Cryphocricos mexicanus Usinger, 1947

Sites, Robert W., 2021, A review of Cryphocricos Signoret, 1850 (Naucoridae: Cryphocricinae) with descriptions of three new species, Zootaxa 4958 (1), pp. 72-94 : 82

Cryphocricos mexicanus Usinger

( Fig. 20 )

Cryphocricos mexicanus Usinger 1947 : Ann. Entomol. Soc. Amer. 40:335–337.

Type repository: California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco, USA) .

Type locality: Mexico: Estado de México, District of Temascaltepec, Temascaltepec .

Discussion: The holotype is a brachypterous male ( Fig. 20 ) and allotype a brachypterous female. Several additional paratypes are at housed at the type repository. The type series was collected by Hinton and Usinger in a small rushing stream with small pebbles and rocks by holding a net downstream while turning over and brushing rocks ( Usinger 1947). They collected 140 specimens of nymphs and brachypterous adults, but no macropterous adults. In Tejupilco, 48 km southwest of the type locality, Hinton and Usinger collected one male and three female macropterous specimens in the riffles of a swiftly flowing stream. This site was 2000 feet lower in elevation than the type locality.

Diagnosis: Usinger (1947) distinguished C. mexicanus from C. hungerfordi by the shorter body length, hemelytra, and hemelytral commissure, and narrower embolium. Specifically, the hemelytral commissure is half the length of the scutellum, whereas in C. hungerfordi they are subequal. In comparison with C. barozzii , this species is smaller, has a shorter anteocular part of the head, shorter hemelytral commissure, and blunt apical connexival corners ( Usinger 1947). Small differences in body length are not reliable interspecific descriptors in this genus; however, the short hemelytral commissure is readily apparent and diagnostic.

Figures

FIGURES 18–20. Holotypes of (18) Cryphocricos hungerfordi, (19) Cryphocricos latus, (20) Cryphocricos mexicanus.