Voconia fasciata, 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 : 49-50

Voconia fasciata sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:22FAB401-5B52-4866-86CD-0ED8B980A3A5

Figs 1–2 , 7 , 9 , 18

Diagnosis

Distinguished from most other species of Voconia by its tuberculate and coarsely granulose head and pronotum, lateral protrusion of the buccula, and dorsally projecting mandibular plates. This species most closely resembles three other Australian species, V. grandioculata sp. nov., V. pallidipes , and V. vittata sp. nov. This species, V. grandioculata sp. nov., and V. vittata sp. nov. have a similar yellow stripe across the corium; however, the stripe in V. fasciata sp. nov. is pale, almost translucent and the body is larger, total length is about 8.7 mm long. It is easily distinguished from V. pallidipes by its smaller size and coloration, i.e., the membranal veins are not yellow, the proximal half of the corium is not entirely yellow, and the legs are not completely yellow as described above.

Etymology

The specific epithet is the Latin adjective ‘ fasciatus, - a, - um ’, meaning ‘banded’, referring to the pale yellow band that crosses the middle of the corium and scutellar spine.

Type material

Holotype AUSTRALIA • ♂; Queensland, Einasleigh River, 33 km W of Mt Surprise; [18.13 ° S, 143.99 ° E]; 10–11 Jun. 1993; M. and B. Baehr leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00127097 ; ZSMC.

Description

Male ( Figs 7 , 9 )

BODY LENGTH. About 8.7 mm; macropterous.

COLORATION. Dark brown, maxillary plates lighter; postocular dark with pale patches adjacent to lateral ocellar margin; labium lighter than head. Thorax: coloration as head; posterior pronotal lobe with yellow posterolateral margins; scutellum dark with contrasting yellow apical spine. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus dark brown with distal yellow stripe; corium dark brown with thick medial yellow stripe; membrane and membranal veins uniformly dark. Legs: femora dark brown, tibiae and tarsi yellowishbrown. Abdomen: ventral surface light brown medially, dark brown laterally; dorsal laterotergites I and II paler than remainder.

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, long macrosetae interspersed.

STRUCTURE. Head: globose, about 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 shorter than eye, lateral margins gently rounded; pedicel about 1.3 times length of head width; mandibular plates in anterior view projecting dorsolaterally; maxillary plates ellipsoidal, adjacent to and reaching apex of clypeus; apices of maxillary plates in dorsal view diverging; clypeus in dorsal view wider than maxillary plates; clypeal apex bifid, narrowed; interocular glabrous markings anterolaterally curved, joined at interocular sulcus paramedially; interocular sulcus in dorsal view nearly straight; eye width in dorsal view narrower than synthlipsis; eye reaching ventral head margin in lateral view; 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, surpassing posteroventral eye margin; morphologically dorsal surface of labial segment II curves ventrally, about 0.3 times length of segment I. Thorax: pronotal collar in dorsal view wide medially with anterolateral angles short, flared laterally; anterior pronotal lobe about 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, subhorizontal; 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.

Female

Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 18 )

This species is only known from the type locality of Einasleigh River in Queensland, Australia.

Remarks

Voconia fasciata sp. nov. is nested within the Australian clade ( Figs 1–2 ). Though poorly supported, it forms the sister taxon to V. brachycephala sp. nov. and V. vittata sp. nov.

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