Laccocorinae Stål, 1876

Mbogho, Aaron Y. & Sites, Robert W., 2013, Naucoridae Leach, 1815 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) of Tanzania, African Invertebrates 54 (2), pp. 513-513 : 518-519

Subfamily Laccocorinae Stål, 1876

The front of the head is folded posteroventrally such that the labrum is set back from the anterior margin of the head. The prothoracic legs bear two articulated pretarsal claws (except the Indochinese genus Namtokocoris Sites , which has one claw). In males, a well developed tomentose patch occurs on the distal half of the pro- and mesotibia; in females this patch is weakly developed on the mesotibia and imperceptible to weakly developed on the protibia. Three genera occur in Tanzania: Aneurocoris is endemic to Lake Tanganyika, Ctenipocoris is uncommon and occurs in lentic habitats, and Laccocoris is commonly collected in the vegetated margins or shallow areas of streams.

A unique, unreported feature present in certain mainland African and Middle Eastern Laccocorinae is a transverse fracture of the hemelytra extending from near the distal end of the embolium through the apex of the claval commissure ( Figs 15 , 17, 19 ). This fracture is present in both sexes of Aneurocoris and mostly only females of Heleocoris and Laccocoris . Exceptions among Tanzanian taxa are that we have one male of L. limicola in which the fracture is present and one female of L. spurcus congoensis in which the fracture is absent. That the fracture is present only in laccocorine taxa from mainland Africa and the Middle East provides support for the concept that these species of Heleocoris and Laccocoris represent a clade distinct from congeners in Asia (see discussion of Laccocoris below). The laccocorine taxa of Madagascar appear to differ from those of the mainland in that they lack the transverse fracture; we have examined many specimens of Temnocoris and Heleocoris , including Heleocoris humeralis (Signoret) , none of which exhibits this attribute. Further, the fracture is lacking in both sexes of Ctenipocoris africanus which is known only from mainland Africa, although the genus is found in both the New and Old World.

Figures

Figs 15, 16. (15) Aneurocoris insolitus male from L-1203, (16) Ctenipocoris africanus male from Namanve Swamp, Uganda.

Figs 17–19. (17) Laccocoris limicola female from L-1158, (16) Laccocoris limigenus male from L-1225, (19) Laccocoris spurcus congoensis female from L-1207. Sizes are proportionate among figures.