Brontostoma doughertyae Gil-Santana, Lopes, Marques & Jurberg 2005
Creators: name: Gil-Santana, Hélcio R.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Reduviidae
Brontostoma
Brontostoma doughertyae

description: Brontostoma doughertyae Gil-Santana, Lopes, Marques & Jurberg, 2005
(Figs. 26–35)
Brontostoma doughertyae Gil-Santana, Lopes, Marques & Jurberg (2005: 79) (key), (81–90) (description, figures 2–17); Gil-Santana & Baena (2009: 48–52) (description of the female; redescription of the male genitalia; comments on color variation and differences between male and females); Gil-Santana et al. (2013a: 62) (citation); Martins et al. (2016: 346, 358) (citations).
Distribution. Brazil, in states of Bahia and Espírito Santo.
Brontostoma doughertyae was described based on eight male specimens from the Brazilian states of Bahia and Espírito Santo (Gil-Santana et al. 2005). The holotype and two paratypes deposited in MNRJ were also destroyed in the fire commented above (Escobar 2018). A dorsal photograph of the holotype taken at the time of the description of the species is presented here (Fig. 26). Gil-Santana & Baena (2009) described the female of the species based on two specimens. While describing B. doughertyae, Gil-Santana et al. (2005) recorded the color variation in the femora, which were completely black in the specimens from Espírito Santo, while in the individuals collected in Bahia, the blackish fore femur had a subapical yellowish ring and the middle and hind femora were generally yellowish with variable dark spots. The type series presented the clavus and corium (except its apex) of hemelytron yellow-whitish with reddish markings at the basal and distal corial margins; the basal markings were absent in the specimens from Bahia. The connexivum was described as uniformly yellowish on its external margin (Gil-Santana et al. 2005), while a male from Espírito Santo examined by Gil-Santana & Baena (2009) showed brownish markings on the corium of hemelytra and darkened proximal segments of the connexivum, and the females had the connexivum partly yellowish on external margin or almost entirely darkened, while one female had a large reddish lateral fascia on coria of hemelytra. Another male examined here (Fig. 27) does not have markings on the corium, which is mostly pale whitish. However, a female specimen recently recorded alive presented large reddish lateral fasciae on the coria of hemelytra, and the external margin of connexivum was almost completely pale (Figs. 28–29). Gil-Santana & Baena (2009) stated that there were few differences between males and females of B. doughertyae, highlighting that the scape and basal half of the pedicel were glabrous in the female, the eyes of the males were more prominent, and the abdomen was somewhat larger in the females, as recorded as part of sexual dimorphism in Ectrichodiini (Dougherty 1995). The following diagnosis of the species and remarks on the characteristics of the male genitalia are mainly based on Gil-Santana et al. (2005) and Gil-Santana & Baena (2009), besides examination of genitalia of two additional males, with new figures presented here for a better comparison with B. bahiensis.
Diagnosis. Brontostoma doughertyae seems closer to B. bahiensis, sharing a similar structure and general blackish coloration and large portions of tibiae yellowish.The coloration of the corium of hemelytron and connexivum is prone to separate them. In B. doughertyae, the corium is almost completely pale yellowish to pale whitish with (or without) a pair of reddish markings on basal and distal portions, or only on the latter, or with a reddish lateral margin (recorded only in females so far), and connexivum almost always uniformly yellowish on its external margin (Figs. 26–29), sometimes partially or almost entirely darkened. In B. bahiensis, the blackish corium is mostly pale whitish on the basal portion, with three contiguous longitudinal stripes united distally by a large pale marking over and extending a little downwards on the portion of the base of membranal veins; the connexivum is pale with distal dark markings (Figs. 1, 5, 7). In the male genitalia, the shape of the struts is quite diverse between these species (Figs. 21, 34); a moderately enlarged and ovoid portion present above the struts in B. doughertyae (Figs. 32, 34) is absent in B. bahiensis (Figs. 18, 21), while median process of endosoma is subrectangular in B. bahiensis and subtriangular at apicolateral portions in B. doughertyae (Figs. 23, 35).
Morphological remarks on male terminalia. Segment VIII almost concealed, except by its exposed posteroventral margin, which is somewhat elevated and narrowly larger at lateral portions, although sometimes not visible externally in some individuals; sclerotized on ventral portion, which becomes wider towards posterior margin; dorsal portion membranous and narrower; spiracles on dorsal margin of ventral portion. Pygophore in ventral and lateral views: exposed portion of pygophore subpentagonal and rounded, respectively, integument glabrous, smooth, and shiny; not pigmented in the ventral non-exposed portion; in dorsal view: between anterior and posterior genital openings, a short, moderately wide dorsal (transverse) bridge; membranous areas of posterior genital opening smooth; proctiger subrectangular, posterior margin straight, with an apical row of thin elongated setae; medial process of pygophore sclerotized, subtriangular, short, apical margin more (Fig. 30) or less rounded. Parameres almost imperceptible when genital capsule is in situ or mildly exposed in ventral view, their apices in contact in resting position; symmetrical, elongated; very curved at approximately middle third, with apex truncated; a subapical rounded and somewhat enlarged prominence with a short tooth on its apex; mostly glabrous, with somewhat numerous thin short to moderately setae around the subapical tooth, sometimes forming small tufts; a subapical group of setae on posteroapical margin and a row of somewhat curved, moderately long setae on apical third to fourth of anteroventral margin. Phallus (Figs. 31–32): articulatory apparatus with basal plate extension much shorter than basal plate, the latter with moderately long, narrow and curved basal plate arms (bpa) connected by a elongated narrow basal plate bridge (bpb); dorsal phallothecal sclerite (dps) symmetrical, enlarged to the apex, quite sinuous in center of anterior margin; mid-lateral portions with several grooves; apico-lateral portions mostly smooth, slightly wrinkled laterally, endosomal struts (es) formed by a pair of parallel arms, somewhat larger at basal portion, slightly converging toward apex of dps, united at base and fused at apex, above which a moderately enlarged and ovoid portion (op) (Figs. 32, 34); endosomal wall longitudinally striated on basal portion, ventrally (Fig. 33) and mostly densely rugous by very numerous minute small rounded or spiny protuberances; endosoma with a basal large process (bp), variable in shape, subrectangular to subrounded (Fig. 32) and a flat median process (mp), subtriangular at apicolateral portions and weakly sclerotized (Fig. 35).
Material examined. BRAZIL, Espírito Santo, Linhares Municipality, RNV, app. 19°06’S 39°56’’W, II. 1997, leg. J. S. Santos, 2 males (MNRJ).
Comments. More specimens will be in need to be examined to ascertain if the conspicuous lateral corial reddish fascia recorded only on females so far (Gil-Santana & Baena 2009; Figs. 28–29) is another sexual dimorphism or merely an inter-individual variation, as well as if the color variation in the femora of specimens from different states recorded by Gil-Santana et al. (2005) are due a geographic variation of B. doughertyae. Otherwise, taking into account that in a live female of B. doughertyae the connexivum was recorded as being completely pale (Figs. 28–29), it is hypothesized here that the presence of a connexivum partially or almost entirely darkened in some specimens (Gil-Santana & Baena 2009) is possibly due to chemical processes inside the abdomen after the fixation of the specimens, as suggested that may occur in specimens of Brontostoma basalis (Stål, 1859) by Gil-Santana (2020b). It is noteworthy that the dissection of the genitalia of different males of B. doughertyae, in successive works, showed an intraspecific variation of the shape of the apical margin of the medial process of pygophore, which showed to be more (Fig. 30) or less (Gil-Santana et al. 2005: fig. 6; Gil-Santana & Baena 2009: fig. 59) rounded.
On the other hand, although B. bahiensis and B. doughertyae seem to be different species based on the available scarce material, particularly of the former species, in case more specimens are found in the future, distinctness or eventually the conspecificity of them shall be confirmed or revealed, respectively with other approaches, such as molecular studies.
description: Published as part of Gil-Santana, Hélcio R., 2023, A new species of Brontostoma Kirkaldy, description of the male of Brontostoma bahiensis Gil-Santana, Costa & Marques and notes on Brontostoma doughertyae Gil-Santana et al. (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Ectrichodiinae), pp. 62-86 in Zootaxa 5382 (1) on pages 72-73, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5382.1.9, http://zenodo.org/record/10279822