Triatoma mopan Dorn, Justi, Dale, Stevens, Galvão, Lima-Cordón & Monroy, 2018

Rengifo-Correa, Laura, Téllez-Rendón, Juan Luis, Esteban, Lyda, Huerta, Herón & Morrone, Juan J., 2021, The Triatoma phyllosoma species group (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae), vectors of Chagas disease: Diagnoses and a key to the species, Zootaxa 5023 (3), pp. 335-365 : 350

Triatoma mopan Dorn, Justi, Dale, Stevens, Galvão, Lima-Cordón & Monroy, 2018

( Figure 6 from Dorn et al. 2018)

Triatoma dimidiata group IV Monteiro, Weirauch, Felix, Lazoski & Abad-Franch, 2013: 8, 2018: 284.

Triatoma mopan Dorn, Justi, Dale, Stevens, Galvão, Lima-Cordón & Monroy, 2018: 77 .

Diagnosis. Male body length 26.6–30.1 mm. Female body length 32.1–38 mm. Anteocular region 2.8 to 3.2 times as long as post ocular. Postocular region with sides almost straight, subparallel and not rounded. Ocelli very small, concolorous with rest of tegument. First antennal segment attaining or lightly surpassing level of the apex of clypeus. Connections between each segment of the labium concolorous with labium. Central depression of pronotum forming straight line from the neck to the posterior portion of the pronotum. Anterior lobe of pronotum without discal and lateral tubercles. Overall color of corium light yellow, with dark brown apex and central spot of variable size. Membrane of hemelytra almost as pale as the corium. Connexival segments piceous or black on anterior half or third across their entire width, pale yellow on posterior portion. Venter piceous or black except yellow to orange yellow area adjacent to connexival suture. Spiracles surrounded by a slightly dark spot and close or adjacent to connexival suture. Pygophore almost round and dark ( Fig. 7C ).

Specimens examined. None.

Distribution. Belize: Cayo ( Dorn et al. 2018).

Comments. This species is very similar to T. dimidiata , especially to its southernmost variant historically known as T. dimidiata capitata . It seems that Lent & Wygodzinsky (1979) examined material related to specimens currently described as T. mopan , but they regarded the morphological distinctions between specimens as adaptations to the environment, namely, specimens of T. mopan came from caves ( Dorn et al. 2018). However, the valid specific status of T. mopan is proposed considering that this species is reciprocally monophyletic to T. dimidiata s.s. and the T. hegneri clade ( Dorn et al. 2016; Justi et al. 2018). We could not examine specimens of T. mopan ; however, we examined several specimens of T. dimidiata from different localities of Mexico that have some of the diagnostic characters of T. mopan . For instance, the adjacent spot of abdominal spiracles ( Fig. 1E ) can be well developed to completely vanished in T. dimidiata . Also, some few specimens of T. dimidiata from Veracruz state have pale yellow hemelytra, with membrane as pale as corium ( Fig. 3E ). Although coloration of these specimens of T. dimidiata seems a consequence of preservation methods, it would be worth keeping in mind the coincidence to avoid misclassifications. Considering the original description of T. mopan and the morphological variation of examined specimens of T. dimidiata , we believe that the more distinctive characters for both species are the shape of the head and the pygrophore. For details of the taxonomic arrangements see comments on T. dimidiata . There is no information on hybrids of T. mopan to date.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Morphology of Triatoma. A, Head of T. mopan, dorsal view (based on Dorn et al., 2018); B, head of T. huehuetenanguensis, ventral view (based on Lima-Cordón et al., 2019); C, pronotum and scutellum of Triatoma, dorsal view; D, abdomen of Triatoma, dorsal view; E, abdomen of T. mopan, ventral view.

FIGURE 3. Triatoma spp. A, B, T. bassolsae; C, T. brailovskyi; D, E, F T. dimidiata (3B courtesy of E. Barrera-Vargas and 3C courtesy of C. Dale).

FIGURE 6. Triatoma spp. A, T. phyllosoma; B, T. picturata; C, T. recurva; D, T. sanguisuga (6D courtesy of C. Dale).

FIGURE 7. Pygophore of Triatoma spp., ventral view. A, T. dimidiata; B, T. huehuetenanguensis; C, T. mopan. Credits of B, Lima-Cordón et al. 2019; C, Dorn et al. 2018.