Leptopus decus Drake 1955

Khazaei, Zohreh, Polhemus, Dan A. & Tahami, Mohadeseh S., 2020, A new species of Leptopus (Heteroptera: Leptopodidae) from caves in Iran, with notes on other cavernicolous Iranian Heteroptera, Zootaxa 4763 (2), pp. 246-258 : 254-255

Leptopus decus Drake 1955

Leptopus decus Drake 1955: 201 .

Material examined. INDIA, Haryana: 1 male, Punjab [later subdivided to create Haryana], Karnal, February 1928, P. J. Barraud (paratype, USNM ex Drake).

Discussion. This is a smaller and somewhat shorter species than the others known from India, with the embolar margin of the hemelytra strongly bowed outward and the membrane reduced, making the species technically submacropterous. The head has the frons and tylus pale, with the vertex dark blackish-brown. The pronotum and scutellum are both dark brown, except for the extreme apex of the latter, which is pale yellow. The hemelytra are uniformly pale tan, with some faintly indicated darker markings on the clavus and adjacent inner corium, and on the extreme posterior corium adjoining the base of the wing membrane. The membrane is pale, with the veins light tan. The postocular spots are moderately well developed, and the central process on the vertex is roughly circular and moderately raised, but does not have a sharply raised longitudinal carina running anteriorly from it. A paratype was examined; the holotype is in The Natural History Museum, in London.

Our new L. gakalae from Iran is similar to this species in some respects, particularly in regard to its submacropterous state with a strongly bowed embolar margin on the hemelytra and reduced membrane, but has a very different dorsal color pattern.