Zelus lewisi Zhang & Hart, 2016

Gil-Santana, Hélcio R., 2019, New records, taxonomic notes, and the description of a new species of Reduviidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from Ecuador, Zootaxa 4613 (3), pp. 502-520 : 517

Zelus lewisi Zhang & Hart, 2016

( Figs. 36–37 )

Zelus lewisi Zhang & Hart (in Zhang et al. 2016: 177 –179, 180–181, 341, 344) (description, Figs. 121, a–f, 122–123, key to males, key to females).

Zelus lewisi Zhang & Hart, 2016 was recently described from Central America ( Costa Rica and Panama) ( Zhang et al. 2016). Diagnostic characters of this species (Zhang & Hart in Zhang et al. 2016) include: a “large and slender body and the posterior pronotal lobe bearing a pair of tubercles. (…) Females [are] yellowish or reddish with black spots and markings.” Among other characteristics of the female, its total length was recorded as being 22.52–24.06 mm (22–25 mm, in their key for separating the species of Zelus ) [length of body from clypeus to apex of hemelytron] (Zhang & Hart in Zhang et al. 2016). The female examined here ( Figs. 36–37 ) has a total length of 22.1 mm (from clypeus to apex of hemelytron, similarly as recorded by Zhang et al. 2016), a general yellowish coloration, with several black spots and markings and a pair of tubercles on the posterior pronotal lobe ( Figs. 36–37 ), matching the diagnosis of this species (Zhang & Hart in Zhang et al. 2016).

The species is recorded for the first time from Ecuador.

Specimen examined. ECUADOR, Esmeraldas, Tundaloma Lodge, near Calderón , 01.18277° N, 078.75259° W (01°10’57” N 78°45’09” W), 55 m. a.s.l., 8–9.ii.2014, A. Kury & A. Giupponi leg., 1 female.

Figures

FIGURES 32–37. Figs. 32–33. Montina lobata, dorsal view, scale bar 5.0 mm, 32, female, 33, male. Figs. 34–35. Montina sinuosa, female, 34, dorsal view, scale bar 5.0 mm, 35, abdomen, lateral view, scale bar 2.0 mm. Figs. 36–37. Zelus lewisi, female, dorsal view, 36, scale bar 5.0 mm, 37, head and thorax, scale bar 1.0 mm.