Anisops debilis perplexus Poisson, 1929

Cianferoni, Fabio & Dia, Aref, 2025, Annotated catalogue and checklist of Gerromorpha, Nepomorpha, and Leptopodomorpha (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) of Lebanon, with new records, Zootaxa 5725 (1), pp. 1-54 : 29

Anisops debilis perplexus Poisson, 1929

Material examined. Survey material: Basin of El Kebir: El Kebir at El Aabboûdîyé, 1 ♀, MLUB .

Extralimital material examined. JORDAN: Gharandal , Wadi Araba, 1.XI.1999, A. Carapezza leg. “JORDAN 1.XI.99 | Wadi Araba | Gharandal | leg. A. Carapezza ”, 2 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀, ACPI .

General distribution. Distribution of this taxon should be verified also according to its status and validity (see note below). Currently it has been recorded for the Meditteranean area (Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, North Africa), Macaronesia, some spots in Sub-Saharan Africa ( Senegal and Djibouti), and Middle East (Polhemus 1995c, Aukema et al. 2013); however, several of these records need verification. Concerning the adjacent countries this subspecies has been recorded so far for Israel ( Larsen & Blaustein 2005), Jordan ( Katbeh et al. 2000) and Hatay province of Turkey ( Dursun 2011).

Remarks. As anticipated, taxonomy of the A. debilis group needs revision (possibly also with molecular analysis) since its variability and current subspecific arrangement used to indicate geographical variation (see Lansbury 1964, Polhemus 1995c).

Variabilty exist among populations from Mediterranean, Africa and Middle East (unpublished data). However, the Lebanese female matches well with specimens from Jordan (see material examined) regarding synthlipsis, width of vertex and frons; ovipositor valves (see Cianferoni 2019) match concerning size and ratios, but development of their lateral teeth is different (see discussion below for A. sardeus ).

Other taxa occurring in or near this area of Middle East, i.e. Anisops crinitus Brooks, 1951 , A. debiIis debilis Gerstaecker, 1873 , A. sardeus sardeus Herrich-Schäffer, 1849 , A. varius Fieber, 1851 , can be safety excluded because of the features presented above.

This is the first record for Lebanon. A confirmation based on male specimens will be however useful.