Thirteen new species of Urucumania (Phasmatodea: Pseudophasmatidae) stick insects from Brazil and Bolivia

Abstract

Stick insects (Phasmatodea) in general are remarkable for presenting striking camouflage-related adaptations. Even so, a considerable number of species are colorful and present other defense mechanisms, such as the New World lineage Pseudophasmatidae. Within this family, Urucumania currently comprises two described species occurring in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, both of which have small scale-like wings. Urucumania is currently placed in Anisomorphini. However, two similar species under Pseudophasma present remarkable similarities with Urucumania species. These two species, Pseudophasma nigrovittatum and Pseudophasma dentata, are the only Pseudophasma presenting scale-like wings. Both inhabit Brazil, are known from a single sex and present a generally similar coloration pattern contrasting to that of Urucumania. Aiming to resolve whether these and other similar specimens represent distinct species, and if they belong to Urucumania rather than to Pseudophasma, we conducted a careful analysis of the external morphology of both sexes, eggs and the male genitalia. We transfer both scale-like winged Pseudophasma to Urucumania, redescribing them based on both sexes showing that the two described species are in fact distinct, and furthermore present 13 new species of Urucumania from Brazil and Bolivia: Urucumania pirulai sp. n., U. varellai sp. n., U. guadanuccii sp. n., U. atilai sp. n., U. intervalica sp. n., U. brasil sp. n., U. tapirape sp. n., U. rasocatarinensis sp. n., U. dilatata sp. n., U. sertaneja sp. n., U. albopunctata sp. n., U. oriomadeirensis sp. n. and U. candanga sp. n.