Arocatus nicobarensis ( Mayr, 1865 ) Gao & Kondorosy & Bu, 2013

Gao, Cuiqing, Kondorosy, Előd & Bu, Wenjun, 2013, A Review Of The Genus Arocatus From Palaearctic And Oriental Regions (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Lygaeidae), Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 61 (2), pp. 687-704 : 693

Arocatus nicobarensis ( Mayr, 1865) , new combination

( Fig. 1H, I )

Caenocoris nicobarensis Mayr, 1865: 436 . Syntypes: India, Nicobar Islands; NHMW.

References. — Slater, 1964a: 43 (catalogue); Slater, 1978: 854 (transferred to Thunbergia ); Slater & O’Donnell, 1995: 28 (catalogue).

Diagnosis. — Body dorsally red, only base of scutellum laterally and membrane (except broad translucent apical margin) black, hemelytra with central obscure dark spot (concerning posterior half of clavus and inner part of corium not reaching behind vein M), eyes sometimes also dark; antennae, legs and labium black, thoracal and abdominal sterna mostly black, lateral part red, supracoxal lobes and trochanters with apical part of coxae pale yellow. Body and appendages with dense short semidecumbent white pubescence, long erect hairs present only on tibiae and femora. Posterior lobe of pronotum finely punctured, with distinct transverse impression. Labium reaching abdominal segment III, segment I reaching prosternum.

Type material examined. — Syntypes, all with handwriting: Novara Exp. Sambelong Nicobaren // nicobarensis det. Mayr (without type or paralectotype label!).

Host plants and bionomics. — Unknown.

Distribution. — Asia: India ( Nicobar Islands).

Remarks. — Slater (1978) transferred this species from Caenocoris to Thunbergia based only on its original description. When checking the types, we found the specimens lacking femoral spine, and antennal segment II being only slightly shorter than IV, so they are clearly not a Thunbergia and belong to the genus Arocatus as presently understood.

Figures

Fig. 1. Arocatus spp., dorsal, ventral or lateral view. A, A. longiceps; B, C, A. melanocephalus; D, E, A. melanostoma; F, G, A. nanus; H, I, A. nicobarensis, one of the syntypes. Scale bars = 5.0 mm.