Voconia lirophleps, 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 : 60-61

Voconia lirophleps sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:66547E0B-D2F8-46E0-B1F7-CC2DD12BFC2A

Figs 1–2 , 4B , 7 , 9 , 20

Diagnosis

Distinguished from most species of Voconia by the pale membranal veins. This species is most similar to two other Oriental species, V. decorata sp. nov. and V. coronata sp. nov. It is distinguishable from V. decorata sp. nov. by its distribution in Sumatra; the dark brown, almost black coloration of the body; and uniformly brown scutellum. V. lirophleps sp. nov. is about 2 mm shorter than V. coronata sp. nov. It is also distinguishable by the yellow spots adjacent to the lateral ocellar margin; slightly more globose head (about 1.2 times as long as wide); pedicel much shorter (about 1.1 times length of head width); maxillary plates converge in dorsal view, postocular region is shorter than eye; narrow pronotal collar; short anterior pronotal lobe relative to posterior pronotal lobe (about 2.2 times shorter than posterior lobe); conspicuous distal yellow spot on the corium; and only three large spines and two small spines on the posterior row of spines of the hind leg.

Etymology

Derived from the Latinized Greek prefix ‘ liro- ’ meaning ‘pale’ combined with the Latinized Greek noun ‘ phleps ’ meaning ‘vein’. Refers to the prominent pale coloration of the membranal veins. To be treated as a noun in apposition, ending not to be changed.

Type material

Holotype INDONESIA • ♂; Sumatra, Djulu, Rajeu , 250 km N of Medan; elev. 50 m; E.W. Diehl leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00170704 ; AMNH.

Description

Male ( Figs 7 , 9 )

BODY LENGTH. About 8.9 mm; macropterous.

COLORATION. Head: dark brown; postocular region uniformly dark with pale patches adjacent to lateral ocellar margin; labium nearly as dark as head. Thorax: coloration as head; scutellum uniformly dark brown. Hemelytron ( Fig. 4B ; abducted): clavus dark reddish-brown with distal yellow stripe; corium dark reddishbrown with anteroproximal yellow stripe, posteromedial and distal yellow spots; membrane uniformly dark; membranal veins forming Cu-An 1 and M-Cu cells paler than remainder of membrane. Legs: dark brown, femora darker. Abdomen ( Fig. 4B ): dark brown; dorsal laterotergites dark 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, long macrosetae. Thorax: anterolateral angles of pronotal collar with macrosetae; scutellar lateral carinae with long setation. Hemelytron: corium with sparse long setation. Legs: posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with three large and three small spines on distal half. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent.

STRUCTURE. Head: elongate, 1.2 times as long as wide; anteocular region about one quarter of head length, about as long as postocular region (measured to anterior margin of neck); postocular region in dorsal view shorter than eye, lateral margins gently rounded; pedicel about 1.1 times length of head width; maxillary plates ellipsoidal, adjacent to and as long as clypeus; apices of maxillary plates in dorsal view converging; clypeus in dorsal view narrower than maxillary plates; clypeal apex round, not narrowed; interocular glabrous markings anterolaterally curved, joined at interocular sulcus paramedially; interocular sulcus in dorsal view bent anteromedially, subtriangular; eye width in dorsal view about as wide as 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: pronotal collar in dorsal view 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 on pronotum deeply depressed; median apodeme depression of pronotum shallow, elongated longitudinally; scutellar spine long, raised; anteriad-directed process of prosternum smoothly rounded, without paramedial lobes; anterior margin of stridulitrum not elongated into protuberance; proepimeron with acute protuberance on posteroventral margin. Legs: fossula spongiosa present on fore and mid legs.

Female

Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 20 )

This species is only known from the type locality in North Sumatra.

Remarks

Despite the holotypes of V. coronata sp. nov. and V. lirophleps sp. nov. being collected within about 106 km of each other, there are several differences, particularly in size. Among our larger series, conspecific Voconia males do not vary much in size, and V. lirophleps sp. nov. is about 2 mm shorter than V. coronata sp. nov.; thus, we are keeping them as separate species.

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. 4. Morphological characters. A–D. Scutellum and hemelytron, dorsal view. A. Gerbelius typicus Distant, 1903.B. Voconia lirophleps sp. nov. C. Voconia bracata sp. nov.D. Voconia schoutedeni (Villiers, 1964) comb. nov. E. Voconia grandioculata sp. nov., thorax, lateral view. F–H. Voconia nyx sp. nov. F. Thorax, lateral view. G. Fore tibia, ventral view. H. Mid tibia and tarsus, ventral view. I–K. Hind femur, posterior view. I. Voconia mexicana sp. nov. J. Voconia decorata sp. nov. K. Voconia bracata sp. nov.

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. 20. The distribution of species of Gerbelius Distant, 1903 and Voconia Stål, 1866 in Southeast Asia.