Voconia pallidipes Stål, 1866

Castillo, Stephanie, Rédei, Dávid & Weirauch, Christiane, 2022, Pseudocetherinae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) revisited: phylogeny and taxonomy of the lobe-headed bugs, European Journal of Taxonomy 788 (1), pp. 1-95 : 72-73

Voconia pallidipes Stål, 1866

Figs 1–2 , 3C , 8 , 10 , 13–14 , 18

Voconia pallidipes Stål, 1866b: 165 .

Diagnosis

Distinguished from most other species of Voconia by the tuberculate and coarsely granulose head and pronotum, tuberculate lateral protrusion of the buccula, the anterolateral angles of the pronotal collar with many (more than two) setigerous tubercles, and the abducted corium with the proximal half entirely yellow and distal half dark with distal yellow spot. This species resembles another Australian species, V. grandioculata sp. nov., in coloration but is easily distinguished by its larger size (10.5–11.3 mm long), smaller eyes and ocelli (ocellus does not occupy half-length of postocular region), M-Cu cell partially or entirely yellow, membranal veins forming Cu-An 1 and M-Cu cells mostly or entirely yellow, and yellow clavus with a dark medial spot.

Type material

Lectotype (present designation) AUSTRALIA • 1 ♀; Queensland, Moreton Bay; Stevens leg.; NHRS-GULI000007827 .

Additional material examined:

AUSTRALIA – New South Wales • 1 ♀; Inverell; [29.78 ° S, 151.12 ° E]; Armstrong leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00170708 ; AMNH . — Queensland • 1 ♂; Clermont; [22.82 ° S, 147.64 ° E]; Jul. 1928; K.K. Spence leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00088008 ; AMS K 156495 • 1 ♂; Condamine River, 10 km WSW of Dalby; [27.21 ° S, 151.18 ° E]; 5 Nov. 1990; M. Baehr leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00127094 ; ZSMC • 1 ♂; Mackenzie River Fitzroy Developmental Road; [22.94 ° S, 148.92 ° E]; 11 Nov. 1990; M. Müller leg.; USI: AMNH_PBI 00127093 ; ZSMC .

Description

Male ( Figs 8 , 10 )

BODY LENGTH. 10.5–11.3 mm; macropterous.

COLORATION. Head ( Fig. 3C ): dark brown; postocular region with pale patches adjacent to lateral ocellar margin; labium lighter than head, yellow. Thorax: as head; scutellum dark with contrasting yellow apical spine. Hemelytron (abducted): clavus yellow with dark medial spot; corium proximal half yellow, distal half dark reddish-brown with yellow spot at distal apex; membrane dark with pale V-shaped marking along R and M veins, M-Cu cell entirely or partially yellow; membranal veins forming Cu-An 1 and M-Cu cells mostly or entirely yellow. Legs: yellow. Abdomen: light brown, laterotergites uniformly yellow.

INTEGUMENT AND VESTITURE. Head ( Fig. 3C ) and pronotum: coarsely granulose with dense, short setigerous tubercles interspersed among sparse pubescence; antennifer with long and 1–2 adjacent short lateral setigerous tubercles; morphologically ventral surface of labium with sparse, short macrosetae. Thorax: anterolateral angles of pronotal collar with setigerous tubercles; scutellar lateral carinae with short macrosetae on setigerous tubercles. Hemelytron: corium with short macrosetae. Legs: posterior row of protuberances on mid and hind femora with four or more large spines on distal half. Abdomen: ventral surface pubescent.

STRUCTURE. Head ( Fig. 3C ): elongate, 1.2–1.3 times as long as wide; anteocular region about one third of head length, about as long as postocular region (measured to anterior margin of neck); postocular region in dorsal view longer than eye, lateral margins gently rounded; pedicel 1.4–1.6 times length of head width; maxillary plates ellipsoidal, adjacent to and longer than clypeus; apices of maxillary plates in dorsal view diverging; clypeus in dorsal view about as wide as maxillary plates; clypeal apex bifid, not narrowed; interocular glabrous markings anterolaterally curved, joined at interocular sulcus paramedially; interocular sulcus in dorsal view nearly straight; eye width in dorsal view about as wide as synthlipsis; ventral eye margin surpassed by setigerous tubercles in lateral view; ventrolateral swelling of buccula with large lateral setigerous tubercles that surpass buccular margin; labial segment I in lateral view straight, surpassing posteroventral eye margin; morphologically dorsal surface of labial segment II curves ventrally, about 0.4 times length of segment I. Thorax: pronotal collar in dorsal view narrow medially with anterolateral angles short, flared laterally; anterior pronotal lobe about 0.8 times length of posterior pronotal lobe, lateral margins rounded; glabrous markings on anterior pronotal lobe depressed near posterolateral margins of pronotum; median apodeme depression of pronotum deep, elongated transversely; scutellar spine long, subhorizontal; anteriad-directed process of prosternum with paramedial lobes; anterior margin of stridulitrum projected into small protuberance; proepimeron with smoothly rounded posteroventral margin. Legs: fossula spongiosa present on fore and mid legs. Abdomen: anterior margin of terga weakly carinulate, tergum II without carinules laterally; terga II and III with paired prominent longitudinal carinae, reaching about one-third of tergum III. Pygophore ( Fig. 13 ): transverse bridge with rounded posterior margin; posterior region of ventral surface of pygophore in lateral view with large swelling; short median apical process, bent posteriorly in lateral view; lateral pygophore margin with protuberance; posterior pygophore margin with clustered macrosetae on decline; parameres sinusoidal, apex tapered sharply. Aedeagus ( Fig. 14 ): endosoma almost entirely covered with spicules; apex of dorsal phallothecal sclerite bifid in dorsal view; basal plate extension about 5.8 times as long as wide.

Female

As male. Body length: about 10.7 mm. Head: elongate, about 1.3 times as long as wide; pedicel about 1.5 times length of head width. Legs: fossula spongiosa absent or vestigial on mid leg.

Distribution

Only known from Eastern Australia.

Remarks

We were unable to physically examine the type material of Voconia pallidipes (photographs available on the NHRS website) and we thus based our redescription and character coding on a specimen deposited at the AMNH that was identified as V. pallidipes (USI: AMNH_PBI 00170708) by P. Wygodzinsky and that matches the diagnostic features visible in the type photographs. The specimen in the NHRS photographs is the only specimen in the series and thus designated as the lectotype. Characters of the dorsal part of the abdomen (i.e., carinules and carinae), pygophore, and aedeagus are based on a single specimen (USI: AMNH_PBI 00127093), to limit damage to specimens. This species is nested within the well supported Australian clade ( Figs 1–2 ). The record and illustration of V. pallidipes by Swanson (2015: 268–269, fig. 10) is based on misidentification and pertains to V. brachycephala sp. nov. (see under the latter species).

Figures

Fig. 1. Strict consensus tree resulting from equal weighting analysis. Jackknife values over 51 are reported for tree one of eight.

Fig. 2. Tree resulting from implied weighting analysis using K = 12 with characters unambiguously optimized. Symmetric resampling values over 51 are represented for trees obtained with K = 3, K = 6, K = 9, and K = 12 analyses. Characters and character states are described in pp. 11–22. Specimens not to scale.

Fig. 3. Morphological characters. A–D. Head in dorsal view. A. Gerbelius nr. confluens. B. Voconia decorata sp. nov. C. Voconia pallidipes Stål, 1866. D. Voconia schoutedeni (Villiers, 1964) comb. nov. E–G. Head in lateral view. E. Voconia wegneri (Miller, 1954) comb. nov. F. Voconia dolichocephala sp. nov. G. Gerbelius typicus Distant, 1903. H. Voconia loki sp. nov., head and pronotum in dorsal view. I–J. Prosternum in ventrolateral view. I. Voconia mexicana sp. nov. J. Voconia bracata sp. nov. K–L. Pronotum in dorsal view. K. Voconia conradti (Jeannel, 1917) comb. nov. L. Voconia tuberculata sp. nov.

Fig. 8. Dorsal habitus of holotypes of Voconia Stål, 1866 species with distribution: purple = Afrotropical region, green = Australasian region, blue = Neotropical region, pink = Oriental region. Scale bars = 3 mm.

Fig. 10. Lateral habitus of species of Voconia Stål, 1866. Scale bars = 3 mm.

Fig. 13. Pygophore of species of Voconia Stål, 1866. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.

Fig. 14. Aedeagus of species of Gerbelius Distant, 1903 and Voconia Stål, 1866. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.

Fig. 18. The distribution of species of Voconia Stål, 1866 in the Australasian region.