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).

Four new species of Macrostomus Wiedemann and a checklist of Empididae s. str. (Diptera) from Peru

Twelve Peruvian species of Macrostomus Wiedemann were studied. Macrostomus apicalis (Bezzi, 1909) is redescribed based on female holotype. Four new species are described: M. chelicercus sp. nov. (type-locality: Cuzco, Quincemil), M. contortus sp. nov. (type-locality: Cuzco, Quincemil), M. hyalopteryx sp. nov. (type-locality: Cuzco, Ttio) and M. unilineatus sp. nov. (type-locality: Junin, Oxapampa). A key to the 12 species of Macrostomus found in Peru is presented. A checklist of 50 known species of Peruvian Empididae s. str. is included. Atrichopleura schnusei Bezzi, 1909 is excluded from the Peruvian fauna.

Systematics and phylogeography of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest endemic harvestmen Neosadocus Mello-Leitão, 1926 (Arachnida: Opiliones: Gonyleptidae)

Neosadocus harvestmen are endemic to the Southern Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Although they are conspicuous and display great morphological variation, their evolutionary history and the biogeographical events underlying their diversification and distribution are still unknown. This contribution about Neosadocus includes the following: a taxonomic revision; a molecular phylogenetic analysis using mitochondrial and nuclear markers; an investigation of the genetic structure and species’ diversity in a phylogeographical framework. Our results show that Neosadocus is a monophyletic group and comprises four species: N. bufo, N. maximus, N. robustus and N. misandrus (which we did not find on fieldwork and only studied the female holotype). There is astonishing male polymorphism in N. robustus, mostly related to reproductive strategies. The following synonymies have resulted from this work: “Bunoweyhia” variabilis Mello-Leitão, 1935 = Neosadocus bufo (Mello-Leitão, 1926); and “Bunoweyhia” minor Mello-Leitão, 1935 = Neosadocus maximus (Giltay, 1928). Most divergences occurred during the Miocene, a geological epoch marked by intense orogenic and climatic events in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Intraspecific analyses indicate strong population structure, a pattern congruent with the general behavior and physiological constraints of Neotropical harvestmen.

Revision of the genus Prometopidia Hampson, 1902, with description of the new species P. joshimathensis sp. nov. from West-Himalaya and its subspecies P. j. yazakii ssp. nov. from Nepal (Lepidoptera: Geometridae, Ennominae)

The genus Prometopidia Hampson, 1902 and its type-species P. conisaria Hampson, 1902 are redescribed and newly discovered morphological characters are explained. The female holotype of Prometopidia arenosa Wiltshire, 1961, was studied and the species redescribed, its correct position in Prometopidia is verified. The new species P. joshimathensis sp. nov. is described from Joshimath area in India, Uttarakhand province. Sympatric with P. conisaria at Joshimath, P. joshimathensis also occurs at Shimla, Punjab province, and in central and eastern Nepal. Morphological and genetic differences found in the specimens of Nepal are considered subspecific, justifying the new taxon P. joshimathensis yazakii ssp. nov. Types and specimens of Prometopidia across its whole range of distribution from Afghanistan to Nepal, habitats, genitalia, remarkable morphological characters and DNA barcoding-results are figured.

Taxonomic revision of Guapinannus Wygodzinsky, 1951 (Hemiptera: Schizopteridae), with description of 19 new species

Guapinannus Wygodzinsky, 1951 (Hemiptera: Schizopteridae) was described based on a single female specimen from Costa Rica. Some additional specimens representing this genus have since become available and were incorporated into a comparative male genitalic study across Dipsocoromorpha and into combined molecular and morphological hypotheses of the infraorder. However, the species-level diversity of Guapinannus has remained unexplored and undocumented. Based on examination of 264 specimens from central and South America, we here revise the taxonomy of Guapinannus, describing 19 species as new (Guapinannus anaticulus, sp. n.; Guapinannus artus, sp. n.; Guapinannus auriculus, sp. n.; Guapinannus castigatus, sp. n.; Guapinannus clava, sp. n.; Guapinannus dispar, sp. n.; Guapinannus falcis, sp. n.; Guapinannus graziae, sp. n.; Guapinannus minutus, sp. n.; Guapinannus orbiculatus, sp. n.; Guapinannus plurilobus, sp. n.; Guapinannus policis, sp. n.; Guapinannus robustus, sp. n.; Guapinannus sinuosus, sp. n.; Guapinannus tatumbia, sp. n.; Guapinannus tenuis, sp. n.; Guapinannus tergus, sp. n.; Guapinannus trilobus, sp. n.; Guapinannus uncus, sp. n.). In addition, we provide photos of the female holotype of Guapinannus bierigi Wygodzinsky, 1951, SEM documentation for Guapinannus clava, sp. n., habitus photos and a map for all species, and line drawings of male genitalic features for all species for which males are known.

Systematics and phylogeography of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest endemic harvestmen Neosadocus Mello-Leitão, 1926 (Arachnida: Opiliones: Gonyleptidae)

Neosadocus harvestmen are endemic to the Southern Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Although they are conspicuous and display great morphological variation, their evolutionary history and the biogeographical events underlying their diversification and distribution are still unknown. This contribution about Neosadocus includes the following: a taxonomic revision; a molecular phylogenetic analysis using mitochondrial and nuclear markers; an investigation of the genetic structure and species' diversity in a phylogeographical framework. Our results show that Neosadocus is a monophyletic group and comprises four species: N. bufo, N. maximus, N. robustus and N. misandrus (which we did not find on fieldwork and only studied the female holotype). There is astonishing male polymorphism in N. robustus, mostly related to reproductive strategies. The following synonymies have resulted from this work: Bunoweyhia variabilis Mello-Leitão, 1935 = Neosadocus bufo (Mello-Leitão, 1926); and Bunoweyhia minor Mello-Leitão, 1935 = Neosadocus maximus (Giltay, 1928). Most divergences occurred during the Miocene, a geological epoch marked by intense orogenic and climatic events in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Intraspecific analyses indicate strong population structure, a pattern congruent with the general behavior and physiological constraints of Neotropical harvestmen.

Stenocephus janseni sp. nov., a new species of stem-sawfly from Germany (Hymenoptera: Cephidae)

Stenocephus janseni sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Cephidae) is described from Brandenburg, eastern Germany, known only from the female holotype. It possesses an unusual combination of “generic” morphological characters, which makes its placement in Stenocephus Shinohara, 1999 provisional. Compared to other Stenocephus species, differences in the morphology of the lancet are particularly striking. Genetic data for S. janseni sp. nov. place it unequivocally in the Hartigiini, but rather distantly from other genera of this tribe which have so far been sequenced. The three previously described Stenocephus species are recorded from the East Palaearctic. No genetic data are currently available for these. Pachycephus nigratus Dovnar-Zapolskij, 1931, comb. restit., is no longer treated as belonging to Phylloecus Newman, 1838, but as a member of the genus in which it was originally described.

Rediscovering the poorly-known Neotropical katydid Hyperomerus crassipes Redtenbacher, 1891 (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Conocephalinae: Agraeciini): description of male reveals the synonymic status of Uchuca Giglio-Tos, 1898

Hyperomerus Redtenbacher is a genus of Neotropical katydid with only one species, H. crassipes. For more than one hundred years, the only specimen known was the female holotype. Now, more three exemplars were found deposited in the Zoological Collection of the Universidade Federal do Amazonas in Brazil, including the unknown male, which reveals the congeneric status with Uchuca Giglio-Tos species and, consequently, this last genus is being made a junior synonym of Hyperomerus. Additionally, H. crassipes is redescribed, and the records of all species now included within the genus Hyperomerus are updated.

Opaepupu, a new genus and species of bivalve-associated shrimp (Decapoda: Caridea: Palaemonidae) from Hawai’i

A new palaemonid shrimp genus, Opaepupu gen. nov., is established to accommodate a new species of bivalve-associated shrimp, Opaepupu huna sp. nov. from Hawaii. A single mated pair, the female holotype and the male allotype, were found inside the trapezid bivalve Trapezium oblongum (Linnaeus, 1758) at a depth of 14 m in Kâne’ohe Bay, Hawai’i. The new genus is characterised by the rostrum being proximally broad, distally pointed, mid-dorsally carinate, and non-dentate; the anterolateral margin of the carapace without supraorbital, hepatic or epigastric teeth, but with a strong sharp antennal tooth; the sixth pleonite posteriorly unarmed; the telson medially depressed, with the dorsal surface armed with two pairs of submarginal cuspidate setae and with the posterior margin armed with two pairs of spiniform setae; the distolateral angle of the first article of the antennular peduncle without a sharp tooth; the mandible without a palp; the maxillular palp furnished with one long stiff seta dorsal to a small tooth-like extension; the first maxilliped without a palp; the third maxilliped not being operculate; the second pereiopods moderately robust, relatively slender, subequal, subsymmetrical, with simple teeth on the cutting edges of the fingers; the ambulatory pereiopods being slender, each ending in an elongate biunguiculate dactylus; and the uropodal exopod with a faint diaeresis and greatly reduced distolateral spiniform seta. The phylogenetic position of Opaepupu gen. nov. remains unclear, although it does not appear to be closely related to other bivalve-associated palaemonid genera.

Description of a second deep-water species in the alpheid shrimp genus Bannereus Bruce, 1988 (Malacostraca: Caridea)

Bannereus chani sp. nov. (Caridea: Alpheidae) is described based on a single female specimen collected off south-eastern Taiwan, at a depth of 301–356 m, being the second only species in the genus Bannereus Bruce, 1988. The ovigerous female holotype of the new species differs from the female holotype of B. anomalus Bruce 1988, the type species of the genus, by a series of important morphological characters, for instance, on the major cheliped and third pereiopod, strongly indicating that they represent two distinct species. The non-type male specimen tentatively identified as B. anomalus by Bruce (1988) may well belong to the new species, since it differs from the holotype of B. anomalus essentially by the same criteria as the female holotype of B. chani sp. nov. In addition, B. anomalus is newly recorded from the New Caledonian side of the Coral Sea.