Ochterus viridifrons ( Champion, 1901 )

Cianferoni, Fabio, 2012, The Ochteridae of Ecuador, with new records and an identification key (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Nepomorpha), Zootaxa 3260, pp. 62-68 : 65

Ochterus viridifrons ( Champion, 1901)

Material examined. Ecuador, Pichincha province, La Unión del Toachi, Toachi river right tributary, 850 m amsl, 28.VI.2009, 1 Ƥ, legit F. Cianferoni, C. Monte & F. Zinetti, coll. CFC

Notes. This female specimen matches Champion’s description well. A close species with a metallic green frontal plate is O. schellae Drake, 1952 , which has straight lateral margins of pronotum ( Schell 1943 sub O. acutangulus ; Drake 1952) and not clearly arched as in O. viridifrons ( Champion, 1901) . O. acutangulus ( Champion, 1901) doesn’t match because of the distinctly acute humeral angles of pronotum (see the female figured in Drake 1952), while in this specimen the “lateral angles subacute” are clearly notable ( Champion 1901). Finally O. hungerfordi Schell, 1943 distinctive characteristics are brown labium and rostrum and not lemon yellow as this specimen. O. rotundus Polhemus & Polhemus, 1976 (with yellow labrum and rostrum too) replaces O. viridifrons in the Gran Canyon area ( Stevens & Polhemus 2008).

The record, first for South America (cfr. Heckman 2011), must however be confirmed by male specimens.