Voconia chrysoptera, 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 : 39-41

Voconia chrysoptera sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:79E22180-F528-4166-8D25-02AD3BA726BE

Figs 1–2 , 7 , 9 , 17

Diagnosis

Recognized from other African Voconia species by the unique coloration of the corium, abdomen, and legs which are entirely yellow. Additionally, the posterior row of spines on the mid and hind femora have three large and many small spines, and the antennifer lacks a lateral protuberance. Females possess a fossula spongiosa on the mid leg.

Etymology

The specific epithet is the Latin adjective ‘ chrysopterus, - a, - um ’, meaning ‘golden-winged’, referring to the entirely yellow corium.

Type material

Holotype KENYA • ♀; Eastern Province , Mwingi, Nguni; 7 Apr. 2004; M. Snizek leg.; USI: UCR_ENT 00001551 ; NHMW.

Description

Female ( Figs 7 , 9 )

BODY LENGTH. 10.5 mm; macropterous.

COLORATION. Head: dark brown, maxillary plates lighter; postocular region dark brown with paired pale patches adjacent to lateral ocellar margin; labium lighter than head, yellow. Thorax: coloration as head, with posterior pronotal lobe lighter than anterior lobe; scutellum dark with contrasting yellow apical spine. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus and corium uniformly yellow; membrane uniformly dark; membranal veins as remainder of membrane. Legs: yellow. Abdomen: ventral surface and dorsal laterotergites yellow.

INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum: coarsely granulose with sparse pubescence and sparse, short macrosetae; interocular region with two pairs of macrosetae paramedially; antennifer without lateral projection; labium with dense, short macrosetae. Thorax: anterolateral angles of pronotal collar without macrosetae or setigerous tubercles; scutellar lateral carinae with short macrosetae. Hemelytron: corium with dense short setation. Legs: posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with three large spines on distal half and many small spines. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent.

STRUCTURE. Head: elongate, 1.3 times as long as wide; anteocular region about one third of head length, shorter than postocular region (measured to anterior margin of neck); postocular region in dorsal view longer than eye, lateral margins gently rounded; pedicel about 1.8 times length of head width; maxillary plates ellipsoidal, adjacent to and longer than clypeus; apices of maxillary plates in dorsal view diverging; clypeus in dorsal view wider than maxillary plates, apex rounded, not narrowed; interocular glabrous markings curved anterolaterally, joined at interocular sulcus paramedially; interocular sulcus in dorsal view curved and smoothly rounded anteriorly; eye width in dorsal view narrower than synthlipsis, reaching ventral head margin in lateral view; ventrolateral swelling of buccula with lateral protrusion that surpasses buccular margin, setigerous tubercles along apical margin; labial segment I in lateral view straight, reaching posteroventral eye margin; morphologically dorsal surface of labial segment II nearly straight, about 0.6 times length of segment I. Thorax: with pronotal collar narrow medially with anterolateral angles short, projected forward; anterior pronotal lobe about 0.5 times length of posterior pronotal lobe, lateral margins rounded, glabrous markings not depressed; median apodeme depression of pronotum shallow and elongated longitudinally; scutellar spine long and raised; anteriad-directed process of prosternum smoothly rounded without paramedial lobes; anterior margin of stridulitrum projecting into a small protuberance. Legs: fossula spongiosa present on fore and mid legs.

Male

Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 17 )

This species is only known from the type locality in Mwingi, Kenya. It is the easternmost Afrotropical species.

Remarks

This is the only female in the subfamily with fossula spongiosa present on the mid leg.

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