Physoderes nigroalbus Breddin 1903
Creators: name: Hwang, Wei Song
name: Weirauch, Christiane
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Reduviidae
Physoderes
Physoderes nigroalbus

description: Physoderes nigroalbus Breddin, 1903
Figs 15, 20; Appendix
Physoderes nigroalbus Breddin, 1903: 126.
Diagnosis
This species is recognized among species of Physoderes by the short and conical head, the scape not reaching the apex of the clypeus, the eye hemispherical and slightly flattened, the submedian pronotal carina strongly defined, the scutellum and scutellar process brown, the corium dark brown with the membranous portion basally dark brown including the external cell, and areas directly adjacent to the medial vein apical extension and first anal vein apex with remaining membrane off-white. This species is most similar to P. tricolor sp. nov., but can be differentiated from it by its size, coloration of the head, pronotum and scutellar process, and the shape of the eye.
Material examined
Lectotype (here designated)
INDONESIA: ♀, Sumatra, Tebing Tinggi, NE Sumatra, 3.31944° N, 99.15222° E, 21 m, 10 Mar. 1884, Dr. Schultheiss leg. (UCR_ENT 00040566) (DEI).
Redescription
Female
BODY LENGTH. Medium, total length 9.74 mm.
COLORATION (Fig. 15). Brown. Head brown. Scape and pedicel of antenna light brown to brown, basiflagellomere brown, distiflagellomere basally brown, apically straw-colored. First segment of labium light brown, second segment straw-colored, apically brown, third segment brown. Anterior lobe of pronotum dark brown, posterior lobe brown, scutellum brown with dark brown scutellar process, pleuron brown with straw-colored suffusion, sternum brown to dark brown. Corium of hemelytron dark brown, membrane basally dark brown, apically off-white. Femur and tibia of legs straw-colored with basal, medial and apical brown annulations, tarsus and claw light brown. Abdomen dorsally yellowishorange, basally straw-colored with brown and dark brown patterns, anterior half of connexivum dark brown, posterior half straw-colored.
VESTITURE. Sparsely setose. Head with widespread curved setae, ventral surface of postocular lobe with sparse, setigerous tubercles, without pair of long, straight setae on postocular lobe posterior to ocelli. Anterior lobe of thorax with irregular row of tuberculated, short, curved setae on lateral margins and short, setigerous tubercles dispersed on dorsal surface, posterior lobe with short, curved setae on humeral angle and sparsely distributed along dorsal surface. Corium of hemelytron with short, curved setae. Legs with two rows of spines and setigerous tubercles, tibia with regular rows of tuberculated, stout, sharp setae. Connexival margin of abdomen with no prominent setae.
HEAD. Short conical; maxillary plate rounded apically; scape not reaching apex of clypeus; eye hemispherical in dorsal view, less than 1/5 length of head.
THORAX. Antero-lateral paired projections acute, diverging; surface of anterior lobe with low ridges; median pronotal depression contiguous with transverse sulcus; paramedian carina strongly defined; anterior pronotal lobe shorter and narrower than posterior lobe, lower than posterior lobe in lateral view; parascutellar lobe rounded, skewed towards median; scutellum rounded triangular, scutellar process long, apex subacute.
HEMELYTRON. Attaining tip of abdomen.
LEGS. Same as genus description.
ABDOMEN. Connexival margin slightly undulating, posterior margin not elevated.
Male
Unknown.
Ecology
Nothing is known about the biology of this species.
Distribution
This species is only known from the type locality in northeast Sumatra, Indonesia.
Remarks
This specimen was found by Stephan Blank at the DEI without a type label and labeled as Epirodera palliderostris [sic]. It is here interpreted as the type specimen or part of a syntype series that Breddin used to describe P. nigroalbus. Because Breddin did not label his types nor mention where they were deposited, this is currently the best assumption. Further evidence is given by the exact match in the locality information provided in Breddin’s description and that on the specimen label, the lack of a range of measurements to suggest he examined more than one specimen, and matching description of the black and white hemelytron, measurement and sex. This specimen is thus designated as the lectotype for P. nigroalbus. No matching male specimens have been located and the redescription here is based on the single female lectotype specimen.
description: Published as part of Hwang, Wei Song & Weirauch, Christiane, 2017, Uncovering hidden diversity: phylogeny and taxonomy of Physoderinae (Reduviidae, Heteroptera), with emphasis on Physoderes Westwood in the Oriental and Australasian regions, pp. 1-118 in European Journal of Taxonomy 341 on pages 96-97, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2017.341, http://zenodo.org/record/3832798