Voconia vittata, 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 : 88-90

Voconia vittata sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:772BEB7A-1101-4AD1-91C0-8EED38AE4516

Figs 1–2 , 8 , 10 , 12 , 14 , 18

Diagnosis

Distinguished from other species of Voconia by the following combination of characters: short body length (about 7.1 mm long); globose head; tuberculate and coarsely granulose head and pronotum; interocular region with two setigerous tubercles medially; apex of clypeus bifid; corium dark with thick medial yellow stripe; and dark brown femora with contrasting yellowish-brown tibiae and tarsi. This species most closely resembles another Australian species, V. fasciata sp. nov., but V. vittata sp. nov. is about 1.6 mm shorter and the yellow medial stripe on the corium is opaque.

Etymology

The specific epithet is the Latin adjective ‘ vittatus, - a, - um ’, meaning ‘banded’. Refers to the yellow band or color pattern that crosses the middle of the corium and scutellar spine.

Type material

Holotype AUSTRALIA • ♂; Queensland, Cape York Peninsula, Dulhunty Rd ; 11.86666° S, 142.5° E; 22 Mar. 1992; G. Cassis leg.; at light; USI: AMNH_PBI 00088406 ; AMS K 156496 .

Description

Male ( Figs 8 , 10 )

BODY LENGTH. About 7.1 mm; macropterous.

COLORATION. Head: uniformly dark brown; labium lighter than head, labial segment I brown, II and III yellowish-brown. Thorax: as head; scutellum dark with contrasting yellow apical spine. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus dark reddish-brown with distal yellow stripe; corium dark reddish-brown with thick medial yellow stripe; membrane dark with pale V-shaped marking along R and M veins; membranal veins An 1 and R proximally pale. Legs: femora dark brown, tibiae and tarsi yellowish-brown. Abdomen: yellowish-brown medially, dark reddish-brown laterally; dorsal laterotergites I and II paler than remainder.

INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum: coarsely granulose with dense, short setigerous tubercles interspersed among sparse pubescence; interocular region with two pairs of stout setigerous tubercles paramedially and two medially; antennifer with long lateral setigerous tubercle; morphologically ventral surface of labium with sparse, long macrosetae. Thorax: anterolateral angles of pronotal collar with setigerous tubercles; scutellar lateral carinae with short macrosetae on setigerous tubercles. Hemelytron:

corium with dense, long macrosetae. Legs: posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with three or four spines on distal half. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent, long macrosetae interspersed.

STRUCTURE. Head: globose, about as long as wide; anteocular region about one quarter of head length, shorter than postocular region (measured to anterior margin of neck); postocular region in dorsal view about as long as eye,lateral margins gently rounded; pedicel about 1.4times length of head width; maxillary plates ellipsoidal, adjacent to and reaching apex of clypeus; apices of maxillary plates in dorsal view converging; clypeus in dorsal view wider than maxillary plates; clypeal apex bifid, narrowed; interocular glabrous markings anterolaterally curved, joined at interocular sulcus paramedially; interocular sulcus in dorsal view bent anteromedially, subtriangular; eye width in dorsal view narrower than synthlipsis; eye 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; morphologically dorsal surface of labial segment II curves ventrally, about 0.4 times length of segment I. Thorax: pronotal collar in dorsal view wide medially with anterolateral angles short, flared laterally; anterior pronotal lobe about 0.9 times length of posterior pronotal lobe, lateral margins almost straight; glabrous markings on pronotum conspicuous and not depressed; median apodeme depression of pronotum shallow, elongated longitudinally; scutellar spine long, raised; anteriad-directed process of prosternum with paramedial lobes; anterior margin of stridulitrum projected into small protuberance; proepimeron with smoothly rounded posteroventral margin. Legs: fossula spongiosa present on fore and mid legs.

Female

Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 18 )

This species is only known from the type locality in Northern Australia.

Remarks

Nested within the well supported Australian clade ( Figs 1–2 ).

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