Aristathlus iopterus (Perty, 1834) Perty, 1834

Gil-Santana, Helcio R. & Forero, Dimitri, 2015, Aristathlusimperatorius Bergroth, a newly recognized synonym of Reduviusiopterus Perty, with the new combination Aristathlusiopterus (Perty, 1834) (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Harpactorinae), Biodiversity Data Journal 3, pp. 5152-5152 : 5152

Aristathlus iopterus (Perty, 1834) new combination

Reduvius iopterus Perty, 1834: Perty (1834)

Aristathlus imperatorius Bergroth, 1913: Bergroth (1913) new synonym

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Elias & Roppa; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: taxonID: urn:lsid:organismnames.com:name:4352608; scientificName: Aristathlusimperatorius Bergroth, 1913; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Hemiptera; family: Reduviidae; genus: Aristathlus; specificEpithet: imperatorius; scientificNameAuthorship: Bergroth, 1913; Location: country: Brazil; countryCode: BR; stateProvince: Amazonas; locality: Manaus ; Identification: identifiedBy: Hélcio R. Gil-Santana; dateIdentified: 2007; Event: samplingProtocol: none specified; eventDate: 1955-11-14; Record Level: modified: 2015-04-14; language: en; institutionCode: MNRJ; collectionCode: Entomology; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: F. Oliveira; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: taxonID: urn:lsid:organismnames.com:name:4352608; scientificName: Aristathlusimperatorius Bergroth, 1913; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Hemiptera; family: Reduviidae; genus: Aristathlus; specificEpithet: imperatorius; scientificNameAuthorship: Bergroth, 1913; Location: country: Brazil; countryCode: BR; stateProvince: Pará; locality: Obidos ; Identification: identifiedBy: Hélcio R. Gil-Santana; dateIdentified: 2007; Event: samplingProtocol: none specified; eventDate: 1956-05; Record Level: modified: 2015-04-14; language: en; institutionCode: MNRJ; collectionCode: Campos Seabra collection; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: E. Furtado; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: taxonID: urn:lsid:organismnames.com:name:4352608; scientificName: Aristathlusimperatorius Bergroth, 1913; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Hemiptera; family: Reduviidae; genus: Aristathlus; specificEpithet: imperatorius; scientificNameAuthorship: Bergroth, 1913; Location: country: Brazil; countryCode: BR; stateProvince: Mato Grosso; locality: Diamantino, Arinos River ; verbatimLatitude: 14° 22' S; verbatimLongitude: 56° 07' W; Identification: identifiedBy: Hélcio R. Gil-Santana; dateIdentified: 2007; Event: samplingProtocol: none specified; eventDate: 2002-11-16; Record Level: modified: 2015-04-14; language: en; institutionCode: MNRJ; collectionCode: Entomology; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Mus. Goeldi 17/10 D01; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: taxonID: urn:lsid:organismnames.com:name:4352608; scientificName: Aristathlusimperatorius Bergroth, 1913; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Hemiptera; family: Reduviidae; genus: Aristathlus; specificEpithet: imperatorius; scientificNameAuthorship: Bergroth, 1913; Location: country: Brazil; countryCode: BR; locality: no specific locality ; Identification: identifiedBy: P. Wygodzsinky; Event: samplingProtocol: none specified; Record Level: modified: 2015-04-14; language: en; institutionCode: AMNH; collectionCode: Entomology; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: L. Richter; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: taxonID: urn:lsid:organismnames.com:name:4352608; scientificName: Aristathlusimperatorius Bergroth, 1913; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Hemiptera; family: Reduviidae; genus: Aristathlus; specificEpithet: imperatorius; scientificNameAuthorship: Bergroth, 1913; Location: country: Colombia; countryCode: CO; stateProvince: Meta; locality: Rio Ocoa ; minimumElevationInMeters: 100; maximumElevationInMeters: 100; Identification: identifiedBy: D. Forero; dateIdentified: 2008; Event: samplingProtocol: none specified; eventDate: 1945-05-20; habitat: selva; Record Level: modified: 2015-04-14; language: en; institutionCode: ICN; collectionCode: Entomology; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: E.L. Schlinger & E.S. Ross; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: taxonID: urn:lsid:organismnames.com:name:4352608; scientificName: Aristathlusimperatorius Bergroth, 1913; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Hemiptera; family: Reduviidae; genus: Aristathlus; specificEpithet: imperatorius; scientificNameAuthorship: Bergroth, 1913; Location: country: Peru; countryCode: PE; stateProvince: Huanuco; locality: Tingo Maria , Monzon Valley ; Identification: identifiedBy: P. Wygodzsinky; Event: samplingProtocol: none specified; eventDate: 1954-09-23; Record Level: modified: 2015-04-14; language: en; institutionCode: AMNH; collectionCode: Entomology; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Taxon discussion

Given that Perty’s type specimen is lost, we base our conclusions on Perty's original description and illustration of R. iopterus ( Perty 1834) (Fig. 1). We also examined several specimens identified as A. imperatorius (Fig. 2, Gil-Santana 2007 and Forero et al. 2008). The examined material is deposited in the following institutions: American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA (AMNH), Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia (ICN), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (MNRJ). From our examination of the specimens of A. imperatorius , we conclude that this species is a junior subjective synonym of Reduvius iopterus .

Both Perty (1834) and Bergroth (1913) described or illustrated the same color pattern and body structure for both R. iopterus and A. imperatorius . The main congruent aspects are the pale or yellowish U-like pattern on the dark posterior lobe of the pronotum, the yellow scutellum, the dark hemelytra, the metallic colored hemelytral membrane, and the swollen mesofemur ( Forero et al. 2008) (Figs 1, 2).

There is no doubt that a synonymic proposal would be better based on the examination of the type specimens of the taxa involved. However, the identities of the known species in Aristathlus are not in dispute, even though Bergroth’s type specimens for both species have not been located and may be lost ( Forero et al. 2008).

Neotype designations have to be done carefully ( Winston 1999). Article 75 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature ( ICZN 1999) clearly states that if there is no complex problem to be resolved (such as the identity of a taxon), there should not be any neotype designations (Article 75.2). Because the identity of Aristathlus species is not in dispute, we therefore refrain from designating such neotypes.

The taxonomic revision was carried out by accurately examining the differences between male gentalia of the two species involved. These differences are congruent with the color patterns exhibited by each of the species. Therefore, color pattern is an accurate way of identifying species in Aristathlus even when no other morphological data are available, which is the situation faced here. As far as we are aware, there are no species of Neotropical Harpactorini that could be confused with R. iopterus or A. imperatorius , based either on the coloration pattern or on the body and leg structure. Reduvius iopterus cannot be confused with the other species of Aristathlus , A. regalis , since it is easily distinguished from R. iopterus or A. imperatorius by its conspicuous yellow markings, including a transverse yellow band on the corium ( Forero et al. 2008). We regard the evidence presented sufficient to warrant the synonym proposed here.