Spintherophyta ignita ( Lefèvre, 1877 )

Gómez-Zurita, Jesús & Maes, Jean-Michel, 2022, New Genera and Species Records of Nicaraguan Eumolpinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Including a New Species in a New Generic Record for Central America, Neotropical Entomology 51 (5), pp. 705-721 : 716

Spintherophyta ignita ( Lefèvre, 1877)

( Figs. 1e , 5i )

New species record: JGZC: female ( JGZC-1304 ), Río San Juan, El Castillo, refugio Bartola , 10°58′37.19″N 84°20′12.33″W, 79 m, 3–6 November 2008, J.-M. Maes leg., Spintherophyta ignita (Lef.) J. Gómez-Zurita det. 2022 .

Lefèvre (1877) described Chrysodina ignita , one of the largest (4.0– 4.5 mm) species of Chrysodina , of golden purple color, with metallic legs and four basal antennomeres pale, darkened dorsally on scape. Jacoby (1881) commented on the possibility that this species could be the same as C. fuscitarsis Lefèvre, 1877 , also metallic purple dorsally, but slightly smaller (3.5–4.0 mm) and with five basal antennomeres fulvous and tarsi and apex of tibiae darker. Bechyné (1951) recognized dark violaceous forms of C. ignita in Costa Rica (=ab. supraviolacea). The specimen from Nicaragua, which fits the description of Spintherophyta , is a large (4.7 mm) female, dark violaceous blue, with four pale antennomeres basally and scape with a dark dorsal spot, and can be tentatively classified as Spintherophyta ignita (Lefèvre) . We document it here ( Fig. 1e ) as well as the type of spermatheca ( Fig. 5i ) to assist its interpretation in the future. This species has been reported from Mexico and Costa Rica ( Bechyné 1951; Flowers 1996) and the Nicaraguan record would help bridging the gap between these distant localities.

Figures

Fig. 1 Dorsal views of some of the new records of Nicara- guan Eumolpinae in the tribe Eumolpini, including Antity- pona submetallica (Jacoby) (a), Brachypnoea modesta animato- ria (Bechyné) (b), Caryonoda funebris n. sp. (c), Chrysodi- nopsis cupriceps (Lefèvre) (d), Spintherophyta ignita (Lefèvre) (e), and S. minuta (Jacoby) (f). Scale bar=1.0 mm

Fig. 5 Spermathecae of Brachypnoea modesta anima- toria (Bechyné) (a), Chrysodi- nopsis cupriceps (Lefèvre) (b), Colaspis jalapae (Bechyné) (c), Megascelis spinipes Jacoby (d), Metachroma panamense Blake (e), Nodocolaspis femoralis (Lefèvre) (f), Paria nigritar- sis Jacoby (g), Rhabdopterus uncotibialis (Blake) (h), Spintherophyta ignita (Lefèvre) (i), S. minuta (Jacoby) (j), Talurus tortonesei Bechyné (k), Typophorus apicicornis Jacoby (l), T. cyanipennis Lefèvre (m), and T. subbrunneus Jacoby (n). Scale bar=0.2 mm