Orbellis typicus Distant 1913
Creators: name: Zámbó, András
name: Kovács, Szilvia
name: Kondorosy, Előd
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Rhyparochromidae
Orbellis
Orbellis typicus

description: Orbellis typicus Distant, 1913
(Fig. 1)
(urn:lsid: Lygaeoidea.speciesfile.org:TaxonName:484739)
Orbellis typicus Distant 1913: 156. Type species of Orbellis gen. nov. by monotypy
Lethaeus typicus: Slater (1964: 834) listed
Orbellis typicus: Scudder (1967: 283) lectotype designation; Slater & O’Donnell (1995) listed; Gerlach (2013: 117) listed in Lygaeidae instead of Rhyparochromidae (where Lethaeus species were listed)
Type specimen examined. LECTOTYPE: Mahé [hw] // Percy Sladen Trust / expedition. / 1911-497. // Orbellis / typicus / type Dist. [hw] / Orbellis typicus Distant / 1913 [hw] / G. G. E. Scudder 1965 / LECTOTYPE // BMNH(E) / #960097 // LECTOTYPE [round with blue margin] (♂, BMNH). Type locality. Seychelles-Islands, Mahé: Cascade Estate [as written in original description].
Other specimen examined. Iles-Séchelles-Mahé / Centre: Morne Séchellois / for. endémique / 750m, 13/ 17. VII. 1972 / Coll. Mus. Tervuren / Miss. zool. belge aux / Séchelles-PLG / Benoit / et J. J. Van Mol (1♀, RMCA)
Redescription.
Colour: Head fuscous with apex of pedicel, middle third of basiflagellum, entire distiflagellum and apex of labiomere IV brown; scape mostly brown; basal part of pedicel, base and apical part of basiflagellum (often with orange-red tinge) and labiomeres cream coloured. Thorax brown; spot in middle of anterior margin of pronotum with furrow of collar and partially posterior lobe of pronotum fuscous; femora, trochanters and coxae from brown to dark yellowish brown; anterior (except in middle and sublaterally) and lateral margin of pronotum, posterior margin of pronotum with three larger spots, majority of clavus and of anterior half of corium, exocorium in basal half, vein M, middle third of corium-membrane border and large subapical spot on corium separated from vein M cream coloured; lateral part of scutellum paler brown; tibiae and tarsi sometimes except brown apex of tibiae and tarsomeres III ochraceous yellow; membrane yellowish brown except small translucent apical spots between veins, brown basal part of innermost vein and some diffuse brown basal spots. Abdomen brown.
Structure: Head with extremely minute punctures dorsally, ventral surface of head finely transversely striolate. Labium of female reaching end of sternite III. Pronotal collar finely curved, relatively narrow, in broadest part just slightly wider than thickness of base of pedicel. Pronotum trapezoidal, anterior lobe impunctate except a few sublateral punctures and micropunctures in median area, posterior lobe moderately densely punctate with well visible punctures. Transverse impression of pronotum of moderate depth. Lateral margin of pronotum straight. Membrane reaching apex of abdomen. Thickness of pro- and mesofemora similar but metafemora visibly thicker. Tibiae straight in both sexes. Abdominal venter practically impunctate but finely transversely striolate, being stronger laterally, on posterior part of sternite V and on pregenital sternites.
Measurements (lectotype male, followed by female): Total body length: 6.00, 6.36; head: length 0.72, 0.88, width 1.03, 1.12, interocular space 0.56, 0.60; length of antennomeres (missing on female): I 0.96, II 1.27, III 1.06, IV 1.17; length of labiomeres (in case of lectotype not visible): I 0.80, II 1.00, III 0.75, IV 0.48; pronotum: length 0.94, 1.28, width 1.88, 2.16; scutellum: length 0.92, 1.16, width 1.03, 1.12.
Diagnosis. The three species transferred in this paper to Orbellis are not redescribed, therefore we are separated them from O. typicus here. O. madagascariensis is considerably larger, O. maculosus is very differently colored. The most similar species is O. polhemi, here we cannot find any good distinctive feature, perhaps the coloration of O. typicus is darker especially on the hemelytra but among the several O. polhemi specimens we found a few rather dark ones; and the two known specimens of O. typicus have a dark median on the scutellum while such dark line is absent on O. polhemi. The other distinctive feature can be the lateral margin of the pronotum which is slightly concave on O. polhemi but straight in O. typicus. There are a few new species (see below) which are very similar to O. typicus. The study of the male genitalia of O. typicus in detail is necessary to establish the identity of the taxa involved.
description: Published as part of Zámbó, András, Kovács, Szilvia & Kondorosy, Előd, 2023, Revision of the genus Orbellis Distant, 1913 (Heteroptera: Rhyparochromidae), pp. 193-212 in Zootaxa 5389 (2) on pages 197-198, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5389.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/10406905