Voconia motoensis ( Schouteden, 1929 ) 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 : 67-68

Voconia motoensis ( Schouteden, 1929) comb. nov.

Figs 1–2 , 8 , 10 , 17

Microvarus motoensis Schouteden, 1929: 252 .

Microvarus inermiceps Villiers, 1964: 107 , fig. 27. Synonymized by Villiers (1976: 171).

Revised diagnosis

Distinguished from other species in Voconia by its finely granulose head; short labial segment I that does not reach posteroventral eye margin; anterior margin of buccula with dense, long macrosetae; and stout body. This species most closely resembles V. conradti and V. smithae sp. nov. in its stout body plan and Afrotropical distribution. It is easily recognized from these two species by the absent or vestigial fossula spongiosa on the midleg and its distinct coloration: uniformly brown scutellum, abducted corium with an anteromedial yellow spot, and uniformly brown dorsal laterotergites.

Type material

Holotype DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO • ♀; Haut-Uélé , Moto; [2.90556 ° N, 29.415 ° E]; [elev. 898 m]; 1920; L. Burgeon leg.; USI: UCR_ENT 00070525 ; RMCA ENT 000018004 .

Redescription

Female ( Figs 8 , 10 )

BODY LENGTH. About 11.6 mm; macropterous.

COLORATION. Head: dark brown; labium nearly as dark as head. Thorax: coloration as head; posterior pronotal lobe with posterior margin lighter; scutellum uniformly dark brown. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus dark reddish-brown with distal yellow stripe; corium dark reddish-brown with anteromedial and posteromedial yellow spots; membrane dark with pale V-shaped marking along R and M veins; membranal veins proximally pale. Legs: yellowish-brown with distal half of femora dark brown. Abdomen: dark brown; dorsal laterotergites uniformly dark brown.

INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum: finely granulose with sparse, short macrosetae interspersed among dense pubescence; antennifer with macroseta, base not protruded; morphologically ventral surface of labium with dense, short macrosetae. Thorax: anterolateral angles of pronotal collar with macrosetae. Hemelytron: corium with sparse long setation. Legs: posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with three large spines on distal half, middle spine much longer. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent.

STRUCTURE. Head: elongate, about 1.2 times 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 about 1.5 times length of head width; maxillary plates ellipsoidal, adjacent to and longer than 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 wider than synthlipsis, eye not 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, not reaching posteroventral eye margin; morphologically dorsal surface of labial segment II nearly straight, about 0.7 times length of segment I. Thorax: pronotal collar wide 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 thin and not deeply depressed; median apodeme depression of pronotum deep, circular; scutellar spine long, raised; anteriad-directed process of prosternum smoothly rounded, without paramedial lobes; anterior margin of stridulitrum not elongated into protuberance; proepimeron with smoothly rounded posteroventral margin. Legs: fossula spongiosa present on fore leg, absent or vestigial on mid leg.

Male

Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 17 )

Only known from Moto and Garamba National Park ( Villiers 1964) in the Haut-Uélé province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Remarks

The carinules on the dorsal surface of the abdomen were not examined to prevent damage to the holotype. The synonymy of Microvarus inermiceps proposed by Villiers (1976: 171) was accepted without a reexamination of the type 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. 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. 17. The distribution of species of Voconia Stål, 1866 in Africa.