Voconia minima 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 minima

description: Voconia minima sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: CFBDCF33-C855-47F0-9945-98BE6E37A338
Figs 1–2, 8, 10, 20
Diagnosis
This species is recognized from other Philippine species such as V. bakeri sp. nov. and V. nyx sp. nov. by its short body length (about 8.5 mm long); dark tibiae with proximal and distal ends yellow; and abducted corium with yellow stripe occupying half of the anteroproximal margin and expanding medially to become adjacent to posteromedial yellow spot.
Etymology
The specific epithet is the Latin adjective ‘ minimus, - a, - um ’, meaning ‘smallest’. Refers to the fact that this is among the smallest species of Voconia.
Type material
Holotype PHILIPPINES • ♂; Mindanao, Zamboanga del Sur, Lemesahan; [7.84 ° N, 123.30 ° E]; elev. 600 m; 7 Sep. 1958; H.E. Milliron leg.; tight trap; USI: UCR_ENT 00073811; BPBM.
Description
Male (Figs 8, 10)
BODY LENGTH. About 8.5 mm; macropterous.
COLORATION. Head: dark brown; postocular region with pale patches adjacent to lateral ocellar margin; labium nearly as dark as head. Thorax: as head; scutellum dark, tip of apical spine contrasting yellow. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus dark reddish-brown with distal yellow stripe; corium dark reddishbrown with anteroproximal yellow stripe, 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: dark brown, proximal and distal ends of tibiae and tarsi yellow. Abdomen: dark brown.
INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum: finely granulose with sparse, long 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 dense, short macrosetae. Thorax: anterolateral angles of pronotal collar with macrosetae; scutellar lateral carinae with long setation. Hemelytron: corium with sparse, long setation. Legs: posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with three large and two small spines on distal half. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent.
STRUCTURE. Head: elongate, about 1.4 times as long as wide; anteocular region about one quarter of head length, shorter than postocular region (measured to anterior margin of neck); postocular region in dorsal view about as long as eye, lateral margins gently rounded; pedicel about 1.2 times length of head width; maxillary plates ellipsoidal, adjacent to and longer than clypeus; apices of maxillary plates in dorsal view converging; clypeus in dorsal view about as wide as maxillary plates; clypeal apex round, narrowed; interocular glabrous markings anterolaterally curved, joined at interocular sulcus paramedially; interocular sulcus in dorsal view nearly straight; eye width in dorsal view about as wide as synthlipsis; eye reaching ventral head margin in lateral view; ventrolateral swelling of buccula without lateral protrusion that surpasses buccular margin, flat margin; labial segment I in lateral view straight, surpassing 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 about 0.6 times length of posterior pronotal lobe, lateral margins rounded; glabrous markings on pronotum thin and not deeply depressed; median apodeme depression of pronotum shallow, elongated transversely; scutellar spine long, raised; 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
Unknown.
Distribution (Fig. 8)
This species is only known from the type locality on the Philippine island of Mindanao.
Remarks
The carinules on the dorsal surface of the abdomen were not examined in order to prevent damage to the holotype.
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 65-66, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.788.1625, http://zenodo.org/record/5846636