Voconia ifana (Villiers, 1963) 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 : 53-54

Voconia ifana (Villiers, 1963) comb. nov.

Fig. 17

Pseudocethera ifana Villiers, 1963a: 989 , fig. 11.

Revised diagnosis

Distinguished from other species of Voconia by the following combination of characters: short body length (about 6.5 mm); coarsely granulose head and pronotum; maxillary plates are not adjacent to and far surpass clypeal apex; maxillary plates in lateral view are wide, about twice the width of scape; antennifer with long lateral spine; eyes do not reach ventral head margin in lateral view. It is recognized from micropterous individuals of V. schoutedeni and V. monodi by the toothed apex of the maxillary plates.

Type material

Holotype SENEGAL • ♂; “ Forêt classée de Tobor ” [ Tobor Forest ]; 21 Nov. 1961; “Mission IFAN” [Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire exped.]; “sous un morceau de bois mort” [under a piece of dead wood]; MNHN.

Description

Male

BODY LENGTH. About 6.5 mm; micropterous.

COLORATION. As described for V. monodi , except legs testaceous.

INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum: coarsely granulose with setigerous tubercles; interocular region with two pairs of large setigerous tubercles paramedially.

STRUCTURE. Head: scape not reaching head apex; antennifer with long lateral spine; postocular region in dorsal view as long as eye, lateral margins subrectangular; maxillary plates in lateral view about twice the width of scape and apex toothed; eye not reaching ventral head margin in lateral view; ventrolateral swelling of buccula with lateral protrusion that surpasses buccular margin; labial segment I in lateral view straight, surpassing posteroventral eye margin. Thorax: scutellar spine reduced, subhorizontal. Abdomen: anterior margin of terga carinulate; tergum II with paired prominent longitudinal carinae reaching posterior margin of segment.

Female

Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 17 )

This species is known from Northwest Africa.

Remarks

The holotype was on loan and not available for study at the time we requested it. Consequently, this description is based on the interpretation of the short differential diagnosis and illustration of the head in lateral view provided by Villiers (1963a). Due to the limited data that we were able to obtain, it was excluded from cladistic analyses, but we are confident that it likely forms a clade with V. schoutedeni and V. tridens sp. nov. because of the unique head morphology, microptery, and Afrotropical distribution.

Figures

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