Afronaucoris Sites 2022, GEN. NOV.
Creators: name: Sites, Robert W.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Naucoridae
Afronaucoris

description: AFRONAUCORIS GEN. NOV.
FIGS 19C, 22
Z o o b a n k r e g i s t r a t i o n: u r n: l s i d: z o o b a n k. org:act: BEBB3A8F-C584-468C-824A-0592A28716E5
Type species: Afronaucoris obscuratus (Montandon, 1913).
Description: Form ovate; widest just posterior to middle, at embolia (Fig. 22a); moderately flattened for family. Head broad, eyes and anterior margin continuously and evenly convex to anterolateral corners of pronotum. Eyes convergent anteriorly; each eye narrowing anteriorly when viewed from above, mesal margin straight or nearly so, anteroventral margin concave; narrow band of cuticle lateral to eye. Labrum arising at front of head between inner margins of eyes; apex broadly rounded. Maxillary plates angled ventromedially, tips rounded, not exceeding apex of labrum. Rostrum with three visible segments, with segments one and part of two concealed behind labrum. Antennae four segmented with segment 1 short and inconspicuous, 2 and 4 longer, 3 longest, segments 2–4 enlarged and setose. Midventer of head sharply carinate. Head and pronotum moderately convex transversely.
Pronotum with anterior margin straight or slightly concave between eyes, then concavity becoming more pronounced as margin wraps around eyes; lateral margins slightly convex and convergent anteriorly; posterior margin mostly straight, with slight concavity medially and convexity laterally to posterolateral corners. Scutellum triangular, slightly wider than long, evenly domed, heavily punctate. Hemelytra extending to tip of abdomen. Embolium well defined with embolar suture, yellowish anteriorly, dark posteriorly; clavus well defined with claval and intraclaval sutures; corium, clavus and membrane punctate and dark with subtle mottling, sparse long hairs and a single light spot at the middle of corium/membrane interface.
Propleuron lateral to coxal cavity infuscated and setose; posterolaterally light coloured and glabrous; mesal margin triangular and touching prosternellum such that prosternellum is dorsad of propleuron tip. Probasisternum sharply carinate, carina continuous with midventral carina of head. Mesosternum broadly carinate medially with a brush of long hairs and several isolated short, dark spines, which can be concealed by hairs. Metaxyphus with sharp median carina. Abdominal venter thickly covered with long hairs except narrow glabrous lateral band; laterosternites with paired, oval, glabrous depressions near spiracles.
Profemur inflated, anterior margin with dorsal and ventral rows of golden hairs sandwiching two rows of short, dark spines. Protarsus single segmented with single, fixed, minute pretarsal claw. Meso- and metafemora with posteroventral row of short spines; those on mesofemur densely packed such that bases of adjacent spines are touching or nearly touching; those on metafemur less densely packed, spaced approximately one spine width apart. Meso- and metatibiae with numerous rows of long dark red spines. Long golden swimming hairs sparse on mesotibia and tarsus, profuse on metatibia and tarsus.
Male genitalia with aedeagus widest apically, with pronounced flap-like structure on right side with membranous window below; parameres strongly asymmetrical, criss-crossing in basal third; left paramere overlapping right, arcuate, with pronounced lobe on left margin; right paramere slenderer, more arcuate, with elongate sulcus in distal third to embrace aedeagus. Female mediosternite VII (subgenital plate) broad basally, strongly convex transversely, lateral margins convergent posteriorly toward broadly rounded to spatulate apex.
Diagnosis: Morphological features diagnostic for this clade are not evident at this time; however, the distinction of this genus as an independent lineage is supported by its geographic association with the Afrotropical region.
Etymology: The genus name recognizes the region in which these former members of Naucoris occur, while still referencing the previous generic association. The prefix is derived from the Latin Afer, African.
Comments: Poisson (1949) established the subgenus Naucorisella for the Madagascan Naucoris parvulus Signoret, 1860, but the subgenus was considered to be invalid and was synonymized by Štys & Jansson (1988). The Afrotropical species of Naucoris, which excludes the Palaearctic Naucoris maculatus occurring in northern Africa, are here transferred to Afronaucoris. Although only two species were included in the molecular analysis, the phylogenetic framework suggests a geographic occurrence by which to preliminarily associate species with this new genus. I have examined five of the eight described Afrotropical species and these are exceedingly similar in appearance. In fact, Naucoris kenyalis was originally described as a subspecies of N. obscuratus (Poisson, 1949). Of the remaining three species, one is known from only the holotype (N. fuscipennis) and the other two (N. perezii and N. planus) are known from only the inadequately brief original descriptions of more than 140 years ago (only 20 words in length for N. planus). Nonetheless, because of their geographic association and to establish taxonomic stability, they are included here. As such, the following new combinations are proposed:
Afronaucoris ciliatistylus (Linnavuori, 1971) comb. nov.
Afronaucoris fuscipennis (Schaum, 1853) comb. nov.
Afronaucoris kenyalis (Poisson, 1949) comb. nov.
Afronaucoris madagascariensis (Montandon, 1899) comb. nov.
Afronaucoris obscuratus (Montandon, 1913) comb. nov.
Afronaucoris parvulus (Signoret, 1860) comb. nov.
Afronaucoris perezii (Bolívar, 1879) comb. nov.
Afronaucoris planus (Germar, 1838) comb. nov.
description: Published as part of Sites, Robert W., 2022, Phylogeny and revised classification of the saucer bugs (Hemiptera: Nepomorpha: Naucoridae), pp. 1245-1286 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 195 on pages 1275-1277, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab105, http://zenodo.org/record/6994599