Voconia schoutedeni Castillo & Rédei & Weirauch 2022, comb. 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 schoutedeni

description: Voconia schoutedeni (Villiers, 1964) comb. nov.
Figs 1–2, 3D, 4D, 8, 10, 17
Pseudocethera schoutedeni Villiers, 1964: 112, fig. 31.
Pseudocethera schoutedeni forme alata Villiers, 1964: 112, fig. 32; infrasubspecific, permanently unavailable under ICZN Article 45.6.3.
Diagnosis
Distinguished from other species of Voconia by the following combination of characters: coarsely granulose head and pronotum; maxillary plates not adjacent to and far surpassing clypeal apex; maxillary plates in lateral view wide, about twice the width of the scape and not toothed apically; antennifer with long lateral spine; eyes in lateral view do not reach ventral head margin; pedicel short, about 0.6 times length of head width. The macropterous morph is recognized from V. tridens sp. nov. by the almost entirely dark brown head and pronotum, the scutellar spine is slightly raised, and the hemelytra are blackish with pale coloration at the base and apex of the corium.
Type material
Holotype DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO • 1 ♂; “P. N. G.” [Garamba National Park], “Aka- Gar/4” [confluence of rivers Aka and Garamba south of Mt Bawezi, locality no. 4]; [3.88 ° N, 29.21 ° E]; 2 Feb. 1951; Miss. H. De Saeger and J. Verschuren leg.; No. 1195; USI: UCR_ENT 00070524; RMCA- ENT-000018003.
Paratype DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO • 1 ♀; Garamba National Park; 1952; Miss. H. De Saeger leg.; No. 3283; MNHN.
Material examined from original description
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO • 1 ♂; Garamba National Park; No. 1281; repository not specified in description.
Redescription
Male (Figs 8, 10)
BODY LENGTH. About 6.7 mm, micropterous; about 6.7 mm, macropterous.
COLORATION. Head (Fig. 3D): yellow; labium as remainder of head (micropterous); almost entirely dark brown (macropterous). Thorax: as head; posterior pronotal lobe darker than anterior lobe; scutellum brown with darker lateral margins. Wing stumps: yellow with brown posterior margins. Hemelytra: blackish, slightly cleared up at the base and apex of corium. Legs: yellow, distal third of femora dark brown. Abdomen (Fig. 4D): dark brown, dorsal laterotergites with anterior half yellow.
INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head (Fig. 3D) and pronotum: coarsely granulose with dense, short macrosetae on setigerous tubercles; interocular region with two pairs of large setigerous tubercles paramedially; antennifer with long lateral spine; morphologically ventral surface of labium with sparse, short macrosetae. Thorax: anterolateral angles of pronotal collar without macrosetae or setigerous tubercles; scutellar lateral carinae with pubescent tubercles. Legs: posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with three large spines on distal half and three or fewer small spines. Abdomen (Fig. 4D): ventral surface pubescent.
STRUCTURE. Head (Fig. 3D): elongate, about 1.4 times as long as wide, narrower in macropterous morph; anteocular region two-fifths of head length, longer than postocular region (measured to anterior margin of neck); postocular region in dorsal view longer than eye, lateral margins subrectangular; scape not reaching apex of head, about 0.4 times length of pedicel; pedicel about 0.6 times length of head width; maxillary plates conical, not adjacent to or longer than clypeus; apices of maxillary plates in dorsal view directed straight; clypeus in dorsal view narrower than maxillary plates; clypeal apex round, narrowed; interocular glabrous markings V-shaped, joined medially at interocular sulcus; interocular sulcus in dorsal view nearly straight; eye width in dorsal view narrower than synthlipsis in micropterous morph, eyes considerably larger in macropterous morph; eye not reaching ventral head margin in lateral view; ocelli minute, occupying about 0.16 times length of postocular region in micropterous morph, ocelli considerably larger in macropterous morph; ventrolateral swelling of buccula with acute protrusion surpassing buccular margin, small setigerous tubercles along margin of protrusion; labial segment I in lateral view straight, not reaching posteroventral eye margin; morphologically dorsal surface of labial segment II nearly straight, about 0.4 times length of segment I. Thorax: pronotal collar in dorsal view wide medially with anterolateral angles long, flared laterally; anterior pronotal lobe about 1.3 times length of posterior pronotal lobe, lateral margins rounded in micropterous morph; anterior pronotal lobe shorter than posterior pronotal lobe in macropterous morph; glabrous markings on pronotum deeply depressed; median apodeme depression of pronotum shallow, elongated longitudinally; scutellar spine reduced and subhorizontal in micropterous morph; scutellum about 2 times as long as wide at base, with long slightly raised scutellar spine in macropterous morph; anteriad-directed process of prosternum with paramedial lobes; anterior margin of stridulitrum not elongated into protuberance; proepimeron with smoothly rounded posteroventral margin. Legs: fossula spongiosa present on fore and mid legs. Abdomen (Fig. 4D): anterior margin of terga prominently carinulate, terga II and III with deeper and longer carinules; terga II with paired prominent longitudinal carinae reaching posterior margin of segment.
Female
As micropterous male. Body length: about 7.0 mm.
Distribution
Distributed in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Remarks
This description of V. schoutedeni is based on the micropterous male holotype (UCR_ENT 00070524), which was the only type specimen available for examination. Any descriptive information of the micropterous female or macropterous form is taken directly from the original description by Villiers (1964). A lectotype was also designated for the macropterous morph, Pseudocethera schoutedeni forme alata Villiers, 1964. However, this infrasubspecific name is permanently unavailable under ICZN Article 45.6.3, therefore this specimen (referred to as No. 1281 by Villiers) has no type status. A drawer image of specimens at the BMNH in 2011 suggests that the macropterous morph may be distributed as far north as Sierra Leone, but this specimen and the macropterous paratype need to be properly examined.
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 74-77, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.788.1625, http://zenodo.org/record/5846636