Propicimex tucmatiani (Wygodzinsky, 1951)

Roth, Steffen, Hahn, Steffen, Montani, María Eugenia & Coscarón, María Del Carmen, 2023, Contribution to the Cimicidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) fauna from Argentina: biology and geographical distribution, Zootaxa 5323 (4), pp. 587-594 : 588-591

New records of Propicimex tucmatiani

Propicimex tucmatiani was found in the well-known bat colony of Tadarida brasiliensis (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1824) (Molossidae) colonizing the building of the Law Faculty of the National University of Rosario ( Romano et al. 1999, 2013; Bolatti et al. 2020). This is the first record of Propicimex tucmatiani for the Argentinian Province of Santa Fe; it was previously known from Province of Salta (Santa Victoria Este), and for Province of Tucumán (El Chorrillo, Tacanas and Trancas) ( Coscarón 2017). The bat colony in concern, currently a population of about 30,000 females and their pups ( Montani et al. 2015), inhabits seasonally the attic of the building, which has a metal roof over a wooden framework ( Fig. 1 ). The walls are mainly made of bricks. The bats formed two main groups (roosts) in different parts of the building. Young bats roost in specific nursery areas in which females and young bats occurred in separate clusters but close to each other (Montani, unpubl. data) ( Fig. 2 ). Remarkably, the temperature under the roof can reach 50–55 °C on hot summer days (Montani, personal observation). Cimicidae cannot tolerate such high ambient temperatures—an approach used in cimicid pest control (e.g., Rukke et al. 2015). This might explain that the only two specimens of P. tucmatiani were found close to openings in the roof with fresh air circulation. Within a 90 min of intensive search (45 min for each roost) and by checking spider webs we were unable to find additional individuals of bedbugs. Di Iorio (2012) visited the colony in 2012 without finding any Cimicidae . The population size of P. tucmatiani at this locality seems to be small.

A second record of P. tucmatiani is from the INTA Delta Station (Campana, Buenos Aires) ( Figs. 3–5 ). Here the species was recorded for the first time in 1979 under the roof, likely on T. brasiliensis ( Di Iorio 2012) . We found P. tucmatiani in a basement of a different building at the same site. We collected in total 12 specimens associated with a small bat colony of Eptesicus brasiliensis (Desmarest 1819, Vespertilionidae ), (personal communication by INTA staff). Most of the bats (<30 individuals, including young ones) were hiding in broken ceiling bricks. During a search for one hour by two persons (SR & SH), nine individuals were found on old wood (e.g., pallets); additional three were captured on the walls but none of them close to the bat roosting places. Notably, Péricart (1972) assumed for Cimex lectularius a preference for woody over stony hiding places. The presence of nymphs in July ( Di Iorio 2012) and in December (present study) indicates that reproduction may not be strictly seasonal.

Di Benedetto et al. (2017) published a new record of P. tucmatiani from Province of Corrientes in Argentina. The images of a slide-mounted individual provided in the publication is a female whose species level identity is not easy to assess (uncertainty confirmed by experts: Klaus Reinhardt, Dresden, and Diego Carpintero, Buenos Aires); the shape of the pronotum is closer to Propicimex limai (Pinto 1927) but the abdominal tergites and the spermalege resemble more to the condition found in P. tucmatiani (see Usinger 1966). Since it cannot be excluded that it represents an undescribed species (Carpintero, personal communication), further investigations of this specimen and the colony would be desirable.

Here we present DNA barcoding sequences of P. tucmatiani for the first time ( Table 1 ), which could be used as a basis for species identification and limitation within the genus Propicimex ( Usinger 1966) in further studies.

Figures

FIGURES 1–2. 1, Colonyof Tadarida brasiliensis at the building of the Law Faculty (National University of Rosario,Argentina). 2, Cluster with juveniles in the bat colony of Tadarida brasiliensis (National University of Rosario, Argentina)

FIGURES 3–6. 3, Propicimex tucmatiani (Wygodzinsky, 1951), a male found at INTA Delta Station, dorsal view. 4, Same individual, terminalia. 5, Terminalia of a conspecific female from the same collecting event. 6, Rock formation at El Trébol Lagoon, west of San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro (41.065°S, 71.495°W) examined looking for the presence of Bertilia valdiviana in December 2018.