Bagauda ernstmayri, Kulkarni, Siddharth & Ghate, Hemant V., 2016

Kulkarni, Siddharth & Ghate, Hemant V., 2016, A new cavernicolous assassin bug of the genus Bagauda Bergroth (Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae) from the Western Ghats, India, Zootaxa 4127 (2), pp. 365-375 : 366-369

Bagauda ernstmayri sp. nov.

Taxonomic placement. Family Reduviidae , subfamily Emesinae and tribe Leistarchini , as per the latest classification of the genus.

Type material. Holotype: male, Chalkewadi road near Sajjangad fort, Satara, Maharashtra, India, 20.x.2015, leg. S. Kulkarni; deposited at the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Western Regional Station, Pune. Paratypes: 1 male and 1 female from the same locality, 25.x.2015, collected by the same collector; deposited in the personal collection of H.V. Ghate at Modern College (Shivajinagar, Pune).

Description. Macropterous male and female. Total length (apex of head to tip of abdomen): male (n=2) 13.0– 13.3 mm, female (n=1) 12.8 mm.

Other measurements in mm: (character: female paratype / male holotype): total length: 12.8 / 13.0; length of head: 1.2 / 1.25; length of pronotum (measured in lateral view): 3.8 / 3.6; humeral width 2.8 / 2.7; length of abdomen (from base to apex): 8.3 / 8.4; length of fore wing: 8.2 / 8.3; length of hind wing: 7.0 / 7.0; lengths of antennal segments I: 10.8 /10.5, II: 8.0 /8.2, III: 3.0 / 3.0, IV: 2.1 / 2.1; length of fore coxa: 2.40 / 2.25, femur: 4.0 / 4.1, tibia: 2.4 / 2.25, tarsus: 1.2 / 1.3; length of mid femur: 11.6 / 11.0, tibia: 15.0 / 15.5, tarsus: 0.5 / 0.5; length of hind femur: 14.4 / 13.0, tibia: 21.0 / 20.0, tarsus: 0.5 / 0.5; lengths of labial segments: 1st visible segment: 0.4 / 0.4, 2nd visible segment: 0.5 / 0.5, 3rd visible segment 0.5 / 0.5.

Coloration. Body and appendages generally pale brown to dark brown; whitish areas present on posterior half of anterior lobe of prothorax, at base of fore coxae, on distal third of fore femur (except its apex), on basal third of fore tibia, and on femur-tibia junctions of mid and hind legs (in one specimen, whitish areas becoming pale yellowish brown, except femur-tibia junctions). Head pale at base of antenniferous tubercle, on transverse sulcus (= interocular furrow), at base or ‘neck’ and below eyes laterally. Antennae dark brown. Labium with first two visible segments brownish and third segment pale. Meso- and metathorax brownish. Hemelytra smoky, semitransparent; corium with large whitish area apically; membrane with whitish veins discaly and dark veins along margin, and with pale oval spot near base; hind wings transparent. Fore tibia light brown on distal part; tarsal segments II and III lighter than segment I. Abdomen with several areas pale brown ( Figs. 2–10 ).

Structure. Head elongate ovoid, dorsally distinctly convex, partly setose, finely granular, ventrally flattish, slightly longer than its width, with deep transverse sulcus between eyes. A fine, longitudinal, median sulcus present in front of transverse sulcus, meeting transverse sulcus. Anteocular area narrowed considerably, slightly declivous; post-ocular area slightly narrowed, gently constricted near middle and tumescent above. Clypeus prominently raised; mandibular plates shorter than clypeus. Antenniferous tubercles large, situated on top of head, slightly divergent ( Fig. 11 ). Eyes moderately large, semi-globular, coarsely granular. Antennae with antennomeres very thin. Labium extending up to fore coxae, moderately stout; first visible segment not extending up to anterior border of eye; second visible segment reaching almost up to base of head.

Pronotum long; anterior lobe more or less smooth, covered with a few fine setae, convex in anterior half, flattened in posterior half, distinct from posterior lobe by constriction, slightly longer than posterior lobe, and with lateral margins almost parallel-sided, anterior margin concave and anterior angles tubercular and projecting outward; posterior lobe bell-shaped, finely punctured and rugulose, sloping forward, broader than anterior lobe, humeral angles bluntly triangular and posterior margin concave ( Fig. 12 ). Prosternum slightly concave. Scutellum sub-triangular, with lateral borders gently sinuate ( Fig. 13 ).

Hemelytra fully covering abdomen, surpassing apex of abdomen, its venation more or less typical ( Fig. 14 ); hind wings small, very thin, delicate.

Fore legs with coxa much longer than its width, projecting in front of head; trochanter short; femur longer than coxa, almost as long as tibia and tarsus combined, ventrally with 2 rows of spine-like setae; anteroventral (inner) row slightly curved at base, starting far from base of femur; posteroventral (outer) row starting at base of femur; basal setae somewhat stronger and longer than remaining setae; tibia shorter but more than half as long as femur, ventrally with slightly thick setae bent and pointed towards apex, and dorsally with very fine setae; tarsus with fine curved claw at tip ( Figs. 5–7 ).

Mid and hind legs very thin, very long; mid femur extending beyond abdominal apex by 3.5 mm; hind femur surpassing abdominal apex by almost 8 mm.

Male genitalia: Pygophore about 1.5 mm long, ventrally convex, dorsally flat ( Figs. 15, 16 ). Parameres visible outside, curved apically as in other species of Bagauda , slightly swollen around middle, with beak-like apex, setose ( Fig. 17 ). Phallus weakly sclerotized; endosoma with very fine spines and spinules of complex arrangement ( Figs. 18–21 ).

Female genitalia: genital segments in dorsal and ventral views, respectively, are shown in Figs. 22 and 23.

Etymology. The species is named after the late Ernst Mayr, a most respected theorist of systematic zoology and a foremost evolutionary biologist of the 20th Century.

Distribution. Presently known only from the type locality-Satara, Maharashtra State, India.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 2. Habitat and habitus of Bagauda ernstmayri sp. nov. 1, Habitat showing entrance to the cave; 2, a living individual.

FIGURES 3 – 4. Bagauda ernstmayri sp. nov. 3, Lateral view of whole body; 4, lateral view of head and prothorax.

FIGURES 5 – 7. Bagauda ernstmayri sp. nov., fore leg. 5, Femur, tibia and tarsus showing color and relative proportions; 6, tarsus showing dark, longest basal segment; 7, tibia showing a ventral row of adpressed dark spines.

FIGURES 8 – 14. Bagauda ernstmayri sp. nov. 8, Thoracic sterna; 9, abdominal sternites in female; 10, pygophore in ventral view; 11, head in dorsal view; 12, head, pronotum and scutellum; 13, prothorax in ventrolateral view, 14, hemelytra.

FIGURES 15 – 18. Bagauda ernstmayri sp. nov., male genitalia. 15, pygophore in dorsal view; 16, pygophore in lateral view; 17, paramere; 18, phallus in lateral view.

FIGURES 19 – 22. Bagauda ernstmayri sp. nov., phallus and female terminalia. 19, Phallus in dorsal view; 20, same in lateral view; 21, same in ventral view; 22, female genital segments in dorsal view; 23, same in ventral view.