Rhiginia bimaculata Breddin 1914
Creators: name: Forero, Dimitri
name: Mejía-Soto, Andrés
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Reduviidae
Rhiginia
Rhiginia bimaculata

description: Rhiginia bimaculata Breddin, 1914
Figs. 4–6
Distribution: This species is known from Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador (Dougherty 1995; Maldonado 1990). It is the first time that precise localities from Colombia are provided.
Remarks: Rhiginia bimaculata is a widespread species in Central and South America (Dougherty 1995; Forthman & Gil-Santana 2021; Maldonado 1990) and seems to be commonly found in Colombia from sea level up to 1430 meters. Dougherty (1995) simply mentioned countries of occurrence but did not list specific localities for the species listed. We are providing accurate locality data for R. bimaculata. Forthman & Gil-Santana (2021) mentioned that species of the cruciata -group, to which R. bimaculata is assigned, are uniform in genitalic structure, and thus not useful for species delimitation. Given that species in this group have been delimited mostly using coloration patterns, they called for a more thorough documentation of structural attributes, in particular head and pronotum. In the case of R. bimaculata, given the limited number of specimens examined by them, one male and one female, color variation and structural details of additional specimens of both sexes are provided here.
The documented structures and coloration reinforce the ideas of Forthman & Gil-Santana (2021) about the species limits of R. bimaculata. After having examined a large series of R. bimaculata, the color variation is minimal (Fig. 4). The areas varying are the posterior margin of the pronotum, which can vary from black to reddish, and the submedial areas on the transverse sulcus, which can vary from reddish to having a pair of black subtriangular markings (Fig. 4A, C). Rhiginia bimaculata can be differentiated from R. nicholsae Forthman & Gil-Santana, 2021 because the abdominal sternites are entirely black (Fig. 4B, D), whereas in R. nicholsae each sternite has a yellowish or reddish marking on its lateral area next to the connexivum, and a pale, irregular area medially (see figures in Forthman & Gil-Santana 2021). In addition, the connexivum is yellow, narrower, and restricted to the non-rugose areas of each dorsal laterotergite in R. bimaculata (Fig. 6C), whereas it is reddish, wider, and extending medially into the rugose areas of the laterotergites in R. nicholsae. The yellow band on the connexivum is usually wide in R. bimaculata (Figs. 4C, 6C), but there are a few specimens (females) in which the yellow band on the dorsal portion of the connexivum is much narrower. Nonetheless, the pattern of having a dorsal and ventral yellow margin on the connexivum seems to be constant. The structure of the head, with a slightly convex frons, the ocelli separated by the diameter of about one ocellus (Figs. 5A, B), and in lateral view occupying about two thirds of the ocellar tubercle (Figs. 5C, D), as well as the structure of the pronotum (Figs. 5E, F), are constant in the examined material and fit the description of Forthman & Gil-Santana (2021). The total length of a few specimens measured ranged between 14.4–15.97 mm (three males) and 15.95–18.06 mm (four females), being the males of R. bimaculata smaller than in R. nicholsae (16.8–19.5, Forthman & Gil-Santana 2021). In R. bimaculata the abdominal sternite II is rugose in both sexes (Figs. 6A, B), but not with longitudinal ridges as indicated by Forthman & Gil-Santana (2021). All other characters that characterize R. nicholsae (Forthman & Gil-Santana 2021) are not present in R. bimaculata. All these suggest that both coloration pattern and morphological characters can distinguish R. bimaculata from other species of the cruciata -group.
Examined material: COLOMBIA. [Antioquia]: 2 ♂♂, CO05 Apartado, via a Carepa, parque de los encuentros, 30 m, rastrojo [= scrub vegetation], manual collecting, 24–27.xi.2004, Velez y Grisales / MEPB 7703 / MEPB 7641 [MEPB]; Bolívar: 1 ♂, Zambrano, Hda. Monterrey, 70 m, 9°37ˊ48˝N 74°54ˊ44˝W, F. Fernández & G. Ulloa / Malaise #6 lata suelo / ICN036191 (ICN); Chocó: 1 ♂, costa Pacifico, Richter, vi.1950 / ICN 029286 (ICN); 1 ♂, PNN Utría, casa guardaparques, 06°00ˊ55.9˝N 77°21ˊ31.7˝W, 15.viii.2017, 5 m, L. Prada & S. Vargas / MPUJ_ ENT0054355 (MPUJ _ENT); 1 ♀, Acandí, Capurganá, vereda los Pinos, bosque, 250 m, 26.iv.2007, 16:00 hrs, C. Castro (MPUJ _ENT); 1 ♂, Acandí, Capurganá, jardín botánico del Darién, 40m, 10 oct 2007, zarandeo [= plant beating], 8–9 hr, soleado [= sunny], C. Latorre (MPUJ _ENT); Boyacá: 1 ♀, Otanche, 05°39ˊ35˝N 74°11ˊ20˝W, 1050 m, 7.viii.1992, Contreras, Neira (UNAB); Cundinamarca: 1 ♂, Bituima, 04°52ˊ31˝N 74°32ˊ33˝W, 1412 m, 19.x.1989, C. Galindo (UNAB); 1 ♂, Guayabetal, 04°13ˊ40˝N 73°48ˊ59˝W, 1200 m, 17.v.1969, S. Martinez (UNAB); 1 ♀, La Esperanza, El Ocaso, G. de Pinzón, 12.x.1977 / ICN029285 (ICN); 1 ♂, Mesitas, Martinez, 5.ix.1998, A. Bautista, A. Bohorquez (UNAB); 1 ♂, Tocaima, 04°27ˊ40˝N 74°38ˊ10˝W, 400 m, 21.ix.1994, A. Torres (UNAB); Mag[dalena]: 1 ♂, Parque Tayrona, C. Kugler / Pueblito —limite sur 210–360 m, 2.iv.1977 / IAVH-E 188407 (IAVH); 1 ♂, Santa Marta, vereda Mosquito, reserva estación biológica Jaguar del Carrizal, 11.1739°N 74.1665°W, 250 m, iv–vi.2021, M. P. Camelo / MPUJ_ENT0075885 (MPUJ _ENT). Nariño: 1 ♂, Tumaco, iii.2016 (ICN); Quindio: 1 ♀, Filandia, rio Barbas, ~ 1.1km NNW de Filandia, 4.71346°N 75.68237°W, 1429 m, 21–26 feb 2016, M. Moreno / river margin, manual collecting / MPUJ_ENT0043730 (MPUJ _ENT); Risaralda: 1 ♀, mun[icipio] Pueblo Rico, corr[egimiento] Santa Cecilia, vereda El Silencio, quebrada Piedras, 640 m, 15.iv.1991, G. Andrade #2390 / ICN029283 (ICN); Santander: 1 ♀, Barbosa, 05°55ˊ58˝N 73°37ˊ16˝W, 1588 m, 14.x.1998, L. Gallego, J. Avila (UNAB); 1 ♂, municipio de Puerto Araujo, vereda Las Marias, finca los Manantiales, 130 m, 9.iv.2000, pitfall trap, 9:00–10:00, soleado [= sunny], col. Felipe Velez et al. (MPUJ _ENT); 1 ♀, Lebrija, Villa Lola, 7.112886°N 73.181056°W, 1000 m, 13–20.iv.2014, M. Velasco, pitfall trap (MPUJ _ENT); Tolima: 1 ♀, Centro Cafam Melgar, 450 m, Barriga & Bello, 4.iii.1991 (MPUJ _ENT); 1 ♂, Coello, Reserva El Neme, ~ 1km SW de Coello, 4.2801°N 74.9035°W, 2–6.iii.2015, M. Cotes / MPUJ_ENT0037201 (MPUJ _ENT); 1 ♀, same data, D. Torres / MPUJ_ENT0037186 (MPUJ _ENT); 1 ♀, same data, 9–13 Mar 2015, M. Salgado et al. / MPUJ_ ENT0032894 (MPUJ _ENT); 1 ♂, Honda, río Magdalena, 05°12ˊ25˝N 74°44ˊ28˝W, 225 m, iii.1997, R. Marin (UNAB); 1 ♂, vereda la Guardra, Mariquita, G. Murillejo, 23.ix.1978 / ICN029284 (ICN); Valle del Cauca: 1 ♀, Tuluá, Jardín Botanico, 28.viii.1996, A. Vitolo (MPUJ _ENT); 1 ♀, 1 ♂, municipio de Tuluá, Jardín Botánico "Juan María Céspedes", 1100 m, E. Amat (MPUJ _ENT); 1 ♂, same data, C. Sorzano (MPUJ _ENT).
description: Published as part of Forero, Dimitri & Mejía-Soto, Andrés, 2025, Filling in the gaps for assassin bugs: taxonomic notes and new records of Reduviidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from Neotropical countries, pp. 451-481 in Zootaxa 5584 (4) on page 458, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5584.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/14853500