Pothea aeneonitens Stål, 1864

Gil-Santana, Hélcio R., 2020, A new species of Pothea, with new records and taxonomic notes on other species of the genus (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae), Zootaxa 4778 (3), pp. 439-470 : 442-443

Pothea aeneonitens Stål, 1864

( Figs. 1–6 )

Pothea aeneo-nitens Stål (1864: 59) (original description), Stål (1872: 104) (checklist, diagnosis).

Pothea aeneonitens: Walker (1873: 63) (catalog), Lethierry & Severin (1896: 131) (catalog).

Pothea aeneo-nitens: Fracker (1912: 234) (diagnosis, distribution).

Pothea aenonitens: Wygodzinsky (1949: 23) (catalog, comment on USA as being a probably erroneus geographical origin), Carpintero (1978: 202, 204) (comments about probable geographical distribution, checklist).

Pothea “ aeneo-nitens ”: Froeschner (1988: 621) (catalog, statement that it is considered not a member of the fauna of “America borealis” as described by Stål 1864).

Pothea aeneonitens: Maldonado (1990: 66) (catalog, distribution), Carpintero & Maldonado (1990: 456) (comments on subgeneric placement, erroneous geographical origin in the description and some characteristics), Dougherty (1995: 212) (citation, geographical distribution), Sehnal (2000: 11) (catalog of types deposited in NHM), Gil-Santana & Costa (2005: 400) (comments about previous criticism on geographical distribution).

Distribution. U.S.A. [?], French Guiana (new record), Peru.

Discussion. Stål (1864) described Pothea aeneonitens from “America borealis” [= North America], and this species has remained the only member of the genus which has been recorded from the Neartic region ( USA) so far ( Stål 1864, 1872, Walker 1873, Lethierry & Severin 1896, Fracker 1912, Putshkov & Putshkov 1985, Maldonado 1990). Wygodzinsky (1949), however, stated that the type locality was probably erroneous; Carpintero (1978) endorsed this opinion. Froeschner (1988) claimed that all subsequent records of P. aeneonitens from “America borealis” appear to be based on the original description, while several authors pointed out that the locality was probably wrong, and therefore he excluded the species from the fauna of America north of Mexico. Fracker (1912) and Maldonado (1990), however, listed the species specifically from “Southern states” and “S USA ”, respectively. Although Carpintero & Maldonado (1990) also insisted that the species was probably described in error from “America borealis”, in a subsequent paper they ( Carpintero & Maldonado 1996) recorded that species of Pothea occur from the USA to Argentina. Dougherty (1995) recorded P. aeneonitens only from Peru. Gil-Santana & Costa (2005) argued that taking into account that a label attached to the male syntype of this species reads “ Nordamer. / Coll. Signoret.” ( Sehnal 2000; Fig. 2 ), if an error existed it was not of the author of the species ( Stål 1864). In this case, a mislabeling should be hypothesized as the source of the supposed wrong information about the collecting origin of the specimen.

There is only a single male deposited in NHM that formed part of the type material of P. aeneonitens ( Sehnal 2000, Figs. 1–2 ). As based on the original description of the species it is not possible to be sure if other type specimens exist, it is considered as a syntype.

Two males from the French Guiana examined in course of present study ( Figs. 3–6 ) agree well with the short original description ( Stål 1864) of P. aeneonitens and the male syntype deposited in NHM ( Fig. 1 ); body lengths (measured to the tip of the hemelytra, which slightly surpasses the tip of the abdomen) of both non-types measured 13.5 mm, closely matching to the value provided by Stål (1864) (14 mm).

Material examined. Male syntype: aeneo-nitens [handwritten] / det. Stal [printed] // Nordamer. [handwritten] / Coll. Signoret. [printed] // [printed red label]: Typus / Pothea / aeneo-nitens STÅL, 1864 / etik. Hecher 1996 / REDV. 93/1 ( NHM). Additional specimens: FRENCH GUIANA, Bélizon, vii, ix, 2001, leg. H. Gaspard (2 males).

Figures

FIGURES 1–6. Pothea aeneonitens Stål, 1864. 1–2, male syntype deposited in NHM, 1, dorsal view; 2, labels; 3–6, male specimens from French Guiana; 3–4, dorsal view, scale bar 5.0 mm; 5, abdomen, ventral view, scale bar 2.0 mm; 6, head, lateral view, scale bar 1.0 mm.