Brontostoma cicheroi Carpintero, 1980

Gil-Santana, Hélcio R., Oliveira, Jader & Bérenger, Jean-Michel, 2021, A revalidation and new synonymies among some species of Brontostoma Kirkaldy (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Ectrichodiinae), Zootaxa 4958 (1), pp. 388-405 : 401-402

Brontostoma cicheroi Carpintero, 1980

Brontostoma cicheroi Carpintero (1980: 12 , 32, fig. 16) (description; dorsal view of the head, schematic drawing), Maldonado (1990: 29) (catalog), Dougherty (1995: 203) (citation, geographical distribution), Bachmann (1999: 212) (catalog of types deposited in MACN), Gil-Santana et al. (2004: 127) (citation), Gil-Santana et al. (2005b: 78) (citation).

Brontostoma cicheroi was described based on a single female from Paraguay, with almost 25 mm of length. It was considered close to Brontostoma discus from which it differed not only for its larger size and distinct coloration, but also by the presence of subbasal processes on femora, protuberances on gula, shape of scutellum and biometry ( Carpintero 1980). Taking into account the presence of processes near the base of the femora, it is possible that B. cicheroi might be a junior synonym of B. discus too. Additional specimens fitting the color pattern described by Carpintero (1980) might help to elucidate the genitalic structure, and thus, the placement of this species.Unfortunately, the female holotype of B. cicheroi was not available to be examined in MACN, where it was deposited, when the first author (HRG-S) visited this institution in 2018. Therefore, its taxonomic status is still uncertain.