Brachysandalus maculatus Malipatil & Liu 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Liu, Yingqi
name: Cai, Wanzhi
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Reduviidae
Brachysandalus
Brachysandalus maculatus

description: Brachysandalus maculatus Malipatil & Liu, sp. nov.
(Figs. 38, 39)
Type specimens. Holotype male, Australia, New South Wales, Macquarie Marshes, Longstowe station near Carinda, UV light trap, 10–12.iii.2002, leg K. & G. Hangay (ANIC). Paratypes: 2 males (one dissected), same as holotype (ANIC).
Other specimens. QUEENSLAND. 1 male (dissected), Noccundra, SW. Qld, 21–22. ix.1990, G. B. Monteith (QM); 1 male, Queensland, Nat Mus. Victoria (MV).
Diagnosis.
Only macropterous male known, body medium sized. Dark brown to black (Fig. 38), hemelytron with a yellow oval spot involving apical 1/2 of clavus and adjoining area of corium between veins Pcu+1A and Cu, and an irregular small vague yellow to yellowish-brown patch on membrane near confluence of veins Cu and M (Fig. 38A). Fore femur armed below with rows of bristly setae and in addition with a few minute tubercles in inner and outer rows (Fig. 38B&C); fore and mid tibiae with fossula spongiosa occupying about 1/3 tibial length (Fig. 38B&C); in male, abdominal sternite VII with extragenital structure in the form of an elongate narrow apically pointed flattish process, with lateral adjoining cuticular area slightly swollen (Figs. 38B, 55I, 56I); male genitalia with median pygophore process long and straight, tapered to pointed apex, venter strongly ridged in caudal view (Fig. 39B), and slenderly spatulate, curved and narrowly at base and gradually narrowing to a slightly reflexed apex in lateral view (Fig. 39C); inner margin of lateral phallothecal sclerite generally smooth, only weakly undulate (Fig. 39I).
Description.
Macropterous male (Fig. 38)
Colouration (Fig. 38): Dark brown to black. Antenna brown with apical two segments pale brown; third visible labial segment brown; legs with tibiae and tarsi brown to yellowish brown; oval spot involving apical 1/2 of clavus and adjoining area of corium between veins Pcu+1A and Cu yellow, an inconspicuous yellowish white, thin, curved stripe near base of costal margin on membrane, and an irregular small vague yellow to yellowish-brown patch on membrane near confluence of veins Cu and M.
Structure (Figs. 38, 39): Similar to B. gunbalanyae sp. nov., but differs from the latter species in the following.
Body medium sized, wholly covered with denser and longer bristly, pilosity.
Head: Antennae with all segments cylindrical, second and third segments with brushy yellow-white pilosity that is about equal in length to width of segments, also several sparse longer darker setae. Eyes large, reniform, reaching ventral and dorsal margins of head in lateral view, width of eye longer than interocular width. Ocelli large and conspicuously raised, separated from each other by less than diameter of single ocellus, separated from eye also by less than diameter of single ocellus.
Thorax: Pronotum entirely covered with longer bristly shiny golden pilosity; anterior lobe with collar armed with rounded and obvious tubercles at lateral ends, integument smooth, stripes indistinct, sulci indistinct except very shallow median longitudinal sulcus in basal half.
Legs: Fore leg with femur elongate, strongly fusiform, moderately incrassate slightly narrowing distally, much thicker than other femora, armed below with rows of bristly setae and in addition with a few minute tubercles in inner and outer rows.
Abdomen: Dorsally elongate oval, sternum carinate in midline and slightly curved to right side of body, shiny, smooth with sparse longer hairs in addition to pilosity (Fig. 38B), sternite VII with extragenital structure in the form of an elongate narrow apically pointed flattish process, with lateral adjoining cuticular area slightly swollen (Figs. 38B, 55I, 56I).
Male genitalia (Fig. 39): Median pygophore process long and straight, tapered to pointed apex, oblique to right side, venter strongly ridged in caudal view (Fig. 39B); slenderly spatulate, curved and narrowly at base and gradually narrowing to a slightly reflexed apex in lateral view (Fig. 39C). Parameres (Fig. 39D&E) subtriangular and curved in middle, apex somewhat truncate, with outer surfaces covered with obvious sparse longer bristles as on pygophore, left paramere (Fig. 39D) slightly broader and longer than right paramere (Fig. 39E). Phallus (Fig. 39F–I) in resting condition with basal plate longer than basal plate bridge (Fig. 39F), pedicel curved and subequal to length of basal plate (Fig. 39H&I); length of struts distinctly longer than half length of phallosoma (Fig. 39F); apex of dorsal phallothecal sclerite truncate (Fig. 39F); lateral phallothecal sclerite subquadrangular, inner margin generally smooth, only weakly undulate (Fig. 39I); pair of slender sclerites near base of venter of phallosoma weakly sclerotized (Fig. 39G).
Measurements: [of holotype male]. Body length 14.80; maximum width of abdomen 4.60; length of head 2.35; length of anteocular region 0.95; length of postocular region 0.50; width of head across eyes 1.78; width of interocular space 0.57; width of interocellar space 0.22; length of eye in dorsal view 0.79; width of eye in dorsal view 0.62; lengths of antennal segments I–IV 1.10 / 2.56 / 2.65 / 2.47; length of visible labial segments I–III 1.02 / 1.33 / 0.57; length of pronotum 3.34; length of anterior pronotal lobe 1.97; length of posterior pronotal lobe 1.36; width of anterior pronotal lobe 2.54; width of posterior pronotal lobe 3.87; length of scutellum 1.71; maximum width of scutellum 2.09; length of hemelytron 10.92; length of fore tibia 2.73; length of fossula spongiosa on fore tibia 0.83.
Distribution. Australia (New South Wales and Queensland).
Etymology. The species epithet is the Latin adjective maculatus (meaning ‘marked with spot or patch’; formed from maculo + diminutive suffix -atus), in allusion to the vague yellow patch on membrane near confluence of veins Cu and M.
Comparative notes. This species is similar to B. gunbalanyae sp. nov. but differs from the latter in having setae on second and third antennal segments brushy and as long as segment width (vs. much shorter than segment width in B. gunbalanyae); fore femur ventrally with distinct tubercles in addition to bristles in two rows inner and outer (vs. only bristles and indistinct minute tubercles in B. gunbalanyae); body generally with longer and denser setae (vs. generally with shorter and less dense setae in B. gunbalanyae); a more prominent extragenital structure that is elongate narrow apically pointed flattish process with lateral adjoining cuticular area of sternite VII slightly swollen, and the presence of a vague yellow patch near confluence of veins Cu and M.
Both these species (B. gunbalanyae sp. nov. and B. maculatus sp. nov.) are related to B. alutaceus, but they both differ from the latter in possessing a pronotum with posterior lobe broad, about 1.5X anterior lobe width (vs. less than 1.5X in B. alutaceus), the larger and more prominent eyes, with each eye much wider than interocular space (vs. eyes smaller, subequal to interocular space in B. alutaceus), and the extragenital process small and narrowly pointed (vs. large, flat, broadly elongate triangular with apical area out curved in B. alutaceus).
description: Published as part of Liu, Yingqi & Cai, Wanzhi, 2024, Revision of Australian Brachysandalus with the description of nine new species including one cavernicolous species (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae), and observations on male extragenital structure and leg teratology, pp. 1-112 in Zootaxa 5490 (1) on pages 75-78, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5490.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/13211621