Phasmatocoris xavieri Gil-Santana, Alves, Barrett & Costa 2007
Creators: name: Gil-Santana, Hélcio R.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Reduviidae
Phasmatocoris
Phasmatocoris xavieri

description: Phasmatocoris xavieri Gil-Santana, Alves, Barrett & Costa, 2007
(Figs. 59–61)
Phasmatocoris xavieri Gil-Santana, Alves, Barrett & Costa, 2007: 44 –49 [description], 49 [key], 49–50 [comments on morphological features and systematic relationship with other species], 50–51 [ecological information]; Pape, 2013: 137, 140, 144–145, 150–15, 154 [citations with comments about ecological and morphological features].
Phasmatocoris xavieri was described based on three males, three females and a nymph collected in a cave in the state of Amazonas, Brazil. Although Gil-Santana et al. (2007) mentioned three male paratypes, only two male paratypes exist. The numbers, sexes, and depositories of the type specimens are correctly listed below.
Diagnosis. Total length: 15.0–16.0 mm. General coloration yellow-orange to bright testaceous (Fig. 59). Antennae, apical half of fore femur, mid and hind femora, tibiae and last abdominal segments darkened. Dorsum of head, posterior half of posterior lobe of pronotum, and mesopleura somewhat brownish. Fore wings yellowish with fuscous patches throughout subbasal cell, the basal half of discal cell, apical and lower region of wing, and very subtly in proximal subcostal region. Fore lobe of pronotum around 1.5 times longer than hind lobe; anterior projections of collar rounded; humeral angles rounded and somewhat elevated. Scutellum elevated, rounded apically. Metanotum with small blunt tubercle at mid-portion. Ventral surface of fore femura only with slender spine-like setae in two series, posteroventral and anteroventral, apically transformed into short teeth; anteroventral series interrupted at base, not connected to posteroventral series, one seta basal to interruption; longer setae in posteroventral series, with length about the same value of maximum width of fore femur; spine-like setae not attaining base of this latter by a distance of approximately twice the length of fore tarsus. Fore tibiae ventrally with a single series of denticles. Forewing with subbasal cell longer than basal cell. Pygophore with lateral notch at upper margin (Fig. 60); process spine-like, narrowed and curved on lateral view, apically (Figs. 60–61). Parameres with apical half subrectangular in shape. Phallus: basal plates moderately divergent, connected by a short basal bridge; basal plate extension elongate and greatly widened towards apex; struts fused; endosoma wall minutely spiny and with two areas of irregular sclerotization; processes of endosoma include a tubular curved median process, which tapers to the apex, a paired process with rows of teeth on apical portion, and dense aggregated tissue ventrally to the median process.
Remarks. The fore tibiae are dorsally depressed in the basal portion of the distal half of the segment, with straight medium-sized stiff obliquely inclined pale to golden setae on distal half, dorsally; these setae are more numerous above and somewhat on the depressed area of this portion; an auxiliary row of about seven parallel lateral straight longer setae along apical two thirds, dorsally; apex with a dense cluster of stiff setae, ventrally.
Specimens examined. BRAZIL, Amazonas, Presidente Figueiredo, Gruta [Cave] dos animais [of the animals] (02°03’02,64” S / 59°57’51,47” W), F.F. Xavier-Filho et al. leg., 05.IX.2006, holotype, 1 male, “Hemip174” [INPA], paratypes: 05.IX.2006, 1 female, “Hemip174P1”, 1 nymph, “Hemip174P3”, 01.IV.2006, 1 female, “Hemip174P2” [INPA], 05.IX.2006, 1 male, [IOC], 01.IV.2006, 1 male, 05.IX.2006, 1 female, [MNRJ].
Discussion. Based on the illustration of the fore leg of this species (Gil-Santana et al. 2007), Pape (2013) assumed that P. xavieri has a similar calamistrum-like structure as well as a cluster of setae on the apical portion of the fore tibia; this assumption is confirmed here. The presence of an auxiliary row of parallel lateral straight longer setae on the fore tibia, not depicted in the illustration of Gil-Santana et al. (2007), is recorded here for the first time.
description: Published as part of Gil-Santana, Hélcio R., 2015, Two new species of Phasmatocoris Breddin from Brazil, and description of the male of Phasmatocoris borgmeieri (Wygodzinsky) (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae), pp. 51-70 in Zootaxa 4059 (1) on page 67, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4059.1.3, http://zenodo.org/record/239754