Pothea (Brachypothea) annulipes Champion, 1899

Forero, Dimitri, 2006, New records of Reduviidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from Colombia and other Neotropical countries, Zootaxa 1107, pp. 1-47 : 8-9

Pothea (Brachypothea) annulipes Champion, 1899

Carpintero (1980) divided Pothea Amyot and Serville, 1843 , in two subgenera P. ( Pothea ) and P. (Brachypothea), based on the ratio of head and pronotum. P. annulipes is quite similar to P. aenescens Stål, 1860 , but the latter can be separated by the absence of a dorsally yellowish pale spot on the head, the connexivum uniformly yellowish, and the antennae not as setose as in P. annulipes . Carpintero & Maldonado (1990) gave a key to separate all the species in the subgenus.

P. annulipes was described as having sub­basal pale rings on the dark tibiae, which are more conspicuous on the median and posterior ones. In pale specimens, like some from Colombia, those rings maybe difficult to distinguish. In addition, the head was described as having a pale yellowish spot that reaches from the posterior margin of the eye to the clypeus, a feature that is not clearly evident in all Colombian specimens.

Some characters were not so clearly mentioned in Champion (1899) that may be useful in identifying the species: the antennae tubercles are dark; the abdomen is dark with orange stripes ventrally on segments III to VI, that go just up to middle of the segment in lateral view; each sternite on its upper margin is yellowish, forming a continuous line along abdomen rim; the segments of connexivum II to VI externally and anteriorly are yellowish, and interiorly and posteriorly dark, segment VII mainly dark, and VIII completely dark.

Dougherty (1995) recorded P. annulipes from Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia, but did not give specific localities. Additional localities are given here from Colombia ( Fig. 8 ), and the species is recorded for the first time from Bolivia.

Material examined: COLOMBIA, 1ɗ, Antioquia, Valle de Medellín [6º17'N 75º32'W], en frutales, 1550 m, IX­1945, L. Gallego [ MEFLG]; 1Ψ, Antioquia, ­without data­ [ MEFLG]; 1ɗ, Cundinamarca, Monterredondo, 1420 m [ AMNH]; 1Ψ, Cundinamarca [?], Road Bogotá­Villavicencio, 29­VI­1965, 1100 m, P. and B. Wygodzinsky, leg. [ AMNH]; 1ɗ, [Meta], Villavicencio [04º09'N­ 73º38'W, 467 m], 21­V­ 1966, J. Nieto [ UNAB]. BOLIVIA, 1ɗ, Santa Cruz, Saavedra – CIMCA, 12­XII­1986, C. J. Pruett [ HGS].

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 9. Dorsal view of Reduviidae species. 1, Brontostoma discus; 2, B. notatum, male; 3, B. rubrum, male; 4, B. sanguinosum, female; 5, Daraxa sp.; 6, Daraxa sp.; 7, Parapothea sp.; 8, Pothea annulipes; 9, Zirta hirticornis, male. Scale bar: 1 mm (5 ­ 6); 2 mm (1); 3 mm (2 ­ 3, 7 ­ 9); 4 mm (4).