Tachycines ( Gymnaeta ) montana, Feng & Xiao & Zhao, 2025

Tachycines ( Gymnaeta) montana sp. nov.

( Figs. 3–5 View FIGURE 3 View FIGURE 4 View FIGURE 5 )

Description. Male. Body medium size ( Figs. 3A–C View FIGURE 3 ). Vertex of head divided into two conical tubercles, bases of the well-developed tubercles drawn together, obtusely rounded apices separated ( Fig. 3D View FIGURE 3 ). Eyes normal, not reduced; ocelli distinct ( Fig. 3D View FIGURE 3 ). Anterior margin of pronotum straight, posterior margin protruding caudad, ventral margin arc-shaped ( Fig. 3E View FIGURE 3 ); posterior margin of mesonotum protruding caudad; posterior margin of metanotum protruding caudad.

Legs long and slender. Coxae with small medial projections. Fore femur about 1.8 times longer than the pronotum, ventrally unarmed, internal genicular lobe with 1 small spine, external genicular lobe with 1 long spine; fore tibia ventrally with 1 inner spine and 2 outer spines, apex with 1 small outer spine on dorsal surface and 1 pair of long spines on ventral surface, between the paired ventral spines with 1 small spine. Middle femur ventrally unarmed, internal and external genicular lobes with 1 long spine respectively; middle tibiae ventrally with 1 inner spine and 1 outer spine, apex with 1 pair of dorsal spines and 1 pair of ventral spines, between the paired ventral spines with 1 small spine. Hind femur ventrally unarmed; hind tibia dorsally with 67–76 inner spines and 73–76 outer spines, arrange in groups, ventral and dorsal surface with a pair of small subapical spines respectively, apex with 1 pair of long dorsal spines and 1 pair of long ventral spines; the longest dorso-apical spine not exceeding the dorso-apical spine of hind metatarsus ( Fig. 3F View FIGURE 3 ). Hind metatarsus keeled beneath.

Abdominal sternites with short ventral projections. Epiphallus of male genitalia like the shape of “H”, the upper and lower end notched; median lobe of genitalia with 1 pair of apical lobules, divided by a deep notch; paired lateral sclerites rather large; dorsal and ventral pairs of lateral lobes almost equal in length ( Figs. 3G, H View FIGURE 3 ).

Female. General appearance like that of male ( Figs. 4A–C View FIGURE 4 ). Ovipositor shorter than the half of hind femur; base of ovipositor broad, narrowing to apex; apex pointed and slightly curved upwards; almost indistinct denticles on ventral edge of distal part of inferior valves ( Fig. 4D View FIGURE 4 ). Subgenital plate with median lobe rounded triangular ( Fig. 4E View FIGURE 4 ).

Coloration. Body brown, mottled with dark brown blotches. The two conical tubercles of vertex black. Face with 2 light brown longitudinal stripes under eyes. Legs with brown annular stripes.

Material examined. Holotype: 1♂, Lianhua Cave, Puding County, Anshun City , Guizhou Province, 7.IX.2024, coll. Jie Xiao, Zhengxue Zhao & Xueli Feng. Paratypes: 5♂, 12♀, same data as the holotype .

Measurements (mm). Body: ♂ 12.06–16.12, ♀ 13.50–14.28; pronotum: ♂ 5.00–5.60, ♀ 5.42–5.62; fore femur: ♂ 11.44–12.75, ♀ 10.80–12.46; hind femur: ♂ 22.00–22.27, ♀ 23.00–24.10; ovipositor: ♀ 10.00–10.08.

Distribution. China ( Guizhou).

Discussion. T. ( G.) montana sp. nov. and species T. ( G.) Lianhuaensis sp. nov. were collected from Lianhua Cave ( Figs. 5A, B View FIGURE 5 ), but the two new species are distributed in different spatial niches, with T. ( G.) montana sp. nov. living in the cave entrance and T. ( G.) Lianhuaensis sp. nov. living in dark places in a deep cave. While T. ( G.) Lianhuaensis sp. nov. showing apparent troglomorphic features, is a clear cave-adapted species, the morphology of T. ( G.) montana sp. nov. does not show significant degradation. A similar situation was reported by Feng et al. (2020) for the Shuangcha Cave in Guizhou, where T. ( G.) shuangcha lives together with the less cave adapted species T. ( G.) tongrenus ( Feng et al., 2020) .

Etymology. The specific epithet pertains to the fact that this species inhabits mountainous regions.