Asopus leprosus, (Asopus), 1838

Roell, Talita, Lemaître, Valérie A., Webb, Michael D. & Campos, Luiz A., 2023, An annotated and illustrated Type Catalogue of the predacious Shieldbugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomidae: Asopinae) in the Collection of the Natural History Museum, London, Zootaxa 5232 (1), pp. 1-105 : 51

leprosus (Asopus) Germar 1838: 186. [ Fig. 96 ]

Original data: “ Caput Bonae Spei” [Cape of Good Hope ]. [syntype (s)]

SYNTYPE sex unknown: blue-margined syntype disc; faded red-margined type disc; “C.G.H/ 42 77”; “1165.”; “a”; “ Asopus leprosus Germar det.”; “ Cape Gd. Hope. 42-77. Ex. coll. Drège.No. 1165”; “1. MACRORHAPHIS TRISTIS .”; “NHMUK 010937295”. Antennae, anterior legs, left middle and posterior legs, and abdomen missing ( Fig. 96 ) .

Current status: Macrorhaphis (Macrorhaphis) leprosa ( Germar, 1838) (see Dallas 1851: 88, who first placed the species in his newly described genus Macrorhaphi s and Schouteden 1907: 39, for the subgeneric placement).

Notes: The first author located a male syntype of A. leprosus in MFNB. None is to be found in ZMD. We have also found a syntype in NHMUK labelled both as A. leprosus by Germar and Macrorhaphis tristis by Walker. Walker (1867a: 129) recorded two specimens of Macrorhaphis tristis (Herrich-Schäffer, 1844) in NHMUK coming from the Cape and Drège’s collection (Accession number 42 77). The Accessions register does not record any specimen of Asopus tristis under number 42 77 nor the count of specimens for Asopus leprosus as it does for other species. Walker (1867a: 129) was obviously unaware that the two specimens he had recorded under Macrorhaphis tristis were Germar’s syntypes of Asopus leprosus (or, at least, one of them is, the other one was not found). He must have interpreted both species from Herrich-Schäffer’s (1844) figures and held that the true Asopus leprosus (a species for which he listed no specimens) possibly belonged in Platynopus (see Walker 1867a: 126). Stål (1870: 44) had noted that the type series was not conspecific. The male specimen examined in Berlin belongs in Macrorhaphis as does the specimen examined in London.

Figures

FIGURES 89–96. Type specimens deposited in NHMUK. 89, Canthecona insularis; 90, Cazira internexa; 91, Arma invaria; 92, Glypsus javanus; 93, Platynopus laetus; 94–95, Arma lateralis; 96, Asopus leprosus. Scale bars: 4 mm.