Zelus impar Kuhlgatz & Melichar, 1902

Zhang, Guanyang, Hart, Elwood R & Weirauch, Christiane, 2016, A taxonomic monograph of the assassin bug genus Zelus Fabricius (Hemiptera: Reduviidae): 71 species based on 10,000 specimens, Biodiversity Data Journal 4, pp. 8150-8150 : 8150

Zelus impar Kuhlgatz & Melichar, 1902

Zelus impar Kuhlgatz, 1902, p. 264-266, Tab. IV, fig. 6, 6a, 6b, orig. descr. and fig.; Wygodzinsky, 1949a, p. 49, checklist; Hart, 1987, p. 297, redescription, note, fig., key and neotype desig.; Maldonado, 1990, p. 327, cat.

Materials

Type status: Neotype. Occurrence: catalogNumber: UCR_ENT 00071190 ; occurrenceRemarks: Neotype designated by Hart (1987). Original type was destroyed; recordedBy: F. W. Walker; sex: Adult Male; Taxon: scientificName: Zelusimpar; family: Reduviidae; genus: Zelus; scientificNameAuthorship: Kuhlgatz & Melichar, 1902; Location: country: COLOMBIA; stateProvince: Magdalena; locality: Santa Marta Mountains, Mount San Lorenzo ; verbatimElevation: 1524 m; decimalLatitude: 11.12343; decimalLongitude: -74.0372; georeferenceSources: Gazetteer; Identification: identifiedBy: G. Zhang; dateIdentified: 2012; Event: eventDate: 1926-02-02; Record Level: institutionCode: TAMU

Description

Figs 97, 98, 99

Male: (Fig. 97) Small, total length 9.47-12.05 mm (mean 11.23 mm, Suppl. material 2); slender. COLORATION: Variable; at least two forms exist. In one form, most of surface dark brown, except posterior pronotal lobe, which is orangish-brown (Fig. 97). Femora brown with dark apical bands. In second form (Fig. 97), integument nearly uniformly blackish-brown, connexival margins lighter, femora with subapical inconspicuous lighter bands. VESTITURE: Sparsely setose. Head with short, recumbent and moderate to long erect setae, erect setae sparse dorsally. Anterior pronotal lobe with short, recumbent and moderately long, erect setae, confined to setal tracts; posterior pronotal lobe with short, recumbent and moderately long, erect setae. Abdomen with short, recumbent and short to moderately long erect setae laterally and ventrally. STRUCTURE: Head: Cylindrical, L/W = 2.24. Postocular lobe long; sloping to posterior constriction. Eye smallish; lateral margin only slightly wider than postocular lobe; dorsal and ventral margins removed from surfaces of head. Labium: I: II: III = 1: 1.8: 0.5. Basiflagellomere diameter larger than that of pedicel. Thorax: Anterolateral angle bearing small protuberance; medial longitudinal sulcus evident only on posterior 1/2, deepening anterior to transverse sulcus of pronotum. Posterior pronotal lobe with rugulose surface; disc distinctly elevated above humeral angle; humeral angle armed, with minute or dentate process. Scutellum long; apex slightly projected dorsad. Legs: Slender. Femoral diameters subequal. Hemelytron: Slightly surpassing apex of abdomen, not more than length of abdominal segment seven; quadrate cell small; Cu and M of cubital cell subparallel. GENITALIA: (Fig. 98) Pygophore: Elongate ovoid; not expanded laterally in dorsal view. Medial process cylindrical; very slender; long, only slightly shorter than paramere; somewhat laterally compressed; semi-erect; apically recurved; apex in posterior view acute, without modification. Paramere: Cylindrical; long, achieving apex of medial process; directed posteriad, slightly curved towards medial process; nearly straight; apical part not enlarged. Phallus: Dorsal phallothecal sclerite shield-shaped; small indentation of lateral margin at about mid-point; apical portion of phallothecal sclerite distinctly tapered, slightly folded in middle, laterally rounded, not forming angle; posterior margin of foramen inversely V-shaped. Struts attached to dorsal phallothecal sclerite; basally fused. Basal plate arm moderately robust; basally fused; in lateral view very slightly curved; bridge extremely short; extension of basal plate heavily sclerotized, laterally expanded onto arm.

Female: Unknown.

Diagnosis

Recognized by the slender, curved, laterally compressed, and apically tapered medial process (shared with members of the Zelus nugax species group; Fig. 5). Distinguished from Z. nugax and Z. pedestris by the recurved medial process. Similar to Z. illotus in having a recurved medial process, but is differentiated by the straight paramere.

Distribution

Panama and Northern South America and adjacent islands of the Caribbean (Fig. 99). Countries with records: Colombia, Panama (record not mapped), Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.

Taxon discussion

Hart (1987) designated a neotype for Z. impar because the original type material of that species was destroyed during World War II. This neotype specimen was at that time deposited in the private collection of J. C. Elkins, Houston,Texas. This specimen was eventually transferred to and deposited at TAMU, instead of AMNH as the author had indicated.