Voconia conradti ( Jeannel, 1917 ) Castillo & Rédei & Weirauch, 2022

Castillo, Stephanie, Rédei, Dávid & Weirauch, Christiane, 2022, Pseudocetherinae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) revisited: phylogeny and taxonomy of the lobe-headed bugs, European Journal of Taxonomy 788 (1), pp. 1-95 : 41-44

Voconia conradti ( Jeannel, 1917) comb. nov.

Figs 1–2 , 7 , 9 , 11 , 17

Microvarus conradti Jeannel, 1917: 51 .

Microvarus achteni Schouteden, 1929: 252 . Synonymized by Villiers (1948: 280).

Diagnosis

Distinguished from other species in Voconia by its Afrotropical distribution and stout body. This species most closely resembles V. motoensis and V. smithae sp. nov. It differs from V. motoensis by its distinct coloration: yellow scutellar spine, corium with a proximal and distal yellow spot, and contrasting yellow anterior spots on dark dorsal laterotergites. Despite the strong superficial resemblance to V. smithae sp. nov. due to its coloration and stoutness, closer examination reveals that V. conradti is distinguishable by the longer body (10.4–11.4 mm), dark dorsal laterotergites with strongly contrasting yellow anterior spots, finely granulose head, antennifer with short or absent laterally projecting setigerous tubercle, lack of paired interocular setigerous tubercles, maxillary plates with medial margins diverging, shorter anteocular region than postocular region (measured to where the posterior margin of the granulations meet the anterior margin of the smooth neck), buccula without lateral protrusion, and strongly bulging eyes that greatly surpass the postocular lateral margin in dorsal view and reach the ventral head margin in lateral view.

Type material

Lectotype (present designation) EQUATORIAL GUINEA • ♂; “ Fernando-Po ” [ Bioko Island ]; 1901; L. Conradt leg.; MNHN_EH24709 .

Additional material examined

CAMEROON • 1 ♀; N Kolbisson ; [3.87° N, 11.45° E]; 27 Jun. 1966; B. de Mire leg.; USI: AMNH_ PBI 00170693 ; AMNH • 1 ♂; same collection data as for preceding; 31 Mar. 1971; USI: AMNH_PBI 00170694 ; AMNH .

IVORY COAST • 1 ♂; Foro Foro; [7.98° N, 5.06° W]; 13 Oct. 1971; D. Duviard leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00170691 ; AMNH • 1 ♂; same locality as for preceding; 25–28 Sep. 1973; R. Linnavuori leg.; dissected pygophore in vial ( Fig. 11 ), aedeagus lost; USI: AMNH_PBI 00170695 ; AMNH .

NIGERIA • 1 ♂; W State, Ife ; [7.47° N, 4.56° E]; 7 Jul.–14 Aug. 1973; R. Linnavuori leg.; USI: AMNH_ PBI 00170692 ; AMNH .

Redescription

Male ( Figs 7 , 9 )

BODY LENGTH. 10.4–11.4 mm; macropterous.

COLORATION. Head: dark brown; postocular region with dark patches adjacent to medial ocellar margin and pale patches adjacent to lateral ocellar margin; labium lighter than head. Thorax: coloration as head; pronotum uniformly dark ( Fig. 3K ) or posterior pronotal lobe lighter than anterior lobe; scutellum dark with contrasting yellow apical spine. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus dark reddish-brown with distal yellow stripe; corium dark reddish-brown with proximal, anteromedial, posteromedial, and distal yellow spots; membrane dark with pale V-shaped marking along R and M veins; membranal veins R and M proximally pale. Legs: completely yellow or yellow with distal half of femur dark brown. Abdomen: dark brown, dorsal laterotergites with yellow spots anteriorly.

INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum: finely granulose with sparse, short macrosetae interspersed among sparse pubescence; interocular region with two pairs of macrosetae paramedially; antennifer with short lateral setigerous tubercle; morphologically ventral surface of labium with sparse, short macrosetae. Thorax ( Fig. 3K ): anterolateral angles of pronotal collar without macrosetae or setigerous tubercles. Hemelytron: corium with dense long setation. Legs: posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with three large spines on distal half. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent.

STRUCTURE. Head: elongate, 1.1–1.4 times as long as wide; anteocular region about one quarter of head length, shorter than postocular region (measured to anterior margin of neck); postocular region in dorsal view about as long as eye or shorter, lateral margins subrectangular; pedicel about 1.3 times length of head width; maxillary plates ellipsoidal, adjacent to and longer than clypeus; apices of maxillary plates in dorsal view with medial margins diverging; clypeus in dorsal view narrower than maxillary plates; clypeal apex round, narrowed; interocular glabrous markings anterolaterally curved, joined at interocular sulcus paramedially; interocular sulcus in dorsal view curved and smoothly rounded anteriorly; eye width in dorsal view either wider or narrower than synthlipsis; eye reaching ventral head margin in lateral view; ventrolateral swelling of buccula without lateral protrusion that surpasses buccular margin, flat margin; labial segment I in lateral view straight, reaching posteroventral eye margin; morphologically dorsal surface of labial segment II nearly straight, about 0.5 times length of segment I. Thorax ( Fig. 3K ): pronotal collar in dorsal view narrow medially, with anterolateral angles short, projected forward; anterior pronotal lobe 0.5–0.6 times length of posterior pronotal lobe, lateral margins almost straight; glabrous markings on pronotum slightly depressed; median apodeme depression of pronotum deep, circular; scutellar spine long, raised; anteriad-directed process of prosternum with paramedial lobes; anterior margin of stridulitrum not elongated into protuberance; proepimeron with smoothly rounded posteroventral margin. Legs: fossula spongiosa present on fore and mid legs. Abdomen: anterior margin of terga weakly carinulate; terga II and III with paired prominent longitudinal carinae reaching about one-third of tergum III. Pygophore ( Fig. 11 ): transverse bridge with triangular posterior margin; posterior region of ventral surface of pygophore in lateral view with slight swelling; median apical process in caudal view short; direction of median apical process in lateral view sharply bent posteriorly; lateral pygophore margin with protuberance; posterior pygophore margin with clustered macrosetae on protuberance; parameres sinusoidal, apex tapered into squarely rounded tip.

Female

Mostly as male but differs from males by the following. Body length: about 11.2 mm. Head: elongate, about 1.4 times as long as wide; pedicel about 1.2 times length of head width; ocelli minute, occupying 0.15 times length of postocular region. Legs: fossula absent or vestigial on mid leg.

Distribution ( Fig. 17 )

This species is distributed in Western Africa. The type locality is from Bioko, an island off the west coast, north of Equatorial Guinea.

Remarks

Originally described as Microvarus conradti based on several specimens which are to be treated as syntypes ( Jeannel 1917). The type material of M. conradti is deposited at the MNHN under loan restrictions; habitus photographs of one of the syntypes ( Fig. 7 ; USI: MNHN_EH24709) were used to evaluate this species concept and this specimen is designated as the lectotype. The synonymy of M. achteni proposed by Villiers (1948) is accepted here without re-examining the type material of Schouteden (1929). This species is transferred to Voconia based on the cladistic analysis conducted in this study. Based on the phylogeny, V. conradti and V. smithae sp. nov. form a well-supported clade ( Figs 1–2 ).

Figures

Fig. 1. Strict consensus tree resulting from equal weighting analysis. Jackknife values over 51 are reported for tree one of eight.

Fig. 2. Tree resulting from implied weighting analysis using K = 12 with characters unambiguously optimized. Symmetric resampling values over 51 are represented for trees obtained with K = 3, K = 6, K = 9, and K = 12 analyses. Characters and character states are described in pp. 11–22. Specimens not to scale.

Fig. 7. Dorsal habitus of holotypes of Voconia Stål, 1866 species with distribution: purple = Afrotropical region, green = Australasian region, pink = Oriental region. Scale bars = 3 mm.

Fig. 9. Lateral habitus of species of Voconia Stål, 1866. Scale bars = 3 mm.

Fig. 11. Pygophore of species of Gerbelius Distant, 1903 and Voconia Stål, 1866. Median apical process of Gerbelius typicus Distant, 1903 and V. bakeri sp. nov. damaged/missing. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.

Fig. 17. The distribution of species of Voconia Stål, 1866 in Africa.

Fig. 3. Morphological characters. A–D. Head in dorsal view. A. Gerbelius nr. confluens. B. Voconia decorata sp. nov. C. Voconia pallidipes Stål, 1866. D. Voconia schoutedeni (Villiers, 1964) comb. nov. E–G. Head in lateral view. E. Voconia wegneri (Miller, 1954) comb. nov. F. Voconia dolichocephala sp. nov. G. Gerbelius typicus Distant, 1903. H. Voconia loki sp. nov., head and pronotum in dorsal view. I–J. Prosternum in ventrolateral view. I. Voconia mexicana sp. nov. J. Voconia bracata sp. nov. K–L. Pronotum in dorsal view. K. Voconia conradti (Jeannel, 1917) comb. nov. L. Voconia tuberculata sp. nov.