Voconia bracata Castillo & Rédei & Weirauch 2022, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Castillo, Stephanie
name: Rédei, Dávid
name: Weirauch, Christiane
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Reduviidae
Voconia
Voconia bracata

description: Voconia bracata sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 32D3A427-888D-4D48-B0C3-5EB69CB43B1A
Figs 1, 2, 3J, 4C, K, 7, 9, 18
Diagnosis
Distinguished from other species of the genus Voconia by its long, slender body (about 10.8 mm), long head (about 1.7 times as long as wide), hind leg with four large spines in the posterior row, a large pale spot between R and M veins, and dorsal laterotergites I and II yellow, the remainder dark brown. This species is most similar to V. typica, but is differentiated by the yellow proximal third of the mid and hind femora as well as the anterior pronotal lobe, which is convex, strongly curved inward on the posterolateral margins.
Etymology
The specific epithet is the Latin adjective ‘ bracatus, - a, - um ’, meaning ‘wearing trousers’. It refers to the yellow coloration of the proximal half of the femora.
Type material
Holotype PAPUA NEW GUINEA • ♂; Milne Bay Province, Waikaiuna, Normanby Island; [10.06° S, 150.97° E]; elev. 0–50 m; 14 Apr. 1956; L.J. Brass leg.; Fifth Archibold Exped. to New Guinea; USI: AMNH_PBI 00170707; AMNH.
Description
Male (Figs 7, 9)
BODY LENGTH. About 10.8 mm; macropterous.
COLORATION. Head: dark brown; postocular region with dark patches adjacent to medial ocellar margin and paired pale patches adjacent to lateral ocellar margin; labial segments II and III lighter than head. Thorax: coloration as head; scutellum dark with contrasting yellow apical spine. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus dark reddish-brown with distal half yellow; corium dark reddish-brown with anteromedial, posteromedial, and distal yellow spots; membrane dark, large pale spot between R and M veins; membranal veins R and M proximally pale, remainder as membrane. Legs (Fig. 4K): dark brown with yellow mid and hind coxae, trochanter, and proximal third of femora. Abdomen (Fig. 4C): dark reddishbrown; dorsal laterotergites I and II yellow.
INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum: finely granulose with sparse, short macrosetae interspersed among dense pubescence; antennifer with short lateral setigerous tubercle; morphologically ventral surface of labium with dense, short macrosetae; anterolateral angles of pronotal collar without macrosetae or setigerous tubercles. Legs (Fig. 4K): posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with four large spines on distal half. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent with long macrosetae.
STRUCTURE. Head: elongate, about 1.7 times as long as wide; anteocular region about one third of head length, subequal in length to postocular region (measured to anterior margin of neck); postocular region in dorsal view longer than eye, lateral margins gently rounded; pedicel about 1.8 times length of head width; maxillary plates ellipsoidal, adjacent to and reaching apex of clypeus; apex of maxillary plates in dorsal view directed straight; clypeus in dorsal view slightly narrower than maxillary plates; clypeal apex round, not narrowed; interocular glabrous markings V-shaped, joined medially at interocular sulcus; interocular sulcus in dorsal view slightly bent anteromedially, subtriangular; eye width in dorsal view wider than synthlipsis; eye reaching ventral head margin in lateral view; ventrolateral swelling of buccula without lateral protrusion that surpasses buccular margin, flat margin; labial segment I in lateral view straight, surpassing posteroventral eye margin; morphologically dorsal surface of labial segment II slightly curving apically, about 0.4 times length of segment I. Thorax: pronotal collar narrow medially with anterolateral angles short, projected forward; anterior pronotal lobe subequal in length to posterior pronotal lobe, lateral margins rounded; glabrous markings on pronotum thin and not deeply depressed; median apodeme depression of pronotum deep and elongated transversely; scutellar spine long and subhorizontal; anteriad-directed process of prosternum smoothly rounded, without paramedial lobes (Fig. 3J); anterior margin of stridulitrum not elongated into protuberance (Fig. 3J); proepimeron with smoothly rounded posteroventral margin. Legs: fossula spongiosa present on fore and mid legs.
Female
Unknown.
Distribution (Fig. 18)
This species is only known from the type locality of Normanby Island off of Papua New Guinea, where no other Pseudocetherinae species are known.
Remarks
This species forms a well-supported clade with another species from Papua New Guinea, V. typica (Figs 1–2).
description: Published as part of Castillo, Stephanie, Rédei, Dávid & Weirauch, Christiane, 2022, Pseudocetherinae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) revisited: phylogeny and taxonomy of the lobe-headed bugs, pp. 1-95 in European Journal of Taxonomy 788 (1) on pages 35-37, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.788.1625, http://zenodo.org/record/5846636