, with slight median reentrance. Labrum rounded at anterior and lateral margins; with small punctures arranged on mid row; with yellow long erect setae medially. Anteclypeus with anterior margin straight and lateral margin oblique. Postclypeus smooth, slightly concave medially at anterior margin; covered by light yellow pubescence, mostly sparse, dense on anterolateral portion, with a pair of long yellow erect setae in each side on anterior margin laterally. Frons wider than long, strongly oblique towards posterior axis (lateral view), slightly depressed at posterior region in area between antennal tubercle; sparsely covered by light yellow pubescence, with dense yellow pubescence on small area at posterolateral portion near antennal tubercle, with some yellowish and brownish long erect setae; with medium-sized and large punctures on mid and posterior regions, denser and larger posteriorly. Gena with anterolateral margin oblique (frontal view); densely covered by light yellow pubescence on anterior region (except anterior margin, glabrous), finely covered by brownish pubescence on mid region, densely covered by yellow pubescence on posterior region in area near vertex, with a few long yellowish erect setae; with small punctures densely distributed in mid and posterior portions. Antennal tubercle moderately prominent, sparsely covered by brown setae, denser along margin surrounding eye. Lower eye lobe slightly widened laterally, with anterior margin rounded, inner and posterior margins oblique, divided by upper eye lobe by two rows of ommatidia; upper eye lobes distant one each other about 2.5 times one lobe width, subelliptical, wider at inner portion. Vertex densely covered by yellow pubescence on lateral region and along mid-longitudinal stripe, sparse on posterior region, finely covered by brownish pubescence on sublateral portion, with sparse long yellowish erect setae; with small punctures densely distributed, sparser medially. Antennal socket with tuft of light brown short erect setae on area near scape. Antenna longer than body; sparsely covered by brown pubescence, with sparse dark short erect setae, dense on dorsal surface of antennomeres III–V, with sparse dark long erect setae on ventral face of all antennomeres, dense on scape at apical region, pedicel, and antennomere III, forming moderately dense fringe on antennomere III. Scape gradually widened from base until mid region, subequal at apical half in width, with slight curvature at inner face basally. Pedicel wider at apical half. Antennomere III a little wider at apex. Antennal formula based on antennomere III length: scape = 0.45, pedicel = 0.12, IV = 0.35, V = 0.22, VI = 0.18, VII = 0.18, VIII = 0.15, IX = 0.15, X = 0.13, XI = 0.14.

PROTHORAX. Slightly projected laterally at mid portion, with posterior margin wider than anterior margin; sparsely covered by yellowish pubescence on pronotum centrally, propleura, prosternum, and prosternal process, with very dense coverage of light yellow pubescence on lateral region of pronotum (partially hiding tegument), forming oblique band between anterior and posterior margins, with a few long brownish and yellowish erect setae, more abundant on pronotum; with small and medium-sized punctures moderately distributed on pronotum centrally and propleura. Pronotum with one mid-central tubercle slightly prominent, with surface slightly fallen at posterior region (lateral view). Prosternal process slender, slightly widened towards posterior region, strongly expanded laterally at posterior region.

PTEROTHORAX. Scutellum with lateral and posterior margins rounded; sparsely covered by yellowish pubescence on anterior portion, denser on posterior portion. Elytron mostly sparsely covered by brownish pubescence, with abundant short dark brown erect setae along all surface, with some light brown and yellowish short erect setae, with dense yellow longitudinal pubescent bands on elytral suture at basal half, on more proximal dorsal stria from base until post-mid region, interspersed with light brown pubescence on post-mid region, on more distal dorsal stria from mid until post-mid region, interspersed with light brown pubescence, on humeral carina from base until post-mid region, wider basally, and on lateral margin on basal half, connected with band on humeral carina basally, sparser and interspersed with brown pubescence, except basally; with small punctures densely distributed, sparser and smaller apically; humeral carina from base until apical region, slightly fallen posteriorly; elytral apex rounded. Pterothoracic sclerites sparsely covered by brownish pubescence on mesanepisternum, mesepimeron, metanepisternum, metepimereon, and metaventrite laterally, sparsely covered by greyish pubescence on mesoventrite, mesoventral process, and metaventrite centrally, with a few long brownish erect setae. Mesoventral process with slight mid-longitudinal short ridge in anterior portion, slightly narrowed from anterior until mid portion, with mid-posterior portion strongly widened, with posterior margin rounded.

LEGS. Coxae and trochanters sparsely covered by yellowish pubescence, denser on posterior region of mesocoxa, meso- and metatrochanters with long light yellow curved setae on apical portion. Femora subequal in length; mostly sparsely covered by yellowish pubescence, with dense light yellow pubescence on profemur at anterior surface and on meso- and metafemora at posterior surface. Tibiae slightly expanded towards apex; mostly moderately covered by brown pubescence, moderately covered with short and long dark brown setae along all surface, more frequent on outer face and apically, interspersed with long light brown erect setae on apical region, with dense light yellow pubescence on inner face of protibia at mid region and apical half. Tarsi sparsely covered by brown pubescence, with dense light brown pubescence on tarsomeri IV ventrally, moderately covered with short and long dark brown erect setae along all surface, more frequent laterally, with dense light yellow long setae on tarsomeri IV at apical margin; tarsomeri I shorter than tarsomeri II–III in length, tarsomeri V subequal to tarsomeri I–IV in length. Tarsal claws bifid and divergent, with inner teeth about two thirds of outer teeth length.

ABDOMEN. Ventrites sparsely covered by greyish pubescence centrally, a little denser on ventrite V, moderately covered by brown pubescence laterally, with dense greyish pubescence on posterior margin of ventrites I–IV, with sparse long light brown erect setae along all surface, denser on lateral margin of ventrites, very dense on posterior margin of ventrite V; ventrites I–II and IV–V wider at anterior region, slightly narrowed towards posterior margin (strongly narrowed on ventrite V), ventrite III constricted anteriorly, with anterior region narrower, slightly widened towards posterior margin; ventrite V subequal to ventrite IV in length, with posterior margin straight.

MEASUREMENTS (mm). Total length: 9.28, elytral length: 6.72, pronotum length: 1.53, humeral width: 2.66, pronotum width: 2.13, genal width: 1.38.

Remarks

The new species is diagnosed by the following character set: distinct elytral coloration pattern, apical fusion of the two dorsal elytral striae, and the strongly depressed area in the metaventrite. The new species shares with its congeneric species the shape of the scape, slightly curved on the inner face basally, and antennomere III very elongated, more than twice as long as antennomere IV, with fringes of dense black setae on its inner face. A pair of dorsal striae on the elytron is also present in other species of Malacoscylus (e.g., M. cirratus and M. xanthotaenius ), but the fusion of these striae apically was never previously described in the genus. This type of fusion of dorsal striae or carina in Hemilophini is also present in Acabanga Martins & Galileo, 1991 and Lycidola Thomson, 1864 . Malacoscylus is known from South America , with species distributed in the Amazon or Atlantic Forest. In Brazil, four species are known from the Southeast and South regions ( Tavakilian & Chevillotte 2024). Hence, the new species represents the first record of Malacoscylus for the Brazilian Northeast Region ( Fig. 2).

Comments on the genus

Malacoscylus has some similar genera in Hemilophini , as defined by Martins & Galileo (1991a), where they discussed the differences with Tyrinthia Bates, 1886 , and described two related genera to comprise species classified in Malacoscylus at that time: Lamacoscylus Martins & Galileo, 1991 and Sybaguasu Martins & Galileo, 1991 . Although this and other works ( Martins & Galileo 1991b, 2014b; Galileo & Martins 1998) focusing on these genera are useful to separate each other and their species, they rely upon a series of shared characters, e.g., frons with projections in the males (some species of Malacoscylus , Sybaguasu , and Tyrinthia ), scape curved basally ( Malacoscylus and Sybaguasu ), fringes of dense setae on the inner face of antennomeres III or III–IV ( Malacoscylus and Tyrinthia ), presence of conspicuous dorsal striae on the elytron (forming a dorsal carina in some species of Lamacoscylus ), and body length short in general ( Martins & Galileo 1991a, 2014b). There are so far no phylogenetic studies on these genera, and possibly at least part of them are paraphyletic or polyphyletic. We hope for future phylogenetic and revision works focused on these genera to better understand the relationships among them and the classification of their species. In Malacoscylus , many species present a coloration pattern similar to net-winged beetles ( Lycidae ) (e.g., M. cirratus and M. auricomus ), varying between dark and yellow shades, especially noticeable in the pronotum and elytron, besides the presence of distinct elytral striae ( Linsley 1961). The new species also presents this coloration pattern. Besides, apparently, some species are similar to fireflies ( Lampyridae ) in their coloration pattern (e.g., M. fasciatus , M. nearnsi , and M. xanthotaenius ) (see photos in Bezark 2025).