Panabachia winku, Muñoz-Tobar & Caterino, 2025

Panabachia winku sp. nov.

Fig. 4 E View Figure 4

Type material.

Holotype • ♂ ( QCAZ-I -278844 ): “ ECUADOR: Carchi, El Angel, 18.8 km NW R. B. El Angel , 3300 m, 0°42'24"N, 78°0'25"W, 31 OCT 1999; R. Anderson, ECU 1 A 99 217 A, ex: mixed Polylepis / shrub litter ” / “ SM 0362673 KUNHM-ENT ” / “ QCAZ I 278844 ”; deposited in QCAZI GoogleMaps . Paratypes ( 3 ♂, 2 ♀) • 2: same data as type GoogleMaps • 1: same locality as holotype, 3 NOV 1999 GoogleMaps • 2: ECUADOR: Carchi, El Angel , 14.1 km NW R. B. El Angel, 3450 m, 0°42'3"N, 77°58'27"W, 2 NOV 1999, mixed Polylepis litter ( QCAZ-I -278845 , 278775, 278776, 278842, 278843) GoogleMaps .

Other material.

2 ♀: “ ECUADOR: Carchi, 0.70587, -77.96642, El Angel, Saladero , 3301 m, 26 JUL 2016, S. Muñoz & R. Tobar, Ex. Berlese, Páramo de frailejones ” ( QCAZ-I -278817 to 278818) ( SIMT 294 , SIMT 295 ) GoogleMaps .

Diagnosis.

Body dark reddish-brown with faint bronzy sheen, elytra slightly paler than rest of body, very sparsely setose, with most setae recumbent, impunctate; head subquadrate, posterior corners rounded; vertexal foveae deep, not setose, closer to eyes on each side than to each other, with shallow depressions extending anterad; eyes protuberant but not large, diameter ~ 2 / 3 postocular genal length; antennal bases slightly raised, with short stria behind, finely emarginate over insertions; pair of gular fovea present; antennae short, antennomere I slightly curved, ~ 2.5 × as long as wide, II ovoid, ~ 2 / 3 length of I, III subconical, slightly longer than wide, IV – VII weakly subquadrate, VIII transverse, shorter, IX – XI forming loose club, XI ~ 2 × as long as X; male pronotum (Fig. 4 E View Figure 4 ) wider than long, widest just anterad middle, weakly angulate, evenly narrowed to front, base slightly constricted; anteromedial portion of disk with wide, shallowly V-shaped depression, mostly glabrous with small cluster of setae at anterior midpoint; very shallow secondary depressions present on each side of pronotum, posterolaterad main anterior depression; each elytron with four basal fovea, the lateral pair very close together; no subhumeral fovea or stria; flight wings present; prosternum very short, with anterior prosternal foveae at anterior corner of hypomeron; legs simple, mesotrochanter slightly toothed in the mid-section; male metaventrite swollen, with shallow depression and dense cluster of slightly flattened setae between metacoxae; 1 st abdominal ventrite with fine median carina; male last abdominal ventrite broadly depressed and setose, opposing margin of last tergite also widened, depressed, and setose. Aedeagus indistinguishable from that of preceding species (Fig. 6 D View Figure 6 ). TL 1.56–1.64 mm, EW 0.35–0.39 mm.

Distribution.

This species is only known from páramo habitats of central Carchi province, Ecuador.

Etymology.

The species name comes from a Kichwa word meaning ‘ curved’, which refers both to the slightly curved pronotal modification and the metatibia.

Remarks.

This species has a virtually identical aedeagus to the four preceding species. The pronotum (Fig. 4 E View Figure 4 ), however, is unambiguously distinct, with an almost glabrous, shallowly V-shaped anterior impression with very shallow secondary depressions at the sides. This species likely corresponds to one of two species previously only known from females from the same general area (lineages 10 or 13 from Muñoz-Tobar and Caterino 2020). Morphology suggests that this newly described species may be from lineage 10. Those females are slightly larger, with a more nearly angulate, anteriorly widest pronotum, and show a slight swelling of the metaventrite, more fully expressed in the male. Future work that is able to sequence fresh males of this species will be necessary to evaluate this suggestion.