Voconia loki, Castillo & Rédei & Weirauch, 2022

Castillo, Stephanie, Rédei, Dávid & Weirauch, Christiane, 2022, Pseudocetherinae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) revisited: phylogeny and taxonomy of the lobe-headed bugs, European Journal of Taxonomy 788 (1), pp. 1-95 : 61-63

Voconia loki sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:BBC757E0-8E3F-4CCC-9B5F-8E7FA5FAB7A2

Figs 1–2 , 3H , 8 , 10 , 20

Diagnosis

This species most closely resembles two other Southeast Asian species, V. isosceles sp. nov. and V. lasiosoma sp. nov., due to the finely granulose head and pronotum; legs and antennae yellow; pronotum dark with contrasting yellow posterior margin; and relatively denser and longer setation. Voconia loki sp. nov. is smaller (about 8.3 mm long) than these two species. It is also recognized from V. isosceles sp. nov. by the stout Cu-An 1 cell (less than half the length of the M-Cu cell), brown membranal veins that form the Cu-An 1 and M-Cu cells, and the postocular region brown having dark patches adjacent to the medial ocellar margin. Apart from its smaller size, this species is distinguished from V. lasiosoma sp. nov. by the almost entirely yellow proximal half of the corium, reddish-brown distal half of the corium instead of black, and yellow legs instead of a darker yellowish-brown.

Etymology

Named after the cunning trickster from Norse mythology and from the Marvel Comics’ character, Loki, since this specimen deceived and tricked authors in a previous study ( Hwang & Weirauch 2012) who misidentified it as “ Kayanocoris wegneri ” ( V. wegneri comb. nov.). A proper noun in apposition.

Type material

Holotype BRUNEI • ♂; Belait District, 21.5 km N of Labi on Labi Rd, Karanga Forest ; 4.58244 ° N, 114.50508 ° E; elev. 40 m; 28 Jun. 2010; C. Weirauch and W. Hwang leg.; collecting event: BR10_L18; hand collected; low-elevation dipterocarp forest; DNA voucher R_CW 1590; USI: UCR_ENT 00052216 ; UCR.

Description

Male ( Figs 8 , 10 )

BODY LENGTH. About 8.3 mm; macropterous.

COLORATION. Head ( Fig. 3H ): light brown; clypeus yellow; postocular region with dark patches adjacent to medial ocellar margin; labium lighter than head, yellow. Thorax: pronotum darker than head; posterior pronotal lobe with posterior margin lighter; scutellum dark with contrasting yellow apical spine. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus reddish-brown with distal yellow stripe; proximal half of corium mostly yellow with small black spot, distal half reddish-brown with distal yellow spot; membrane dark with proximally pale V-shaped marking along R and M veins; membranal veins R and M proximally pale, veins forming Cu-An 1 cell pale. Legs: yellow. Abdomen: dark brown; dorsal laterotergites yellow.

INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum ( Fig. 3H ): finely granulose with dense, long macrosetae interspersed among sparse pubescence; interocular region with two pairs of macrosetae paramedially; antennifer with strong macroseta, base not protruded laterally; morphologically ventral surface of labium with dense, short macrosetae. Thorax: anterolateral angles of pronotal collar with macrosetae; scutellar lateral carinae with long setation. Hemelytron: corium with dense long setation. Legs: posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with three large and three small spines on distal half. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent, long macrosetae interspersed.

STRUCTURE. Head ( Fig. 3H ): elongate, about 1.2 times as long as wide; anteocular region about one third of head length, about as long as postocular region (measured to anterior margin of neck); postocular region in dorsal view as long as eye, lateral margins gently rounded; pedicel about 0.9 times length of head width; maxillary plates ellipsoidal, adjacent to and shorter than clypeus; apices of maxillary plates in dorsal view directed straight; clypeus in dorsal view wider than maxillary plates; clypeal apex round, narrowed; interocular glabrous markings anterolaterally curved, joined at interocular sulcus paramedially; interocular sulcus in dorsal view 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 nearly straight, about 0.5 times length of segment I. Thorax: pronotal collar in dorsal view narrow medially with anterolateral angles short, projected forward; anterior pronotal lobe about 0.7 times length of posterior pronotal lobe, lateral margins almost straight; glabrous markings on pronotum conspicuous and not depressed; median apodeme depression of pronotum deep, elongated longitudinally; scutellar spine long, raised; anteriad-directed process of prosternum smoothly rounded, without paramedial lobes; anterior margin of stridulitrum not elongated into protuberance; proepimeron with acute protuberance on posteroventral margin. Legs: fossula spongiosa present on fore and mid legs.

Female

Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 20 )

This species is only known from the type locality in Brunei on the island of Borneo.

Remarks

The holotype is referred to as Kayanocoris wegneri R_CW 1590 in Hwang & Weirauch’s (2012) molecular phylogeny, where it is recovered as the sister taxon to all other species of Gerbelius .

Figures

Fig. 1. Strict consensus tree resulting from equal weighting analysis. Jackknife values over 51 are reported for tree one of eight.

Fig. 2. Tree resulting from implied weighting analysis using K = 12 with characters unambiguously optimized. Symmetric resampling values over 51 are represented for trees obtained with K = 3, K = 6, K = 9, and K = 12 analyses. Characters and character states are described in pp. 11–22. Specimens not to scale.

Fig. 3. Morphological characters. A–D. Head in dorsal view. A. Gerbelius nr. confluens. B. Voconia decorata sp. nov. C. Voconia pallidipes Stål, 1866. D. Voconia schoutedeni (Villiers, 1964) comb. nov. E–G. Head in lateral view. E. Voconia wegneri (Miller, 1954) comb. nov. F. Voconia dolichocephala sp. nov. G. Gerbelius typicus Distant, 1903. H. Voconia loki sp. nov., head and pronotum in dorsal view. I–J. Prosternum in ventrolateral view. I. Voconia mexicana sp. nov. J. Voconia bracata sp. nov. K–L. Pronotum in dorsal view. K. Voconia conradti (Jeannel, 1917) comb. nov. L. Voconia tuberculata sp. nov.

Fig. 8. Dorsal habitus of holotypes of Voconia Stål, 1866 species with distribution: purple = Afrotropical region, green = Australasian region, blue = Neotropical region, pink = Oriental region. Scale bars = 3 mm.

Fig. 10. Lateral habitus of species of Voconia Stål, 1866. Scale bars = 3 mm.

Fig. 20. The distribution of species of Gerbelius Distant, 1903 and Voconia Stål, 1866 in Southeast Asia.