Pothea jaguaris ( Carpintero, 1980 )

Forero, Dimitri & Mejía-Soto, Andrés, 2025, Filling in the gaps for assassin bugs: taxonomic notes and new records of Reduviidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from Neotropical countries, Zootaxa 5584 (4), pp. 451-481 : 456

Pothea jaguaris ( Carpintero, 1980)

Fig. 3A

Distribution: Originally described from Bolivia ( Carpintero 1980), with additional records from Brazil and French Guiana ( Gil-Santana 2007, 2014). It is a new species record from Colombia.

Remarks: Carpintero (1980) described Parapothea to accommodate P. jaguaris , but Parapothea is now regarded a synonym of Pothea Amyot & Serville, 1843 ( Dougherty 1995; Gil-Santana 2014). Gil-Santana (2014) redescribed P. jaguaris , documenting the color pattern and morphological variability of this species across its distributional range. The examined specimen ( Fig. 2A), as well as the images from iNaturalist, fall within the color variability range of P. jaguaris , and thus, the species is recorded for the first time from Colombia. Forero (2006) recorded two specimens similar to P. jaguaris (as Parapothea ). A reexamination of those specimens showed that they are not conspecific with P. jaguaris but they represent an undescribed species.

Examined material: COLOMBIA. Antioquia: 1 ♂, Gomes Plata, vereda Vega Botero , 900 m, 21.i.2012, insect net, forest, E. Rios, M. García ( MEFLG) . Cundinamarca: 1 ♀, Nocaima, 05.0694°N 74.3803°W, Oscar Enciso, https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146251539 ; 1 ♀, La Vega, 04.9989°N 74.3596°W, David Steve, https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/187826859.