Castolus nigriventris Breddin, 1904

Forero, Dimitri & Mejía-Soto, Andrés, 2021, A striking sexually dimorphic new species of Castolus (Hemiptera: Heteroptera Reduviidae) from Colombia, with new records from Neotropical countries and taxonomic notes on the genus, Zootaxa 5048 (4), pp. 538-560 : 548-550

Castolus nigriventris Breddin, 1904

( Fig. 6A )

Castolus bicolor Maldonado, 1976 , new synonym.

Remarks. Maldonado (1976) did not include C. nigriventris Breddin, 1904 in his key or in his taxon treatment section. He stated that Breddin’s holotype seems to be lost, and apparently was not at the DEI. We recently contacted Dr. S. Blank (DEI) and he confirmed that Breddin’s type is not there. We also contacted Dr. M. Husemann (ZMUH) who stated as well that Breddin’s type is not there, so apparently Breddin’s type could be lost. Alternatively, Dr. Blank indicated that it might still be possible for Breddin’s type to be unlabeled as a type and be sitting along his undetermined material, as has been the case with other Breddin type material. Unfortunately, so far, we have not been able to find such specimen.

Maldonado (1976) indicated that Breddin’s description was insufficient to identify this species, but we disagree. Breddin (1904) described C. nigriventris as follows: “...a dull black, broad animal, in which only a longitudinal band of the posterior lobe of the pronotum, along with its broad posterior margin and the slender spicules of the humeral angles, as well as the hemelytra, and a very narrow margin of the abdomen [connexivum], are somewhat dull light yellow.” Following Breddin’s description it is clear that this particular and striking color pattern, being mostly black with yellow hemelytra and black and yellow posterior pronotal lobe, is exactly the same as the color pattern described for C. bicolor Maldonado ( Fig. 6A ). The only difference is that the pale areas in the holotype of C. bicolor are rather orange than yellow. Therefore, because of the same coloration patter between the two species, we synonymize Maldonado’s species under Breddin’s.

Maldonado (1976) also offered an intriguing observation, he mentioned that he had examined a female specimen from Trinidad with less extensive black areas on the pronotum, but otherwise very similar to the holotype of C. bicolor . He hypothesized that this might be the female of the specimen he described. Unfortunately, he did not illustrate this specimen. Similar to what happens in C. lineatus and other species, some color variation might occur, with an extreme sexually dimorphic condition in C. rafaeli sp. nov.

Material examined. Castolus bicolor Maldonado, 1976 . HOLOTYPE: TRINIDAD [AND TOBAGO]— 1 ♂; W.I. [West Indies], Arima Valley ; 800–1200 ft.; Feb 1966; J. G. Rozen collector / (red label) HOLOTYPE / AMNH _ IZC 00343371 (barcode) / “ Castolus bicolor det. Maldonado ” J Maldonado C 1975 ( AMNH) .

Distribution: Castolus nigriventris is known from Bolivia ( Breddin 1904) and Trinidad and Tobago ( Maldonado 1976).

Figures

FIGURE 6. Dorsal view of Castolus type specimens. A. holotype of Castolus bicolor Maldonado, 1976 (synonym of C. nigriventris Breddin, 1904); B. holotype of C. bolivari Brailovsky, 1982; C. holotype labels of C. bicolor Maldonado, 1976.