A new species of Leptoconops Skuse from Argentina, description of the male of L. casali Cavalieri & Chiossone and a key to the Neotropical species (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

A new species, Leptoconops (Proleptoconops) chacoensis, is described and photographed from a female collected in a forest area of the Chaco province, Argentina. This is the first record of the subgenus L. (Proleptoconops) Clastrier from the Neotropical region south of Mexico, and the new species is compared with L. (P.) werneri Wirth & Atchley from southern USA and Mexico and L. (P.) aviarum from Tajikistan. Besides, the first description of the male of L. (Leptoconops) casali Cavalieri & Chiossone is provided, from males collected associated with females in La Rioja and La Pampa provinces, Argentina, and this species is newly recorded from several areas of the country, significantly enlarging its geographical distribution. In addition, a key to Neotropical species of the genus is provided.

An unknown world in the Neotropical region: a complete life cycle of a new species of Monoclona Mik, 1886 (Diptera: Mycetophilidae: Sciophilinae)

Popularly known as fungus gnats, Mycetophilidae are found in humid environments usually associated with mushrooms and decaying wood. Their immature forms often feed on fungus fruiting bodies. Similar to most bibionomorphans, mycetophilids need due attention concerning their taxonomy and information on their natural history, especially in the Neotropical region. This work describes Monoclona carambeiensis sp. nov., a new species of Monoclona Mik, and furnishes information on the morphology of adults and immatures, besides notes and photographs on the life cycle of the species. Immature forms present on a piece of decaying wood with lichens and fungi were collected from Carambeí, Paraná, and reared in the laboratory. The emerged adult male was fixed in 80% ethanol. This is the first study describing an immature of a Neotropical species of Monoclona, and also the first record of the genus in the state of Paraná, Brazil. This is the third Neotropical species of Mycetophilidae to have its life cycle described, for a fauna with over 1,100 known species.

Two new species of the genera Acerastes and Messatoporus (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Cryptini) from Mexico

Two species of the tribe Cryptini (Hymenoptera: Icneumonidae: Cryptinae), Acerastes nervellatus sp. nov. and Messatoporus atratus sp. nov., are described from Mexico. It is shown that Neotropical species of the genera Messatoporus Cushman, 1929 (90 species) and Polycyrtus Spinola, 1840 (155 species) in North and South Americas are mostly different, and only 2–6% of the species of these genera occur in both faunas. It suggests a high degree of isolation of these faunas from each other.

Contributions to the knowledge of Neotropical Castianeirinae (Araneae: Corinnidae): redescription of Castianeira spinipalpis Mello-Leitão, 1945, with first description of the male, and description of a new Myrmecotypus O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1894 from the Bolivian Moxos plains

Two Neotropical species of the subfamily Castianeirinae are treated herein. Castianeira spinipalpis Mello-Leitão, 1945 was described from a single female specimen; we provide a redescription of the female and the male is described for the first time. The species is newly recorded from Paraguay and Bolivia. Also, Myrmecotypus rubioi sp. nov. is described from the Bolivian Moxos plains, a tropical savanna ecoregion of the Beni department of northern Bolivia. The new species can be distinguished from others in the genus by having tibia I spination 3-2, coxa II whitish (the remainder dark), and a unique male palpal embolus with two broad embolic discs basal to the embolus tip.

A reappraisal of the taxonomy of Neotropical Sialidae (Insecta: Megaloptera): with the description of a new genus from Cuba

The unique Neotropical species of the alderfly genus Protosialis van der Weele, 1909, P. bifasciata (Hagen, 1861), is herein transferred to the newly described genus Caribesialis gen. nov. This new taxon is proposed to be sister to the clade Protosialis + Sialis Latreille, 1802, after a phylogenetic analysis that included male genital characters scored on a previous morphological matrix of the family. Also, Ilyobius nigrocephalus sp. nov., a remarkable new species from Ecuador, is described and its phylogenetic position is discussed. Furthermore, Ilyobius bimaculatus (Banks, 1920) from Bolivia, known solely from the female holotype, is redescribed. Based on the present study, the Neotropical fauna of Sialidae is proposed to be constituted by two genera, one insular (Cuba) and one continental (Mexico to Chile and Argentina).

Semantic-based methods for morphological descriptions: An applied example for Neotropical species of genus Lepidocyrtus Bourlet, 1839 (Collembola: Entomobryidae)

The production of semantic annotations has gained renewed attention due to the development of anatomical ontologies and the documentation of morphological data. Two methods are proposed in this production, differing in their methodological and philosophical approaches: class-based method and instance-based method. The first, the semantic annotations are established as class expressions, while in the second, the annotations incorporate individuals. An empirical evaluation of the above methods was applied in the morphological description of Neotropical species of the genus Lepidocyrtus (Collembola: Entomobryidae: Lepidocyrtinae). The semantic annotations are expressed as RDF triple, which is a language most flexible than the Entity-Quality syntax used commonly in the description of phenotypes. The morphological descriptions were built in Protégé 5.4.0 and stored in an RDF store created with Fuseki Jena. The semantic annotations based on RDF triple increase the interoperability and integration of data from diverse sources, e.g., museum data. However, computational challenges are present, which are related with the development of semi-automatic methods for the generation of RDF triple, interchanging between texts and RDF triple, and the access by non-expert users.

Taxonomic revision of the Neotropical spiders of the genus Idiops Perty, 1833 (Araneae, Idiopidae), with description of four new species

Neotropical species of the genus Idiops Perty, 1833 are reviewed, and four new species are described from Brazil: I. duocordibus Fonseca-Ferreira, Guadanucci & Brescovit sp. nov., I. guri Fonseca-Ferreira, Guadanucci & Brescovit sp. nov., I. mocambo Fonseca-Ferreira, Guadanucci & Brescovit sp. nov. and I. sertania Fonseca-Ferreira, Guadanucci & Brescovit sp. nov. The majority of species are redescribed based on the examination of the types and extensive material. Males of I. petiti (Guérin, 1838), I. rastratus (Pickard-Cambrige, 1889), I. rohdei Karsch, 1886 and I. nilopolensis Mello-Leitão, 1923, and females of I. fuscus Perty, 1833 and I. pirassununguensis Fukami & Lucas, 2005, hitherto unknown, are described for the first time. Idiops nilopolensis, considered a nomen dubium, is revalidated. Idiops fulvipes Simon, 1889 is synonymized with I. argus Simon, 1889, and I. santaremius (Pickard-Cambrige, 1896) is synonymized with I. petiti. Neotypes are designated for Idiops fuscus, I. nilopolensis and I. siolii (Bücherl, 1953). Idiops bonapartei Hasselt, 1888 is considered species inquirendae, since the type is an immature female. Finally, an updated distribution map of Neotropical species is included. The genus now has 24 species in the Neotropical region.

A new species of Myotis (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) from Uruguay

The genus Myotis comprises a diverse group of vesper bats with worldwide distribution. Twenty-eight neotropical species are currently recognized. Based on a morphological approach, we describe a new species of Myotis from the Uruguayan Pampas grasslands, an ecoregion under high anthropogenic pressure with a largely unknown bat fauna. Qualitative and quantitative morphological analyses support the recognition of the new species and we present a set of external and cranial diagnostic characters by comparing them with other neotropical Myotis species. The new species reassembles Myotis riparius, but can be distinguished by a set of qualitative and quantitative morphological traits, including its clearly bicolored dorsal fur, tricolored ventral fur, a pelage on the dorsal surface of uropatagium, sagittal crest lower, braincase lower in lateral view and overall smaller size.

Wing plastic response to temperature variation in two distantly related neotropical Drosophila species (Diptera, Drosophilidae)

Phenotypic plasticity has been described for morphological and life-history traits in many organisms. In Drosophila, temperature drives phenotypic change in several traits, but few neotropical species have been studied and whether the phenotypic variation associated with plasticity is adaptive remains unclear. Here, we studied the phenotypic response to temperature variation in the distant related neotropical species Drosophila mercatorum (Patterson and Wheeler, 1942) and Drosophila willistoni (Sturtevant, 1916). We evaluate if wing shape variation follows that observed in the neotropical species Drosophila cardini (Sturtevant, 1916): round wings at lower temperatures and narrower wings at higher temperatures. The variation in egg-adult development time and wing size, shape, and allometry was described using reaction norms and geometric morphometrics. In both species, development time and wing size decreased with increasing temperature and wing allometry showed that size explained ≈10% of the shape variation. Wing shape, however, exhibited contrasting responses. At higher temperatures, D. mercatorum developed slightly slender wings, following the pattern previously found for D. cardini, while D. willistoni developed plumper and shorter wings, supporting previous studies on Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen, 1830). We conclude that all traits studied here were influenced by temperature, and that wing shape seems also to be influenced by phylogeny.