Voconia nyx, 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 : 69-70

Voconia nyx sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:374635C1-1613-483F-A653-17F63F0C9545

Figs 1–2 , 4F–H , 8 , 10 , 12 , 14 , 20

Diagnosis

This species is most similar to other Southeast Asian species of Voconia with a finely granulose head and pronotum and abducted corium with yellow spots on the posteromedial and distal apex. Despite the similarity in color, V. nyx sp. nov. is larger than V. minima sp. nov. (about 10.0 mm long) and has uniformly brown legs. It is distinguished from V. bakeri sp. nov. by its uniformly brown dorsal laterotergites, pale stripe along the posterior margin of the pronotum, and the abducted corium with an anteroproximal yellowish-brown stripe.

Etymology

Named after the Greek primordial goddess of the night, Nyx. Refers to the dark legs and antennae of this species, which differ from those of a similar yet lighter colored species, Voconia hemera sp. nov., named after the goddess of day. A proper noun in apposition.

Type material

Holotype PHILIPPINES • ♂ (dissected pygophore and aedeagus in vial); Laguna, Mt Maquiling; [14.13 ° N, 121.20 ° E]; elev. 100 m; 28 Feb. 1949; A.E. Bigornia leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00170705 ; AMNH.

Description

Male ( Figs 8 , 10 )

BODY LENGTH. About 10.0 mm; macropterous.

COLORATION. Head: dark brown; postocular region with pale patches adjacent to lateral ocellar margin; labium lighter than head, brown. Thorax ( Fig. 4F ): as head; posterior pronotal lobe with posterior margin lighter; scutellum uniformly dark brown. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus dark reddish-brown with distal yellow stripe; corium dark reddish-brown with yellowish-brown stripe on anteroproximal margin, posteromedial and distal yellow spots; membrane dark with pale V-shaped marking along R and M veins; membranal veins R and M pale. Legs: dark reddish-brown. Abdomen: dark reddish-brown; dorsal laterotergites dark brown.

INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum: finely granulose with sparse, long macrosetae interspersed among dense 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. Legs: posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with three large spines on distal half and three or fewer small spines. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent.

STRUCTURE. Head: elongate, about 1.3 times as long as wide; anteocular region about one third 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 1.2 times length of head width; maxillary plates ellipsoidal, adjacent to and longer than clypeus; apices of maxillary plates in dorsal view directed straight; clypeus in dorsal view about as wide as maxillary plates; clypeal apex round, 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, not reaching posteroventral eye margin; morphologically dorsal surface of labial segment II nearly straight, about 0.6 times length of segment I. Thorax: pronotal collar in dorsal view narrow medially with anterolateral angles short, projected forward; anterior pronotal lobe about 0.6 times length of posterior pronotal lobe, lateral margins rounded; glabrous markings on pronotum thin and not deeply depressed; median apodeme depression of pronotum shallow, elongated transversely; scutellar spine long, raised ( Fig. 4F ); 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 ( Fig. 4G–H ): fossula spongiosa present on fore and mid legs. Pygophore ( Fig. 12 ): transverse bridge with triangular posterior margin; posterior region of ventral surface of pygophore in lateral view with large swelling; short median apical process bent posteriorly in lateral view; lateral pygophore margin with protuberance; posterior pygophore margin with clustered macrosetae on protuberance; parameres sinusoidal, apex tapered into squarely rounded tip. Aedeagus ( Fig. 14 ): endosoma almost entirely covered with spicules; apex of dorsal phallothecal sclerite tongue-shaped in dorsal view; basal plate extension 4.6 times as long as wide.

Female

Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 17 )

This species is only known from the type locality on the Philippine island of Luzon.

Remarks

The holotype locality of Mt Maquiling is about 10 km from the holotype locality of V. hemera sp. nov. at Los Baños.

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

Fig. 10. Lateral habitus of species of Voconia Stål, 1866. Scale bars = 3 mm.

Fig. 12. Pygophore of species of Voconia Stål, 1866. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.

Fig. 14. Aedeagus of species of Gerbelius Distant, 1903 and Voconia Stål, 1866. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.

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

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