Voconia grandioculata, 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 : 50-52

Voconia grandioculata sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:23167BBE-77C8-434F-9574-B9F59130EAAB

Figs 1– 2 , 4E , 7 , 9 , 11 , 14 , 18

Diagnosis

Distinguished from most other species of Voconia by its tuberculate and coarsely granulose head and pronotum, the lateral protrusion of the buccula, and notably the large ocelli that occupy half the length of the postocular region. Due to the yellow stripe across the corium, this species resembles two other Australian species, V. fasciata sp. nov. and V. vittata sp. nov. However, the yellow stripe of this species is bright and opaque, unlike that of V. fasciata sp. nov. Additionally, the legs are entirely yellow, and the corium has a small proximal yellow spot. It is easily distinguished from V. pallidipes by the brown membranal veins, the proximal half of the corium being not entirely yellow, and its globose head.

Etymology

The specific epithet is the Latin adjective ‘ grandioculatus, - a, - um ’, formed from the prefix ‘ grandi- ’ (meaning ‘large’) combined with the adjective ‘ oculatus, -a, -um ’ (meaning ‘possessing eyes’), referring to the large ocelli of this species, occupying half the length of the postocular region.

Type material

Holotype AUSTRALIA • ♂ (dissected pygophore and aedeagus in vial); Queensland, 3 km NE of Mt Webb; [15.05 ° S, 145.15 ° E]; 30 Apr.–3 May 1981; A. Calder leg.; at light; USI: AMNH_PBI 00168749 ; ANIC.

Paratype AUSTRALIA • 1 ♂; Western Australia, East York; USI: AMNH_PBI 00213934 ; HNHM .

Description

Male ( Figs 7 , 9 )

BODY LENGTH. 9.2–9.7 mm; macropterous.

COLORATION. Head: dark brown; postocular region with pale patches adjacent to lateral ocellar margin; labial segment I yellowish brown, segments II and III yellow. Thorax ( Fig. 4E ): coloration as head; scutellum dark with contrasting yellow apical spine. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus dark brown with distal yellow stripe; corium proximal half mostly yellow, distal half dark brown with yellow spot at distal apex; membrane dark with pale V-shaped marking along R and M veins; membranal veins R and M proximally pale. Legs: yellow. Abdomen: dark brown; dorsal laterotergites uniformly colored.

INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum: coarsely granulose with dense, short setigerous tubercles interspersed among sparse pubescence; interocular region with setigerous tubercles medially and two pairs paramedially; antennifer with long lateral setigerous tubercle; morphologically ventral surface of labium with sparse, short macrosetae. Thorax: anterolateral angles of pronotal collar with setigerous tubercles; scutellar lateral carinae with short macrosetae on setigerous tubercles. Hemelytron: corium with dense, long macrosetae. Legs: posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with four spines on distal half. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent.

STRUCTURE. Head: globose, about as long as wide; anteocular region about one quarter of head length, shorter than postocular region (measured to anterior margin of neck); postocular region in dorsal view shorter than eye, lateral margins gently rounded; pedicel 1.4–1.6 times length of head width; maxillary plates ellipsoidal, adjacent to and as long as clypeus; apices of maxillary plates in dorsal view diverging; clypeus in dorsal view wider than maxillary plates; clypeal apex bifid, not narrowed; interocular glabrous markings anterolaterally curved, joined at interocular sulcus paramedially; interocular sulcus in dorsal view nearly straight; eye width in dorsal view about as wide as synthlipsis; eye reaching ventral head margin in lateral view; ocelli large, occupying halflength of postocular region; ventrolateral swelling of buccula with lateral protrusion that surpasses buccular margin, setigerous tubercles along apical margin; labial segment I in lateral view gradually thickens distally, reaching posteroventral eye margin; morphologically dorsal surface of labial segment II curves ventrally, about 0.4 times length of segment I. Thorax: pronotal collar in dorsal view narrow medially with anterolateral angles short, flared laterally; anterior pronotal lobe 0.6– 0.7 times length of posterior pronotal lobe, lateral margins almost straight; glabrous markings on pronotum depressed near posterolateral margins; median apodeme depression of pronotum shallow, elongated transversely; scutellar spine long, raised ( Fig. 4E ); anteriad-directed process of prosternum with paramedial lobes; anterior margin of stridulitrum projected into sharp spine; proepimeron with smoothly rounded posteroventral margin. Legs: fossula spongiosa present on fore and mid legs. Abdomen: anterior margin of tergum III weakly carinulate, remaining terga not carinulate; terga II and III with paired prominent longitudinal carinae, reaching about one-third of tergum III. Pygophore ( Fig. 11 ): transverse bridge with rounded posterior margin; posterior region of ventral surface of pygophore in lateral view with slight swelling; median apical process short, sharply bent posteriorly in lateral view; lateral pygophore margin with protuberance; posterior pygophore margin with clustered macrosetae on protuberance; parameres sinusoidal, apex round, not sharply tapered or expanded. Aedeagus ( Fig. 14 ): endosoma almost entirely covered with spicules; apex of dorsal phallothecal sclerite tongue-shaped in dorsal view; basal plate extension about 5.7 times as long as wide.

Female

Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 18 )

This species is known from Queensland and Western Australia.

Remarks

The phylogenetic placement of V. grandioculata sp. nov. within the Australian clade is uncertain ( Figs 1–2 ). The abdomen of the holotype was extracted, but we did not get sufficient DNA in our NGS library for Illumina sequencing.

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. 4. Morphological characters. A–D. Scutellum and hemelytron, dorsal view. A. Gerbelius typicus Distant, 1903.B. Voconia lirophleps sp. nov. C. Voconia bracata sp. nov.D. Voconia schoutedeni (Villiers, 1964) comb. nov. E. Voconia grandioculata sp. nov., thorax, lateral view. F–H. Voconia nyx sp. nov. F. Thorax, lateral view. G. Fore tibia, ventral view. H. Mid tibia and tarsus, ventral view. I–K. Hind femur, posterior view. I. Voconia mexicana sp. nov. J. Voconia decorata sp. nov. K. Voconia bracata sp. nov.

Fig. 7. Dorsal habitus of holotypes of Voconia Stål, 1866 species with distribution: purple = Afrotropical region, green = Australasian region, pink = Oriental region. Scale bars = 3 mm.

Fig. 9. Lateral habitus of species of Voconia Stål, 1866. Scale bars = 3 mm.

Fig. 11. Pygophore of species of Gerbelius Distant, 1903 and Voconia Stål, 1866. Median apical process of Gerbelius typicus Distant, 1903 and V. bakeri sp. nov. damaged/missing. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.

Fig. 14. Aedeagus of species of Gerbelius Distant, 1903 and Voconia Stål, 1866. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.

Fig. 18. The distribution of species of Voconia Stål, 1866 in the Australasian region.