Picrops usingeri Reynoso-Velasco 2017, NEW STATUS
Creators: name: Reynoso-Velasco, Daniel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Naucoridae
Picrops
Picrops usingeri

description: Picrops usingeri La Rivers NEW STATUS
Figs. 18, 20
Ambrysus usingeri La Rivers 1952: Ent. News 63: 34–39 (original description). Ambrysus fittkaui De Carlo 1966: Rev. Soc. Ent. Arg. 28: 116–117. Synonymized by La Rivers 1974, Biol. Soc. Nevada Occas. Pap., 38: 2.
Discussion. This species was known from the Guiana Shield countries of Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname (Nieser 1975). While examining many specimens from these countries in addition to Bolivia, Peru, and Venezuela it became evident that this genus is not monotypic. Differences in the female subgenital plate and male mediotergite VII were apparent. Female subgenital plates exhibited two forms: one with straight, convergent lateral margins and no tubercle (Fig. 18), the other with sinuate lateral margins and a median tubercle (Fig. 19). Variation in expression of male mediotergite VII included shape-related differences in the right lateral process and presence/ absence and shape differences in the left process. More specifically, the right process is always present and varied from elongate and narrow (Figs. 27, 28) to truncate and as wide as long. When present, the left process varied from acuminate (Fig. 27) to a short, rounded production (Fig. 28). We found multiple character states of mediotergite VII within populations; thus, this character apparently is variable and not taxonomically informative. However, the female subgenital plate condition was consistent within populations and is the only character we found that was able to distinguish between species.
The holotype and two paratypes of P. usingeri are from Beruri in Beruri municipality near Manaus in the state of Amazonas, Brazil (Fig. 20, green dot). Because the holotype and paratype in the Snow Museum in Kansas (SEMC) are both males, they cannot be determined to species because the female subgenital plate is the only reliable diagnostic character that we have found. However, the topotypic paratype in the Essig Museum at Berkeley (EMEC) is a female; it lacks a tubercle and has straight, convergent margins (Fig. 18), thereby establishing this as the form of P. usingeri. A non-topotypic female paratype from Suriname, housed at EMEC, has a tubercle on the subgenital plate and represents a second species (see below).
Picrops usingeri is widespread throughout much of the Amazon Basin and into the Guiana Shield (Fig. 20). Because females are required for identification, samples represented by only males are marked on the map with white circles (Fig. 20); however, specimens from the localities south of the Guiana Shield, especially those in Bolivia, Peru, and Rondônia, probably are P. usingeri. This is the first record of P. usingeri in Venezuela, and of Picrops in Bolivia and Peru. At Sipaliwini in Suriname, P. usingeri was collected with Ambrysus stali La Rivers and Limnocoris burmeisteri De Carlo.
Published records. Brazil, British Guiana, French Guiana, Guyana (La Rivers 1952, 1965; Nieser 1975; Pereira & Melo 2007).
Type locality: Brazil: Lago Berury Region, Rio Purus (= Beruri in Beruri municipality near Manaus in the state of Amazonas).
Type material examined. (Holotype ♂, SEMC): Brazil, S. A., Sept. 1935, A. M. Olalla / Rio Purus, Lago Berury Region / Ambrysus usingeri La Rivers Holotype / Ambrysus usingeri La Rivers, determined by Ira La Rivers 1948. Paratypes: same data as holotype/ Ambrysus usingeri La Rivers Paratype (1♂ SEMC, 1♀ EMEC); Cayenne / Museum Paris, coll. Noualhier 1898 / Tapinocoris Nhl. / planisternis Nlh. / Ambrysus usingeri La Rivers Paratype (1♂ EMEC). (Paratype from Suriname appears in Material examined below for Picrops tuberculatus n.sp.).
Other material examined. BRAZIL: Amazonas, Barcelos, Igarapé Ataiana, #20, tributário do Rio Negro, 00˚88'56.57"S, 62˚54'13.90"W, 10.VIII.2009, PT 1063 (1♀ MZUSP); Amazonas, Barcelos, Serra do Aracá, igarapé na floresta antes da Campina, 02.VIII.2009 (2♀ MZUSP); Amazonas, Presidente Figueiredo, AM-240, Cachoeira da Maroca, 18.VIII.2011, H.D.D. Rodrigues col. (1♀ MZUSP); Amazonas, Presidente Figueiredo, Balneário Marupiara, 02°03’S, 60°06’W, 01.VII.2011, H. Rodrigues col. (1♀ MZUSP); Amazonas, Manaus, Reserva Ducke, VIII.2011, V. Linard col. (2♀ MZUSP); Amazonas, Manaus, Reserva Ducke, Igarapé Acará, 01.VIII.1985, 2323, E. Blinda & L. Aquino col. (1♀ MZUSP); Mato Grosso, Querência, Fazenda Tanguro, 12°54'S, 52°22'W, E. Wanzeler col. (12♂, 6♀ MZUSP); Pará, 1719, Rodovia Transcameta, igarapé sem nome, 08.VI.1988, U.C. Barbosa col. (1♀ MZUSP); Pará, 1465, Rio Trombetas, Loc. Jaquiri, 06.III.1986, F. Peralta & U. Barbosa col. (2♀ MZUSP); Pará: Xingu Camp (52°22'W 3°39'S), Altamira (ca. 60 km S), 7 Oct 1986, P. Spangler & O. Foote / colln. #12, first jungle stream on trail (1♂, 2♀ USNM); Pará: Xingu Camp (52°22'W 3°39'S), Altamira (ca. 60 km S), 3 Oct 1986, P. Spangler & O. Foote / colln. #6 (2♂, 1♀ USNM); Rondônia, 210, Bacia do Rio Mutum-Paraná, Igarapé 08:24, 13.VIII.1985, V. Py-Daniel & L. Aquino col. (1♂, 1♀ MZUSP); Rondônia, 1807, Bacia do Rio Jaci-Paraná, Igarapé 13:05, 10.VIII.1985, V. Py-Daniel & U. Barbosa col. (1♀ MZUSP); Rondônia, 1516, Bacia do Rio Jaci-Paraná, Igarapé 11:50, 16.VIII.1985, V. Py-Daniel & L. Aquino col. (1♂, 1♀ MZUSP). FRENCH GUIANA: drying pools of unnamed tributary to Crique Gregoire, ca. 0.3 km above first falls / N5.09902, W53.05318, 29 October 2016, D. Post (1♀ UMC); drying pools of unnamed tributatry to Crique Gregoire, 1.4 km above first falls / N5.09794, W53.06402, 29 October 2016, D. Post (2♀ UMC); Crique Maman, Legard @ Route de Petit-Saut, N 5.06356° W 52.99813° 34 m; 30 October 2016, D. Post (1♀ UMC). SURINAME: Sipaliwini, Kasikasima, 2°58'38.316", -55°23'5.9928", 200 m, SR12-0320-02A, 20 March 2012, A.E. Short, sandy stream (4♂, 3♀ UMC); Sipaliwini Savannah Nature Reserve, Four Brothers Mountains, 2°00.342'N, 55°58.149'W, 337 m, 31 March 2017, Short & Baca, sandy bottom stream with lots of detritus, SR17-0331-01B (1♂, 2♀, 1-5th instar, 1-2nd instar UMC); same data except sandy bottom stream emergent veg, SR17-0331-01C (1♂, 1-5th instar exuvium, 2-4th instars, 1-3rd instar UMC); same data except Short, sandy bottom stream emergent veg at night, SR17-0331-01F (1♀ UMC). VENEZUELA: Amazonas State, S. Samariapo, on Rio Sipapo, Communidad Cano Gato, 16 January 2009 / 4° 58.845'N, 67° 44.345'W, 100 m, VZ-20090116-01, coll J. Camacho (1♂, 1♀ UMC); Amazonas, small stream 1 km N of Alto Mavaca base camp, 2°1'30"N, 65°7'0"W, 228 m., 22°C, 4 Feb 1989, CL 8006, DA Polhemus (1♂, 1♀ USNM).
description: Published as part of Reynoso-Velasco, Daniel, 2017, New combinations, status, and species of Neotropical Ambrysini (Heteroptera: Naucoridae: Cryphocricinae), pp. 503-518 in Zootaxa 4323 (4) on pages 510-511, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4323.4.4, http://zenodo.org/record/995854