Paravelia spinifera Polhemus & Polhemus

Rodrigues, Higor Daniel Duarte & Moreira, Felipe Ferraz Figueiredo, 2016, A new species, new synonymy, and notes on Paravelia Breddin (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Veliidae), Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (São Paulo) 56 (17), pp. 183-188 : 187

Paravelia spinifera Polhemus & Polhemus

( Figs. 9-11 )

Paravelia spinifera Polhemus, J.T. & Polhemus, D.A., 1984a:341-342 .

Paravelia cupariana Polhemus, J.T. & Polhemus, D.A., 1984b:500 . (syn. nov.)

Type material examined: 1 ♀ macropterous ( USNM), paratype of P. cupariana , BRAZIL, Pará , Rio Cupari, Igarapé Prainha, S 209, 25.XII.1947, H. Sioli leg.

Additional material examined: All specimens macropterous, BRAZIL, Pará: 1 ♀ ( USNM), Ilha de Outeiro, Caratatéua , 15.V.1974, R. T. Schuh leg. ( P. spinifera , det. J. T. Polhemus). Maranhão: 90 ♂, 77 ♀ ( MZUSP), Yavaruhu Village , Rio Gurupi , about 30 km West of Canindé, isolated trail, forest stream with mud, gravel and leaf litter, 14.II.1966, B. Malkin leg. [ P. spinifera , same material examined by Rodrigues et al. 2014b] .

Discussion: The expansion of the integument is common in the family Veliidae , such as humeral angles forming spines and projections on pronotal disc or in the posterior angle of pronotum. However, intraspecific variations are noticeable in all of these cases, and in extreme occasions specimens may not have such expansions. Paravelia spinifera is the only species of the genus that has the humeral angles forming spines (Polhemus, J. T. & Polhemus, D.A., 1984a), and as might be expected, some specimens of the population from Maranhão examined have underdeveloped spines. Examination of the paratype of P. cupariana deposited at the USNM revealed that this species is similar to specimens of P. spinifera in coloration and morphology, including that of the male paramere (compare illustrations from the original descriptions, Polhemus, J. T. & Polhemus, D.A., 1984a: p. 349, fig. 5c and Polhemus, J. T. & Polhemus, D.A., 1984b, p. 504, fig. 3). The only difference between these two species is the absence of humeral spines in P. cupariana . However, despite this absence, a slight callosity is evident in the examined specimen of P. cupariana ( Fig. 9 ). Thus, P. cupariana is here considered a junior synonym of P. spinifera . This species has been record- ed only from Suriname (Polhemus, J. T. & Polhemus, D.A., 1984a) and Brazil (Polhemus, J. T. & Polhemus, D.A., 1984b; Rodrigues et al., 2014b; present study) ( Fig. 11 ).

Figures

FIGURE 11: Distribution records for four species of Paravelia; green square surrounded by a dotted line represents the type locality of P. cupariana, a new junior synonymy of P. spinifera.

FIGURES 8‑10: Dorsal view of Paravelia spp.: (8) Paravelia juruana, male paratype, white arrow indicates digitiform process of posterior angle of pronotum; (9) P. cupariana syn. nov., female paratype, black arrow indicates the humeral angle; (10) P. spinifera (female from Ilha de Outeiro, Pará, Brazil).