Voconia tuberculata, 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 : 82-85

Voconia tuberculata sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:B50D3ECC-82C1-431B-95C1-6C8326049678

Figs 12 , 14 , 17–18

Diagnosis

Distinguished from most species of Voconia by its tuberculate and coarsely granulose head and pronotum. This species most closely resembles another Australian species, V. dolichocephala sp. nov. These two species are recognized from other Australian species by the acute protuberance on the posteroventral margin of the proepimeron, the long macrosetae of the setigerous tubercles, the elongate head (1.4–1.6 times as long as wide), and the yellow spots antero- and posteromedially on the abducted corium. Voconia tuberculata sp. nov. differs from V. dolichocephala sp. nov. by its overall light brown coloration and males are as long as about 7.9 mm. Females are smaller than the examined V. dolichocephala sp. nov. females (about 8.8 and 9.0 mm).

Etymology

The specific epithet is the Latin adjective ‘ tuberculatus, - a, - um ’, meaning ‘warty’ or ‘tuberculate’. Refers to the densely tuberculate surfaces of the body.

Type material

Holotype AUSTRALIA • ♂ (dissected pygophore and aedeagus in vial); Northern Territory, 17 km NE of Willeroo; [15.23 ° S, 131.67 ° E]; 8–9 Nov. 1984; M. and B. Baehr leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00127096 ; ZSMC.

Paratypes AUSTRALIA – Northern Territory • 1 ♂; same collection data as for holotype; USI: AMNH_PBI 00127095 ; ZSMC • 1 adult sex unknown (abdomen missing); 30 km ESE of Victoria R. Downs; 16.19 ° S, 131.17 ° E; 18 Jun. 1969; M. Mendum leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00168741 ; ANIC • 1 ♂; Elsey Ck, 19 km SSE of Mataranka; 15.05 ° S, 133.07 ° E; 15 Oct. 1972; Upton and Barrett leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00168742 ; ANIC . — Queensland • 1 ♀; Burketown, site of old Broom Hotel: [17.85 ° S, 139.62 ° E]; 18 May 1931; T.G. Campbell leg.; light trap; USI: AMNH_PBI 00168743 ; ANIC • 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; USI: AMNH_PBI 00168744 ; ANIC • 1 ♂; Kunkulla Station, Gregory River ; 25 May 1931; I.M. Mackerras leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00168746 ; ANIC .

Description

Male ( Figs 8 , 10 )

BODY LENGTH. 7.9–8.9 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; scutellum uniformly brown. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus reddish-brown with distal yellow stripe; corium reddish-brown with 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: yellowish-brown. Abdomen: light brown, dorsal laterotergites I and II paler than remainder.

INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum: coarsely granulose with sparse, long setigerous tubercles interspersed among sparse pubescence; interocular region with two pairs of stout setigerous tubercles paramedially; antennifer with long lateral setigerous tubercle; morphologically ventral surface of labium with sparse, short macrosetae. Thorax ( Fig. 3L ): anterolateral angles of pronotal collar with setigerous tubercles; scutellar lateral carinae with setigerous tubercles with long macrosetae. Hemelytron: corium with dense long setation. Legs: posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with four or more large spines on distal half. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent, long macrosetae interspersed.

STRUCTURE. Head: elongate, 1.4–1.6 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 1.5–2.2 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 about as wide as maxillary plates; clypeal apex bifid, not narrowed; interocular glabrous markings anterolaterally curved, joined at interocular sulcus paramedially or medially forming a V-shaped marking; interocular sulcus in dorsal view nearly straight; eye width in dorsal view 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, surpassing posteroventral eye margin; morphologically dorsal surface of labial segment II curves ventrally, about 0.3 times length of segment I. Thorax ( Fig. 3L ): pronotal collar in dorsal view wide medially with anterolateral angles long, flared laterally; anterior pronotal lobe 0.6–0.8 times length of posterior pronotal lobe, lateral margins almost straight; glabrous markings on pronotum conspicuous, not depressed; median apodeme depression of pronotum shallow, elongated transversely; scutellar spine long, raised; anteriad-directed process of prosternum with paramedial lobes; anterior margin of stridulitrum projected into small protuberance; proepimeron with acute protuberance on posteroventral margin. Legs: fossula spongiosa present on fore and mid legs. Abdomen: anterior margin of terga weakly carinulate, terga II and III with deeper and longer carinules; terga II and III with paired prominent longitudinal carinae, reaching about two-thirds of tergum III. Pygophore ( Fig. 13 ): transverse bridge with rounded posterior margin; posterior region of ventral surface of pygophore in lateral view with large swelling; short median apical process, sharply bent posteriorly in lateral view; lateral pygophore margin with protuberance; posterior pygophore margin with clustered macrosetae on protuberance; parameres sinusoidal, apex tapered sharply. Aedeagus ( Fig. 14 ): endosoma almost entirely covered with spicules; apex of dorsal phallothecal sclerite serrated; basal plate extension about 5.7 times as long as wide.

Female Mostly as male, distinguished from males by the following. Body length: 8.4–8.8 mm. Head: elongate, 1.5 times as long as wide; pedicel about 1.5–1.7 times length of head width. Legs: fossula spongiosa present on fore leg, absent or vestigial on mid leg.

Distribution ( Fig. 18 )

This species is distributed across Northern Territory and Queensland in Australia. The nearest Voconia species is V. dolichocephala sp. nov., found about 100 km northwest of specimen AMNH_PBI 00168742.

Remarks

The direction of the maxillary plates in dorsal view varies from nearly straight or parallel (e.g., AMNH_ PBI 00168741) to strongly diverging (e.g., AMNH_PBI 00168746). Voconia tuberculata sp. nov. is nested within the Australian clade. According to our phylogeny ( Figs 1–2 ), V. tuberculata sp. nov. was recovered as the sister taxon to V. dolichocephala sp. nov. The abdomen of specimen AMNH_PBI 00127096 was used for DNA extraction, but we did not get sufficient DNA in our NGS library for Illumina sequencing.

Figures

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

Fig. 18. The distribution of species of Voconia Stål, 1866 in the Australasian region.

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. 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.

Fig. 13. Pygophore of species of Voconia Stål, 1866. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.

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.