Atracodes fasciatus Levia & Bartlett 2025, comb. nov.
Creators: name: Levia, Nathaniel N.
name: Bartlett, Charles R.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Flatidae
Atracodes
Atracodes fasciatus

description: Atracodes fasciatus (Metcalf & Bruner, 1948), comb. nov. & stat. nov.
= Pseudoflatoides fasciculosus fasciatus Metcalf & Bruner, 1948 (original description)
(Figs 8–11)
Type locality. San Vicente, Pinar del Rio Province, Cuba.
Amended description. Color. General color chalky to yellowish white (Figs 8A, 9A), forewing veins darker, variably patterned. Head with dark patch behind eye (line anterior to eye absent; Figs 8B, 9B). Mesonotum variably embrowned, especially posteriorly (may be broken into three pairs of large black spots). Forewings bearing variably developed dark transverse serpentine band near midlength (at nodal line, not reaching clavus); apical marginal cells bearing small dark spots.
Structure. Body length (including wings) male: 15.0– 19.5 mm; female 19.2–21.1 mm. Head (in dorsal view, Figs 8A, 9A) narrow projecting in front of eyes for distance greater than eye width, bluntly pointed bearing apical callosity. Vertex quadrate, about 1.5x as long as wide; medial carinae present, distally forked; lateral carinae keeled, serpentine, subapically inflected medially, then strongly serpentine to join median carina; posterior margin concave (partly hidden by anterior margin of the pronotum); in lateral view, lateral carinae of vertex meeting lateral carinae of frons at sharp angle, ~50 degrees). Frons from ventral view (Fig. 8D), roughly elongate quadrate (length about 2x greatest width); widest proximad of midlength (narrowed distally and proximally), median carinae obsolete, lateral carinae foliate. Frontoclypeal suture approximately linear. Clypeus elongate and triangular (median carina present, obscure). Rostrum reaching or exceeding hind trochanter. Hind tibiae (Fig. 8C) bearing two lateral teeth, apical spinulation 8(5+3)-8-2.
Pronotum (Figs 8A, 9A) roughly triangular in dorsal view, anterior margin keeled, convexly rounded, anterior keels projecting caudad diagonally to form lateral margins of disc; median carina obscure, disc bearing pair of pits on either side of midline just anterior to midlength; paradiscal region broad (extending lateral just below level of antennae), bearing transverse carina between eye and tegula. Mesonotum broad (about equal in length to pronotum and vertex combined at midlength), roughly lozenge-shaped with the lateral corners rounded, obscurely tricarinate; in lateral view mesonotum raised above the pronotum. Forewings with broad postcostal cell bearing many marginal veins often distally forked; claval apex well distad of forewing midlength, A 1 close to marginal A 2 vein, CuA vein forked near claval midlength at about level of first fork of MP.
Pygofer (Figs 10A, B) in lateral view irregular, widest subventrally, caudal margin convexly rounded, anterior margin concave; medioventral process absent, ventral margin concave (Fig. 10D). Phallotheca stout, bilaterally symmetrical (Figs 10A, 11A), distally narrowed, bifurcate with medial aedeagus, weakly downcurved; bearing three pairs of subapical retrorse processes (A1–A6), A1 and A2 arise dorsoapically (dorsal apical processes), long and slender, reaching phallathecal base; A3 and A4 (dorsal subapical processes) arise just proximad of A1 and A2. stout and blade-like reaching near phallathecal midlength; A5 and A6 arise on subapical ventral margin, shorter and stouter than A1 and A2 nearly reaching phallathecal base (Fig. 11A). Aedeagus extends dorsomedially from phallotheca to about half the length of the bifurcation; broad, tapering to upcurved, convex apex. Gonostyli comparatively slender (Figs 10A, B), exerted portion elongate quadrate (dorsal and ventral margins nearly straight) bearing large apical hooked capitulum on dorsal margin; apical margin weakly arched. Anal tube in lateral view (Figs 10A, B) slender and elongated, dorsal margin sinuately curved, distally downcurved, apex sharply inflected downward; ventral margin sinuately convex; paraproct elongated caudally.
Remarks. Metcalf and Bruner (1948: 109) described this species as a subspecies of Pseudoflatoides fasciculosus, differing from the nominate subspecies because it was ‘heavily marked’, but ‘the structure and details of genitalia agree with the typical variety’. The typical subspecies was illustrated (Metcalf and Bruner 1948, plate VIII, Figs 7–8, plate XVI, fig. 5), but P. f. fasciatus was not. The terminalia of the paratype from Camagűey differs markedly from that illustrated by Metcalf and Bruner (1948, plate XVI, fig. 6) in the pygofer is broader in A. fasciatus, the anal tube shape differs (most notably not inflected downward at apex, versus A. fasciatus, Figs 10A, B), and the aedeagus processes (in the typical form, fasciculosus processes A3 and A4 are slender, not stout, and processes A5 and A6 are short and hooked instead of reaching the aedeagal base). These differences are sufficiently great to revise the status of the subspecies to a full species as Atracodes fasciatus, comb. nov. & stat. nov.
Atracodes fasciatus comb. nov. & stat. nov. appears similar to A. tortrix comb. nov. (Fig. 7D, Metcalf & Bruner 1948, plate XVI, fig. 4) in that in the latter species the aedeagus appears shorter, aedeagal processes A3 and A4 appear more elongated, and the apex of the anal tube is not inflected downward.
Plant associations. None.
Distribution. Cuba (Camagűey, Artemisa, Pinar del Río).
Type material examined. HOLOTYPE: San Vincente / 4-6-9-[19]22 / cd.s.c.B. / g j.a // ♂ // Holotype // 8768 // Pseudoflatoides / fasciculosus / fasciatus / Metc. & Brun. / det. Z. P. M (NSCU, male). ALLOTYPE: San Vincente / En Go?m? [illegible] / 4-9-[19]22 // jc34J.A // 8768 // Allotype // Pseudoflatoides / fasciculosus / fasciatus / Metc. & Brun. / det. Z. P. M // UDCC _TCN 00102976 [2D barcode label] (NCSU, female). PARATYPES: Camagűey, Cuba, / J. Acuba, Col. / Aug. 20 1924 // Paratype // Pseudoflatoides / fasciculosus / fasciatus / Metc. & Brun. / det. Z. P. M // UDCC _TCN 00102977 (NCSU, female). Cubitas // Camagűey, Cuba / July 30, 1923 / J. Acuna, Col. // Paratype // Pseudoflatoides / fasciculosus / fasciatus / Metc. & Brun. / det. Z. P. M // UDCC _TCN 00103104 (NCSU, female). Sierra Rangel / P.del Río, Cuba / Aug. 29, 1927 / Alt. 1500 feet // Col. J. Acuña, y S.C. Bruner. // Paratype // Pseudoflatoides / fasciculosus / fasciatus / Metc. & Brun. / det. Z. P. M. // UDCC _TCN 00103105 (NCSU, female).
description: Published as part of Levia, Nathaniel N. & Bartlett, Charles R., 2025, A review of the genera Atracodes Melichar and Pseudoflatoides Metcalf (Hemiptera: Flatidae: Flatoidinae) from the Caribbean region, pp. 231-255 in Zootaxa 5590 (2) on pages 242-245, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5590.2.4, http://zenodo.org/record/14953032