Polididus armatissimus Stal 1859
Creators: name: Ishikawa, Tadashi
name: Sumiartha, Ketut
name: Okajima, Shûji
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2008
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Reduviidae
Polididus
Polididus armatissimus

description: Polididus armatissimus Stål, 1859
(Figs. 5, 6, 15–22)
Polididus armatissimus Stål, 1859: 376.
Acanthodesma perarmata Uhler, 1896: 271 (synonymized by Bergroth, 1914: 362).
Diagnosis. Recognized by the following combination of characters: head dorsally armed with a pair of long setiferous spines behind antennal insertions and with several short to medium-sized setiferous spines; pronotum brown on anterior lobe and yellowish brown on posterior lobe, wholly tinged with red (Fig. 5); humeral setiferous spines simple; setiferous spines on pronotal humeri, scutellum and laterotergites IV to VII yellow to brownish yellow, with brownish or reddish base; femur of each leg reddish brown apicad (Figs. 5, 6); metafemur armed with a pair of dorsoapical setiferous spines and dorsally with 1 row of about 3 setiferous spines and a few setiferous tubercles; meso- and metatibiae lacking setiferous spine; setiferous spine on posterior corner of laterotergite V often shortened or lacking (Fig. 5); valvifer I roundly projected at apex (Figs. 20, 21); and styloides sclerotized laterally as in Fig. 22. Body about 10 mm long.
Description. Genitalia. Male: Pygophore (Figs. 15, 16) compressed laterally, with rounded posterior margin. Paramere (Fig. 17) small, weakly tapering apicad, slightly sinuate, with several short to long setae dorsoapically. Phallus (Figs. 18, 19) ovate in rest; phallotheca (Figs. 18, 19) sclerotized ventrally and dorsolaterally; endosoma (Figs. 18, 19) with a pair of triangular sclerotized projections, 2 pairs of rod-like sclerites and a median ventral sclerotized lobe; ventral sclerotized lobe projected in middle (Fig. 18).
Female: Valvifer I (Figs. 20, 21) roundly projected at apex, covered with dense, short setae and a few long setae in apical part (Fig. 21); valvula I (Figs. 20, 21) weakly narrowed apicad, rounded at apex, densely covered with short setae in apical part (Fig. 21). Styloides (Fig. 22) nearly truncated at apex, sclerotized laterally as in Fig. 14, densely covered with short, stout setae along apical margin, and with a pair of long setae apically.
Material examined. [Indonesia] Bali: 1 ɗ, Abang, Tabanan, 8°18’32”S, 115°09’40”E, 1,180m, alt., 4.ix.2006, T. Ishikawa et al. (UU); 1 ɗ (Figs. 5, 6, 15–18), Pancasari, Buleleng, 8°18’32”S, 115°09’40”E, 1,180m, alt., 4.ix.2006, T. Ishikawa et al. (UU). [Japan] the Ryukyus: 2 ɗ, Urauchi, Iriomote-jima Is., 21.xi.1998, T. Ishikawa (TUA); 1 Ψ, Urauchi, Iriomote-jima Is., 30.v.2000, T. Ishikawa (TUA); 1 Ψ (Figs. 19– 21), Komi, Iriomote-jima Is., 9.x.2004, T. Ishikawa (TUA); 1 ɗ, Komi, Iriomote-jima Is., 9.vi.2002, T. Ishikawa (TUA).
Distribution. Saudi Arabia, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, China, Korea, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia (Malaya), Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Bali), Hawaiian Islands, Caroline Islands (Distant 1904; Hsiao & Ren 1981; Putshkov & Putshkov 1996; Stål 1859, 1874; Uhler 1896; Wygodzinsky & Usinger 1960). This species is recorded from Bali for the first time.
Remarks. The two male specimens from Bali lack setiferous spine on each posterior corner of the abdominal laterotergite V. Comparison of the specimens between P. armatissimus from Bali and Japan and P. australis from Queensland resulted in no detection of apparent differences as separate species in morphology including male and female genitalia. This indicates that both of the two species might be in synonymy. However, we postpone the final conclusion about the synonymy between these two species until the type specimens becomes available for examination.
description: Published as part of Ishikawa, Tadashi, Sumiartha, Ketut & Okajima, Shûji, 2008, The second representative of the genus Polididus (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae) in Southeast Asia, with partial redescription of P. armatissimus, pp. 45-52 in Zootaxa 1740 on pages 50-52, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.181485