Cryphocricos peruvianus De Carlo, 1940

Sites, Robert W., 2021, A review of Cryphocricos Signoret, 1850 (Naucoridae: Cryphocricinae) with descriptions of three new species, Zootaxa 4958 (1), pp. 72-94 : 83-84

Cryphocricos peruvianus De Carlo

( Figs. 22–23 )

Cryphocricus peruvianus De Carlo 1940 : Rev. Soc. Entomol. Argentina 11:427–428 (misspelling of genus).

Type repository: Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia” (Buenos Aires, Argentina).

Type locality: Peru: La Merced. This city is in Chanchamayo Province in the Junín Region on the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains. The major river in La Merced is Río Chanchamayo. Although several tributaries flow into this river in the vicinity of La Merced, Río Chanchamayo has the habitat characteristics typical of species of Cryphocricos ; thus, this likely is the stream from which the type was collected .

Discussion: The holotype is a brachypterous male and its right hindleg is complete only through the trochanter, the left hindleg and both middle legs are complete only through the femora ( Figs. 22–23 ). Glue to hold the specimen to the pin renders much of the mesosternum and middle leg bases obscured from view. The first record of a chironomid living phoretically on an aquatic bug was Eukiefferiella Thienemann, 1926 on C. peruvianus ( Roback 1977) .

Diagnosis: In comparison with C. barozzii , this species is narrower, granulations (=tubercles) are more pronounced, and the posterolateral corners of the hemelytra very slightly rounded ( De Carlo 1940). In the key to brachypterous specimens, Usinger (1947) distinguished C. peruvianus from C. daguerrei by the evenly curved lateral margin of the abdomen, from C. rufus and C. breddini by the straight apical margins of the hemelytra, and from C. barozzii by its larger size (> 10 mm). Note that Cryphocricos breddini is known only by the macropterous form.

Figures

FIGURES 21–23. Holotypes of (21) Cryphocricos obscuratus, dorsal, (22) Cryphocricos peruvianus, dorsal and (23) Cryphocricos peruvianus, ventral. Figure 23 courtesy of H.D.D. Rodrigues.