Kaikaia gaga n. sp. Description. Measurements (mm). Length 9.3; head width 4.9; pronotum width between humeral angles 5.7; width between suprahumeral horn apices 8.7; pronotum length 5.3; forewing length 5.8. Coloration. Overall color dark brownish maroon; supraocular callosities concolorous; vertex, apical suprahumeral horns, posterior process and femora with margins or carinae dark brown or blackish. Forewing hyaline, longitudinal veins brown with vertical, ochraceous yellow band basally. Exposed lateral margins of scutellum concolorous basally with apices yellowish testaceous; visible scutellum length approximately half that of the posterior process. Femora dark chestnut to brownish black; tibiae light ochraceous. Abdomen ferruginous to brownish black. Vestiture. Head, pronotum, and femora sparsely clothed with fine whitish silver setae; thoracic pleuron and abdominal sternum more densely tomentose with wax setae. Pronotum and scutellar apices heavily punctate, each pit associated with a single, fine, recumbent silver seta. Structure. As described for genus. Notes. Extra crossvein partially present on the right forewing between R and M, extending from R but not reaching M. Another, very short crossvein extending from M to the base of R 2+3 and R 4+5, forming a small cell (Fig. 1A). Type material. HOLOTYPE [Carnegie Museum of Natural History]: 1 female (BOM_10000130), Nicaragua: Masaya Laguna de Apoyo 30 Nov 1991 - 10 Jan 1992 E. van den Berghe. Etymology. The specific name is a noun in apposition derived from the name of the singer, songwriter, and actress, Lady Gaga. Discussion. The new genus Kaikaia most closely resembles members of the Old World tribe Beaufortianini and New World tribes Platycentrini, Boocerini, and Nessorhinini. Although Kaikaia closely resembles Beaufortianini in overall external appearance, the structure of the second valvulae suggests a closer relationship to some members of the Caribbean endemic tribe Nessorhinini (Nessorhinus, Orthobelus, Callicentrus). The unusual pre-apical cleft of the 3rd valvula is also found in the other endemic Caribbean tribe Monobelini (Monobelus), some nessorhinines, and in the mainland North American genus Platycentrus (Table 1). The emarginate shape and length of the scutellum (full notch visible in ventral view with abdomen removed) is similar to that found in boocerines, most beaufortianines and some Monobelus. Unlike the Boocerini, the most diverse tribe in Central America, Kaikaia lacks cucullate setae on the mesothoracic femur or tibia (Table 1). A recent anchored hybrid enrichment (AHE) based phylogenomic analysis (Dietrich et al. 2017) suggested a Caribbean or Central American origin of the subfamily Centrotinae and a single invasion of the Old World as opposed to two independent invasions suggested by Wallace & Deitz (2004). While the AHE taxon sampling of centrotine treehoppers was broader than in previous molecular studies it was not as broad as the morphological taxon sampling by Wallace & Deitz (2004). Future studies should include several additional representative taxa from Central American, Caribbean, and the Old World including representatives from Boocerini, Pieltainellini, Gargarini, and Beaufortianini. Increased collection efforts in Central America and Mexico remain necessary to reveal the true diversity of New World centrotines and other membracid subfamilies (Wallace 2015).

Published as part of Morris, Brendan O. & Dietrich, Christopher H., 2020, An unusual new genus and species of centrotine treehopper (Hemiptera: Membracidae: Centrotinae) from Nicaragua, pp. 286-292 in Zootaxa 4729 (2) on pages 290-291, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4729.2.9, http://zenodo.org/record/3632650