Triatoma rubida (Uhler)

Sandoval-Ruiz, César Antonio, Cervantesperedo, Luis, Mendoza-Palmero, Fredy Severo & Ibáñez-Bernal, Sergio, 2012, The Triatominae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae) of Veracruz, Mexico: geographic distribution, taxonomic redescriptions, and a key, Zootaxa 3487, pp. 1-23 : 17

Triatoma rubida (Uhler)

( Fig. 9 )

Conorhinus rubidus Uhler 1894 , p. 285. Type locality: Mexico, Baja California Sur, Cabo San Lucas.

Diagnosis. Adult body length 15– 2.3mm. Body ground color from brown to black. Head as long as pronotum and rugose. Rostrum stout, with short setae except at apex of second and base of third segment, with very long, dense hairs. Pronotum dark, anterior lobe not granulose without discal or lateral tubercles. Hemelytra extending to apex of abdomen. Corium dark. Connexival segments dark, intersegmental sutures with orange to red lines ( Lent & Wygodzinsky 1979).

Distribution. United States of America and Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Guerrero, Nayarit, Sinaloa, Sonora, and Veracruz) ( Lent & Wygodzinsky 1979, Zárate & Zárate 1985, Galvão et al. 2003, Salazar-Schettino et al. 2010).

Records in Veracruz. Citlaltepetl, but not specified if it refers to the municipality or the locality.

Comments. Triatoma rubida prefers dry habitats of northeastern Mexico and southwestern United States. Five subspecies are recognized based principally on connexival color pattern ( Lent & Wygodzinsky 1979, Pfeiler et al. 2006). As a rule, this species is associated with nests of wild rodents of the genus Neotoma , to which they transmit T. cruzi ( Paredes et al. 2001) . Its presence in the state of Veracruz is extremely rare, but Lent & Wygodzinsky (1979) mention a female collected in 1964 by Swan from the locality Citlaltepetl, deposited in the entomological collection of the California Academy of Sciences (CAS). However, it is not included in the collection data base of CAS. If we considered the known natural distribution of T. rubida , any record of this species in Veracruz is out of its normal distribution range.

Material examined. 1 Ƥ. Mexico, Golfo de California, Isla Ángel de la Guarda, Puerto Refugio, 2-VIII-1985, M. García. Collection IBUNAM.

Figures

FIGURES 6 – 9. Triatomine species known to occur in Veracruz, Mexico: 6) Panstrongylus geniculatus (female from Venezuela, Carabobo, IBUNAM); 7) Panstrongylus rufotuberculatus (female from Veracruz, “ Los Tuxtlas, ” IBUNAM); 8) Triatoma infestans (female from Veracruz, “ Los Tuxtlas, ” IBUNAM); 9) Triatoma rubida (female from Mexico, Baja California Sur, Isla Ángel de la Guarda, IBUNAM. Photographs by C. A. Sandoval-Ruiz.