Voconia ornata Castillo & Rédei & Weirauch 2022, comb. nov.
Creators: name: Castillo, Stephanie
name: Rédei, Dávid
name: Weirauch, Christiane
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Reduviidae
Voconia
Voconia ornata

description: Voconia ornata (Distant, 1903) comb. nov.
Figs 1–2, 8, 10, 20
Gerbelius ornatus Distant, 1903a: 59.
Diagnosis
Distinguished from other species of Voconia by the following combination of characters: slender and short body (~ 7.8–8.7 mm long); proepimeron with protuberance on posteroventral margin; legs yellow with distal half of femora brown; scutellum dark with contrasting yellow apical spine; and dark abducted corium with anteromedial, posteromedial, and distal yellow spots.
Type material
Lectotype (present designation) SRI LANKA • ♂; “ Ceylon ” [Sri Lanka]; E.E. Green leg.; Distant coll. 1911–383; USI: UCR_ENT 00048381; BMNH.
Additional material examined
INDIA – Madhya Pradesh • 1 ♀; Jahalpur; elev. “ 1600 ft ” [488 m]; Oct. 1957; P.S. Nathan leg.; dissected abdomen in vial; USI: AMNH_PBI 00170698; AMNH • 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; Susai Nathan leg.; dissected abdomen in vial; USI: AMNH_PBI 00170697; AMNH. – Tamil Nadu • 1 ♀; Tranquebar, Madras; 30 Mar. 1969; K. Krishna leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00170699; AMNH. – Uttar Pradesh • 1 ♂; Maldevta, Dehra Dun; elev. “ 3500 ft ” [1067 m]; 15 Apr. 1942; Jai K. Uniyal leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00170696; AMNH.
UNKNOWN COUNTRY • 1 ♂; “832-13”; USI: AMNH_PBI 00213933; HNHM.
Description
Male (Figs 8, 10)
BODY LENGTH. 8.0–9.0 mm; macropterous.
COLORATION. Head: light brown; postocular region with pale patches adjacent to lateral ocellar margin; labium lighter than head, brown to yellow. Thorax: as head; scutellum dark with contrasting yellow apical spine. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus reddish-brown with distal yellow stripe; corium reddishbrown with anteromedial, posteromedial, and distal yellow spots; membrane dark with pale V-shaped marking along R and M veins; membranal veins R and M proximally pale. Legs: yellow, distal half of femora brown. Abdomen: light brown; dorsal laterotergites dark brown with faint pale bands on posterior margins.
INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum: finely granulose with dense, short macrosetae interspersed among dense pubescence; interocular region with two pairs of macrosetae paramedially; antennifer with short lateral setigerous tubercle; morphologically ventral surface of labium with sparse, short macrosetae. Thorax: anterolateral angles of pronotal collar with macrosetae. Hemelytron: corium with dense, long macrosetae. Legs: posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with three large spines on distal half and many small spines. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent.
STRUCTURE. Head: elongate, about 1.3 times as long as wide; anteocular region about one third of head length, about as long as postocular region (measured to anterior margin of neck); postocular region in dorsal view about as long as eye, lateral margins gently rounded; pedicel 1.3–1.4 times length of head width; maxillary plates ellipsoidal, adjacent to and longer than clypeus; apices of maxillary plates in dorsal view directed straight or diverging; clypeus in dorsal view about as wide as maxillary plates; clypeal apex round, not narrowed; interocular glabrous markings anterolaterally curved, joined at interocular sulcus paramedially; interocular sulcus in dorsal view nearly straight; eye width in dorsal view narrower than synthlipsis; eye reaching ventral head margin in lateral view; ventrolateral swelling of buccula with lateral protrusion that surpasses buccular margin, setigerous tubercles along apical margin; labial segment I in lateral view straight, reaching posteroventral eye margin; morphologically dorsal surface of labial segment II nearly straight, about 0.5 times length of segment I. Thorax: pronotal collar in dorsal view narrow medially with anterolateral angles short, projected forward; anterior pronotal lobe 0.7–0.8 times length of posterior pronotal lobe, lateral margins almost straight; glabrous markings on pronotum thin and deeply depressed; median apodeme depression of pronotum deep, circular; scutellar spine long, subhorizontal; anteriad-directed process of prosternum smoothly rounded, without paramedial lobes; anterior margin of stridulitrum not elongated into protuberance; proepimeron with acute protuberance on posteroventral margin. Legs: fossula spongiosa present on fore and mid legs.
Female
Mostly as male, distinguished from males by the following. Body length: 7.8–8.5 mm. Head: elongate, 1.3–1.4 times as long as wide; pedicel 1.3–1.5 times length of head width. Legs: fossula spongiosa absent or vestigial on mid leg.
Distribution (Fig. 20)
Distributed in India and Sri Lanka.
Remarks
Originally described as Gerbelius ornatus based on an unspecified number of specimens (syntypes) from Sri Lanka (Distant 1903a). Cladistic analyses (Weirauch 2008; present study: Figs 1–2) confirm that this species is nested within Voconia, and hence it is hereby transferred to the latter genus. The abdomen of pinned specimen USI: AMNH_PBI 00170697 was removed for DNA extraction, but insufficient DNA was acquired in the NGS library for Illumina sequencing.
A single male pertaining to the type series (Fig. 8), here designated as the lectotype, was examined from a unit tray image at the BMNH, along with six other specimens for which we can only distinguish the locality for one specimen as Halwaldi, India and is not included in our distribution map nor material examined (Fig. 20). While the locality and date for the lectotype are not specified, we are confident that this specimen was studied by Distant. Kirby (1891) notes that the collector E.E. Green shared his collection of Hemiptera with the BMNH, most of which were collected at Pundaloya and could be inferred as the locality where no locality is mentioned. Less likely localities include Nitagala, Nawalapitya, Kandy, Colombo, or other.
description: Published as part of Castillo, Stephanie, Rédei, Dávid & Weirauch, Christiane, 2022, Pseudocetherinae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) revisited: phylogeny and taxonomy of the lobe-headed bugs, pp. 1-95 in European Journal of Taxonomy 788 (1) on pages 70-72, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.788.1625, http://zenodo.org/record/5846636