Auxentius Horváth, 1915

WALL, MICHAEL A., 2007, A revision of the Solomonius-group of the stinkbug tribe Halyini (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae: Pentatominae), Zootaxa 1539 (1), pp. 1-84 : 12

Auxentius Horváth, 1915

Type species: Auxentius integer Horváth, 1915 , by monotypy.

Auxentius Horváth, 1915: 224 , 239–240 (keyed); Gross, 1976: 255 (descriptive note, taxonomic position)

Redescription. Head punctate; vertex flat; juga acute apically, rounded laterally; tylus just surpassing juga; antennifers stout, acute, visible from above. Antennal segment I with distal third wider than proximal portion; remaining segments of antennae terete. Compound eyes large, subglobose, slightly stalked; ocelli posterior to imaginary line between posterior margins of eyes. Pronotum deeply punctate, rugose; anterolateral angle developed as small acute lateral lobe; anterolateral margins sinuate; posterolateral margin smoothly transitioning into posterior margin. Scutellum elongate, triangular with low median raised longitudinal line. Forewings just surpassing abdomen; corium shallowly punctuate; membrane with highly branched anastomotic veins. Laterotergites totally exposed from above.

Bucculae parallel-sided, becoming obsolete upon reaching posterior margin of head. Labium elongate, surpassing metacoxae. Prosternum sulcate. Mesosternum slightly depressed, median carina absent, posterior margin shallowly bilobed. Metasternum shallowly sulcate, swollen laterally, posterior margin concave. Ostiole of metathoracic scent gland lenticulate; peritreme strap–shaped, slightly curved anteriorly, apically rounded; evaporative area covering much of meso- and metapleura. Posterior margin of metapleura straight to slightly curved, posterolateral lobe absent. Abdominal venter primarily convex below; flattened to slightly sulcate medially, posterior margin of sixth sternite (fifth visible) “V”-shaped; trichothoria paired, transverse, posterior to spiracles.

Male. Pronotum and anterior portion of scutellum extremely swollen dorsally (except in A. nigriculus ), giving males characteristic “humpbacked” appearance ( Fig. 5A ). Dorsolateral lobes elongate, as long or longer than dorsal length of the pygophore (excluding lobes). Posterior half of proctiger sharply curved ventrally, thus appearing to be composed of two sclerites. Parameres reduced, fused to interior portions of proctiger. Median penile plates fused, semicircular.

Females. Posterior margin of seventh sternite (sixth visible) with narrow medial “U”–shaped emargination. Eighth gonocoxae small, contained almost entirely within emargination of seventh sternite (sixth visible).

Comments. Species in the genus Auxentius can be distinguished from those in other genera in the Solomo- nius -group by the combination of elongate dorsal lobes on the pygophore, a sharply curved proctiger, and the presence of reduced eighth gonopophyses in the female. Species in this genus can be distinguished from one another with the key below.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Sexual dimorphism in Auxentius. A. A. vulgaris sp. nov., male, B. A. vulgaris sp. nov., female.