Voconia isosceles, 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 : 54-56

Voconia isosceles sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:826EFBC8-FA03-42DA-8E5E-E0D4F29A5B66

Figs 1–2 , 7 , 9 , 20

Diagnosis

This species most closely resembles another Southeast Asian species, V. loki sp. nov., due to the finely granulose head and pronotum, yellow legs and antennae, dark pronotum with contrasting yellow posterior margin, and the proximal half of the corium being entirely yellow, distal half dark with small distal yellow spot. Voconia isosceles sp. nov. is slightly larger (about 8.8 mm long), the membranal veins forming the Cu-An 1 and M-Cu cells are paler than the remainder of the membrane, and the postocular region is dark with a semicircular pale stripe encircling both ocelli.

Etymology

The specific epithet is the Latin adjective ‘ isosceles , -, -’, which has the same meaning as its equivalent geometric term used in English for a triangle having at least two sides of equal length (also known as a golden triangle). Refers to the yellow or golden isosceles triangle on the proximal half of the corium.

Type material

Holotype PHILIPPINES • ♂; Mindanao , Gingoog City , Mts Or., Mt Pomalihi, 21 km W of Gingoog City; [8.81° N, 124.92° E]; elev. 800–1000 m; 16–18 Oct. 1965; H.M. Torrevillas leg.; light trap; USI: UCR_ENT 00073814 ; BPBM.

Description

Male ( Figs 7 , 9 )

BODY LENGTH. About 8.8 mm; macropterous.

COLORATION. Head: dark brown; postocular region with dark patches adjacent to medial ocellar margin, semicircular pale stripe encircling both ocelli; labium lighter than head, yellow. Thorax: as head; posterior pronotal lobe with posterior margin lighter, yellow; scutellum dark with contrasting yellow apical spine. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus reddish-brown with distal yellow stripe; corium proximal half yellow, distal half reddish-brown with yellow spot at distal apex; membrane brown with pale V-shaped marking along R and M veins; membranal veins forming Cu-An 1 and M-Cu cells paler than remainder of membrane. Legs: yellow. Abdomen: dark brown ventrally; laterotergites light brown.

INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum: finely granulose with dense, long macrosetae interspersed among dense pubescence; interocular region with two pairs of macrosetae paramedially; antennifer with short lateral setigerous tubercle; 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 spines on distal half. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent, long macrosetae interspersed.

STRUCTURE. Head: elongate, about 1.3 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 about as long as eye, lateral margins gently rounded; pedicel about 1.4 times length of head width; maxillary plates ellipsoidal, adjacent to and as long as clypeus; apices of maxillary plates in dorsal view directed straight; clypeus in dorsal view wider than maxillary plates; clypeal apex round, not narrowed; interocular glabrous markings anterolaterally curved, joined at interocular sulcus paramedially; interocular sulcus in dorsal view bent anteromedially, subtriangular; eye width in dorsal view narrower 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 0.3 times length of segment I. Thorax: pronotal collar in dorsal view narrow medially with anterolateral angles short, projected forward; anterior pronotal lobe about 0.6 times length of posterior pronotal lobe, lateral margins rounded; glabrous markings on pronotum conspicuous and not depressed; median apodeme depression of pronotum shallow, elongated transversely; 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. Abdomen: anterior margin of terga prominently carinulate; terga II and III with paired prominent longitudinal carinae, almost reaching posterior margin of tergum III.

Female

Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 20 )

This species is only known from the type locality in the Philippines.

Remarks

Based on the record of a Miridae specimen from the same collection event as the holotype, Mt Pomalihi is presumably in Mt Balatukan Range Natural Park. The type locality is also shared with V. bakeri sp. nov. Though V. isosceles sp. nov. and V. loki sp. nov. closely resemble each other, we are treating them as separate species because they were not recovered as closely related taxa in our analyses ( Figs 1–2 ). This hypothesis should be further tested with additional material.

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