Cryphocricos latus Usinger, 1947

Sites, Robert W., 2021, A review of Cryphocricos Signoret, 1850 (Naucoridae: Cryphocricinae) with descriptions of three new species, Zootaxa 4958 (1), pp. 72-94 : 82

Cryphocricos latus Usinger

( Fig. 19 )

Cryphocricos latus Usinger 1947 : Ann. Entomol. Soc. Amer. 40:340–341.

Type repository: Snow Entomological Museum Collection (Lawrence, USA) .

Type locality: Costa Rica: San Isidro del General , 2,000 ft.

Discussion: The holotype is a brachypterous male ( Fig. 19 ) and allotype a brachypterous female. Seven brachypterous paratypes also are housed in the Snow Museum. The macropterous male and female were described by Herrera & González (2013). Cryphocricos latus is associated with fast current, large rocks, and coarse pebbles ( Stout 1981). These tropical streams are subject to severe seasonal spates, which result in a high rate of downstream displacement of C. latus followed by a slow recolonization rate ( Stout 1981). Because the macropterous form is uncommon except in the dry season, its ability to recolonize upstream following a spate is temporally limited ( Stout 1982).

Diagnosis: This species is similar to C. obscuratus in “all characters” but differs from it by a wider body/length ratio, length> 7 mm, and claval commissure subequal to the length of the scutellum ( Usinger 1947). Specimens that I have examined from Costa Rica and Panama readily conform to characteristics of both species; thus, I suspect that C. latus and C. obscuratus are conspecific. Moreover, specimens of Cryphocricos from Guatemala and Belize also are small, and those from Belize had body width/length ratios suggesting a C. latus identity, but body lengths spanned those of three species ( C. hungerfordi , C. latus , and C. obscuratus ) ( Sites et al. 2018); thus, considerations of conspecificity must also include C. hungerfordi .

Figures

FIGURES 18–20. Holotypes of (18) Cryphocricos hungerfordi, (19) Cryphocricos latus, (20) Cryphocricos mexicanus.