Triatoma brailovskyi Martínez, Carcavallo & Pelaez, 1984

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 : 341

Triatoma brailovskyi Martínez, Carcavallo & Pelaez, 1984

( Fig. 3C )

Triatoma brailovskyi Martínez, Carcavallo & Pelaez, 1984: 39 ; Carcavallo et al., 2000: 70; Galvão et al., 2003: 9; Schofield & Galvão, 2009: 92; Monteiro et al., 2018: 284.

Diagnosis. Male body length 22.0 mm. Very large, swollen eyes. Synthlipsis two-thirds narrower than eye. Postocular region two-thirds shorter than eye length. Pronotum piceous. Lateral margin of pronotum with thin but well-developed keel. Humeral angles rounded. Overall color of corium yellow, with dark brown apex and central marks. Membrane of hemelytra light brown. Overall color of connexival segments yellow, with dark brown marking on anterior third of segment.

Specimens examined. None.

Distribution. Mexico: Colima, Jalisco, and Nayarit ( Galvão et al. 2003).

Comments. Carcavalho et al. (2000) proposed that T. brailovskyi Martínez, Carcavallo & Pelaez, 1984 , is close to T. dimidiata , T. hegneri Mazzotti, 1940 , and T. gomeznunezi Martínez, Carcavallo & Juberg, 1994 , arguing morphological similarities between these species but without details. This statement was followed by Schofield & Galvão (2009). Espinoza et al. (2013) suggested that T. brailovskyi is close to T. longipennis and T. recurva ( Stål, 1868) considering phylogenetic relationships. This arrangement was followed by Monteiro et al. (2018). Consensus information used by Espinoza et al. (2013) masked large incongruence between phylogenies based on mitochondrial and nuclear genes in respect of phylogenetic relationships of T. brailovskyi . Only mitochondrial phylogeny reveals a close relationship between T. brailovskyi with T. longipennis and T. recurva . Instead, nuclear phylogeny shows T. brailovskyi as the sister taxon of the remaining species of the T. phyllosoma species group plus T. sanguisuga ( LeConte, 1855) ( Espinoza et al. 2013) . Similar conclusion can be retrieved from ultraconserved elements of molecular data ( Kieran et al. 2021).

Figures

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).