Repipta lepidula Stal 1866
Creators: name: Forero, Dimitri
name: Mejía-Soto, Andrés
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Reduviidae
Repipta
Repipta lepidula

description: Repipta lepidula Stål, 1866
Figs. 9C, D; 11A–G
Distribution: This species has been recorded from Brazil (Amazonas) and Peru (Huánuco) (Martin-Park et al. 2012). It is a new species record from Colombia.
Remarks: Repipta lepidula is a very distinctive species due to the overall brown coloration, with the paramedial posterior margin of the pronotum and the scutellum yellow (Fig. 9C). The previously known Brazilian and Peruvian localities are close to the Colombian one, and all known localities are restricted to the Amazon basin. Some of the Colombian specimens were collected in Várzea Forest, which is a seasonal floodplain forest.
Repipta Stål, 1859 is an ill-defined genus with dubious phylogenetic relationships. It includes 29 species ranging from the USA to Argentina (Martin-Park et al. 2012). Although Martin-Park et al. (2012) revised Repipta, at least four species (cf. Maldonado 1990) were omitted from their treatment without explanation, including R. sanguinea (see below), thus making it very difficult to use their key or treatment for species identification. Given that the documentation of the genitalia of the species of Repipta seems to be critical to identify Repipta species, and that Martin-Park et al. (2012) images of the male and female genitalia were either extremely poorly detailed or not documented at all, we are providing high quality images here. This is the first time the male genitalia of R. lepidula are documented (Fig. 11). The median process of the pygophore is short, broadly rounded, and shortly setose (Figs. 11A–C). The paramere is cylindrical, relatively long, about half as long as the pygophore length, with a few scattered setae, denser and longer near the apex (Fig. 11A). The aedeagus has the endosoma with a pair of very short median basal sclerotizations (Fig. 11E); the median dorsal lobe has a pair of U-shaped areas beset with small triangular microtrichia, and an apical round field of similar microtrichia. The dorsal phallothecal plate is flat, ovoid and broadly rounded apically (Fig. 11G).
Examined material: COLOMBIA. Amazonas: 1 ♂, Leticia, comunidad Monilla [Comunidad indígena Monifue Amena, Km 9,8 vía Leticia-Tarapacá, 04.141667°S 69.923256°W, 70 m], Várzea Forest, 60 m, 30.iv.2002, manual collecting at night, Cadena, Gualdron, Pans (MPUJ_ENT); 2 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀, PNN Amacayacu, Vía Palmeras, edge of Varzea Forest, jameo [= entomological net], D. Campos & F. Fernández, 1.ix.1997 / IAvH-E-87164, IAvH-E-87209, IAvH-E-87224, IAvH-E-87254 (IAVH); 2 ♂♂, PNN Amacayacu, Vía Palmeras, borde, jameo [= entomological net], D. Campos & F. Fernández, 2.ix.1997 / IAvH-E-87194, IAvH-E-87239 (IAVH); 1 adult (sex unknown), PNN Amacayacu, Matamata, 3°23ˊS 70°6ˊW, 150 m, entomological net, D. Chota, 2.i.2000 / IAvH-E-87887 (IAVH); 1 ♂, PNN Amacayacu, Matamata, 3°23ˊS 70°6ˊW, 150 m, entomological net, M.1887, A. Parente, 28.v.2001 / IAvH-E-87848 (IAVH).
description: Published as part of Forero, Dimitri & Mejía-Soto, Andrés, 2025, Filling in the gaps for assassin bugs: taxonomic notes and new records of Reduviidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from Neotropical countries, pp. 451-481 in Zootaxa 5584 (4) on pages 466-468, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5584.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/14853500