Panabachia pahuma sp. nov.

Figs 3 A, 4 A, 5 A, 6 A

Type material.

Holotype • ♂ (ZSFQ -i 23395): “ ECUADOR: Pichincha, 0.0182°N, 78.6372°W, El Pahuma Orchid Res., 28. v- 1. vi. 2011, FIT, 2200–2400 m. AT 1329, M. Caterino, A. Tishechkin ” / “ Caterino DNA voucher, Ext. MSC-12635, Morphosp. ElP. A. 034 ”; deposited in ZSFQ.

Diagnosis.

Head (Figs 3 A, 5 I) broad, slightly shagreened, with rather thick short, appressed white setae; lateral vertexal foveae well developed, median fovea absent; antennal bases slightly elevated, defined posteriorly by fine bent stria at anterolateral margins; eyes protuberant, round, diameter ~ 2 / 3 postocular genal width; antennae rather short, antennomere III slightly longer than wide, antennomeres IV – VI beadlike, rounded, VII – IX increasingly transverse, shorter, antennomere X short, crescent-shaped, entirely excavate on inner margin, antennomere XI ~ 2 × as long as X, slightly concave on inner basal face, continuous with concavity of X, bluntly rounded apically, with distinct, round setose depression on outer apical surface; male pronotum (Fig. 4 A) convex in basal 1 / 2, lacking lateral basal foveae, with distinct but non-setose median basal fovea; anterior 1 / 2 of pronotum with bilateral depressions, subcontiguous at middle, anterior edge of depression raised into posteriorly directed, anteriorly triangular, acute process; each elytron with three evenly spaced small basal foveae; sutural stria complete, discal stria absent; legs simple; male last sternite (Fig. 5 A) broadly and ovally depressed, rugosely textured, with five thick basally arched setae at middle of apical margin; male apical tergite short, transverse, with broad, densely setose band along posterior margin. Aedeagus (Fig. 6 A) elongate, with separate accessory sclerites; parameres separate, knobbed at base, converging and fused with median lobe at middle; median lobe narrow, with small, oval basal foramen, distal portion prolonged into a dorsoventrally flattened blade, margins sinuate to uneven, asymmetrical, subtruncate apical margin; each accessory sclerite with thick, round, sclerotized basal knob, with a thin, semi-spiraled process expanded into triangular apical blade. TL 1.44 mm, EW 0.5 mm.

Distribution.

This species is known only from El Pahuma Orchid reserve, Pichincha, Ecuador.

Etymology.

This species is named for its type locality.

Remarks.

The first four species treated here are very similar in genitalic form, having a flattened aedeagus and free accessory sclerites (Fig. 6 A-D). The parameres in these species are all free at the base, fusing with the tegmen around its midpoint (which is also the case in a few species that follow these). The tegmen has a rather small basal foramen, remains wide to near the apex, and has one side entire, the other emarginate. In all of them the accessory sclerites are quite large, with curved inner edges and variously emarginated outer ones.

Given this similarity, the four show remarkably different male pronotal modifications, with one species (P. inornata) exhibiting none whatsoever, and their identification based on external characters is straightforward. Panabachia pahuma has a unique median ‘ horn’ at the anterior margin of the pronotum (Fig. 4 A). It is also unusual in occurring lower than most of the others treated in this paper, known from cloud forest habitats (~ 2500 m) rather than Páramo. There are a few other cloud forest species, but it seems to be a rare excursion from the more typically high elevation habits of this genus.