Graptocleptes formosus Miller, 1951

Gil-Santana, Hélcio R., 2022, New records, taxonomic notes, and the description of a new species of Harpactorinae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae) from French Guiana, Zootaxa 5105 (3), pp. 381-400 : 389

Graptocleptes formosus Miller, 1951

( Figs. 20–22 )

Graptocleptes formosus was described based on a female from “Amazons” by Miller (1951). This quite imprecise location may mean that the specimen was collected in any of the nine countries which have part or are mostly or completely included in the Amazon region of South America, among them French Guiana. Maldonado (1990) recorded the species to “ Formosa ”, what seems to be an error possibly derived from a confusion with the specific epithet, without any further citation of the species in the literature. In any case, the first accurate record from any country is given here for G. formosus , standing as a new record of the species in French Guiana.

Graptocleptes formosus may be separated from other species of Graptocleptes by the diagnostic characteristics stated by Miller (1951) such as its general color ( Figs. 20–22 ), more robust postantennal spines, which are directed backwards ( Fig. 20–21 ), while in other species of the genus, these spines, although variable in size, are not directed backwards. The specimens examined here agree well with the original description of G. formosus . The main differences observed were on the coloration of posterior portion of the head and fore lobe of pronotum, described as reddish, and the posteromedian portion of the hind lobe of pronotum bearing a subtriangular dark brown suffusion ( Miller 1951), while the former presented as orange-reddish and the latter without the subtriangular marking, respectively, in the specimens from French Guiana ( Fig. 20 ). Yet, the humeral angles presented a small dark marking in the specimens examined here ( Fig. 20 ), while in the female examined by Miller (1951), these markings were absent. The total length to the tip of abdomen and hemelytra of the females from French Guiana measured respectively 7.5 / 9.0–9.5, while Miller (1951) recorded 7.0 mm to it, without making clear what the posterior limit to his measurement was. Similarly to what has been recorded in other species of Graptocleptes ( Champion 1899, Stål 1872, Gil-Santana et al. 2013), the slightly color differences observed in the specimens from French Guiana in relation to the female described by Miller (1951) are considered as part of an intraspecific variation.

Distribution. French Guiana (new record).

Material examined. FRENCH GUIANA, Bélizon , xii.1997, leg. H. Gaspard, 2 females, ( MNRJ) .

Figures

FIGURES 20–26. 20–22, Graptocleptes formosus Miller, 1951, female, 20, dorsal view, scale bar 5.0 mm; 21, head, lateral view, scale bar 0.5 mm; 22, abdomen, ventral view, scale bar 1.0 mm; 23–25, dorsal view, scale bar 5.0 mm, 23, Heza aurantia Maldonado, 1976, male; 24–26, Heza phthinica Swanson, 2021, 24, female, 25–26, male, 26, pygophore in situ with the parameres slightly set apart, posterior view, the arrow points to the medial process of pygophore, scale bar 0.2 mm.