Voconia mexicana Castillo & Rédei & Weirauch 2022, sp. 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 mexicana

description: Voconia mexicana sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 2FAEA443-4F17-4ABE-9F77-C28792F7D5D0
Figs 1–2, 3I, 4I, 8, 10, 12, 14, 19
Diagnosis
One of two New World species of Voconia. Recognized by the coarsely granulose head and prothorax; wide anteocular region; morphologically ventral surface of labium with sparsely long macrosetae; buccula with lateral tubercles protruding past buccular margin; and yellow antero- and posteromedial spots on the abducted corium.
Etymology
The specific epithet is the Latin adjective ‘ mexicanus, - a, - um ’, meaning ‘from or pertaining to Mexico’, referring to the country of the type locality.
Type material
Holotype MEXICO • ♂ (dissected pygophore and aedeagus in vial); Veracruz, 4 mi N of “Cardale” [José Cardel]; 30 Oct. 1982; G. Gordh leg.; DNA voucher R_CW 2768; USI: UCR_ENT 00004570; UCR.
Paratypes HONDURAS • 1 ♀; El Paraíso, 13 km NW of El Zamorano; [14.15 ° N, 86.47 ° W]; 27 Jul. 1977; C.W. and L.B. O’Brien and Marshall leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00170701; AMNH.
MEXICO • 1 ♂; Oaxaca, Tehuantepec; [16.33 ° N, 95.23 ° W]; 11 Jun. 1964; J.C. and D. Pallister leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00170702; AMNH. • 1 ♂; same collection data as for preceding; USI: AMNH_PBI 00170703; AMNH.
Description
Male (Figs 8, 10)
BODY LENGTH. 10.3–10.9 mm; macropterous.
COLORATION. Head: uniformly dark brown; labium lighter than head, yellow brown. Thorax: as head; posterior pronotal lobe with posterior margin lighter; scutellum dark with brown apical spine. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus dark reddish-brown with distal yellow stripe; corium dark reddish- brown with anteromedial and posteromedial yellow spots; membrane dark with pale V-shaped marking along R and M veins; membranal veins R, M, and An 1 proximally pale. Legs: dark brown. Abdomen: dark brown, laterotergites light brown.
INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum: coarsely granulose with sparse pubescence on setigerous tubercles; interocular region unarmed with macrosetae; antennifer with 1–3 short lateral setigerous tubercles; morphologically ventral surface of labium with sparse, long macrosetae. Thorax: anterolateral angles of pronotal collar with setigerous tubercles. Hemelytron: corium with dense, short setation. Legs: posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with three large spines on distal half and two to five small spines. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent.
STRUCTURE. Head: elongate, 1.2–1.3 times as long as wide; anteocular region about one third of head length, longer than postocular region (measured to anterior margin of neck); postocular region in dorsal view about as long as eye, lateral margins gently rounded; pedicel 1.4–1.9 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 narrower than maxillary plates; clypeal apex round, not narrowed; interocular glabrous markings anterolaterally curved, joined at interocular sulcus paramedially; interocular sulcus in dorsal view curved and smoothly rounded anteriorly; 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; labial segment I in lateral view straight, reaching or slightly shorter than posteroventral eye margin; morphologically dorsal surface of labial segment II nearly straight, about 0.4 times length of segment I. Thorax: pronotal collar in dorsal view narrow medially with anterolateral angles short, projected forward; anterior pronotal lobe about 0.5–0.6 times length of posterior pronotal lobe, lateral margins rounded; glabrous markings on pronotum thin and gently depressed; median apodeme depression of pronotum deep, circular; scutellar spine long, subhorizontal or raised; anteriad-directed process of prosternum with paramedial lobes (Fig. 3I); anterior margin of stridulitrum projected into small protuberance (Fig. 3I); proepimeron with acute protuberance on posteroventral margin. Legs: fossula spongiosa present on fore and mid legs. Abdomen: anterior margin of terga weakly carinulate; terga II and III with paired prominent longitudinal carinae, reaching about one-third of tergum III. Pygophore (Fig. 12): transverse bridge with rounded posterior margin; posterior region of ventral surface of pygophore in lateral view with large swelling; short median apical process sharply bent posteriorly in lateral view; lateral pygophore margin with protuberance; posterior pygophore margin with clustered macrosetae on flat margin; parameres sinusoidal, apex tapered into squarely rounded tip. Aedeagus (Fig. 14): endosoma almost entirely covered with spicules; apex of dorsal phallothecal sclerite rounded in dorsal view; basal plate extension about 4.3 times as long as wide.
Female
Distinguished from males by the following. Body length: about 12.2 mm. Head: elongate, about 1.2 times as long as wide; anteocular region shorter than postocular region (measured to anterior margin of neck); with sparse, short macrosetae on setigerous tubercles and sparse pubescence on setigerous tubercles; pedicel about 1.6 times length of head width; apices of maxillary plates in dorsal view directed straight; labium lighter than head, brown; labial segment I in lateral view surpassing posteroventral eye margin. Thorax: pronotal collar in dorsal view narrow, almost absent medially; anterolateral angles of pronotum long, projected forward. Hemelytron: corium dark with thick medial yellow stripe; 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 (Fig. 4I); fossula spongiosa absent or vestigial on mid leg.
Distribution (Fig. 19)
This species is distributed in Southern Mexico and Honduras.
Remarks
The female from Honduras is considerably different from the males from Mexico as the description states above. We keep them as a single species until this hypothesis can be further tested with additional material. Specimen voucher UCR_ENT 00004570 was mis-labelled as collected “ 4 mi N of Cardale”, though it should be “ 4 mi N of José Cardel” as recorded by other collectors on the same trip.
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 63-65, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.788.1625, http://zenodo.org/record/5846636