Cheirochela feana Montandon, 1897: 370

Dan, Polhemus, John, Polhemus & Sites, Robert, 2008, A Revision Of The Indochinese Genera Cheirochela And Gestroiella Heteroptera Naucoridae And A Review Of The Tribe Cheirochelini, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 56 (2), pp. 255-279 : 260-263

Cheirochela feana Montandon, 1897: 370 .

Supplemental redescription. – Brachypterous male holotype: General colouration dark reddish-brown, with anterior portion of tylus, and lateral margins of protonum, embolia, and all exposed abdominal tergites yellowish; eyes black. Overall form broad and robust (see Distant, 1906, pg. 26, Fig. 16 ), body length 28.20, maximum width (across embolia) 17.40; head length 5.30, width 6.40, anterior/ posterior interocular 5.00/4.00, eye length 2.30, width 1.25; pronotum length (midline) 3.80, width 13.80; scutellum length 4.00, width 7.25. Hemelytra brachypterous, venation obscure, corium deeply and coarsely rugose, membrane rudiments strongly narrowed posteriorly, tips rounded, reaching to posterior margin of fifth visible abdominal tergite.

Discussion. – The series from Catcin Cauri, Burma contains a brachypterous male with the following labels (from top to bottom, commas indicate line breaks, slashes indicate separate labels, comments are in parentheses): “Catcin Cauri, Birmania, Fea. Ag November 1886 (black, printed)/TYPUS (red, printed)/ Cheirochela , feana Mont. , es. tip. (script in Mondandon’s hand)/ Cheirochela , feana Montand. , type (script in Gestro’s hand).” This male is considered the holotype of the species. One of the other brachypterous males in this series bears a label, apparently in Gestro’s hand, reading “ Cheirochela feana Mont. esemplari non communicati a Mont.”, indicating that it was a specimen from the original series that was somehow not sent to Montandon. The immature specimen also bears a script label reading “larve a Cheirochela probable feai.”

This is a large, robust, broad bodied species, and in certain males the forelegs become extremely massive, with the tibiae strongly curved and well separated from the femora along their middle sections (see Distant, 1906, pg. 26, fig. 16). The colouration of dried specimens often tends toward yellowish highlights on a medium brown background, although the actual type is a dark-coloured specimen. Another aspect of this species that is somewhat difficult to quantify is its “square shouldered” appearance in relation to other Cheirochela species , this a result of the more abrupt basal curvature of the embolar margin. The male paramere has a well developed basal lobe ( Fig. 8 ) of a form similar to that seen in C. tonkina ( Fig. 10 ), but the latter species is narrower in body form ( Fig. 2 ), and has less spinose posterolateral angles on the pronotum, and has a differently shaped dorsomedial process in the male genital capsule (Fig. 14).

The type locality of C. feana lies in the hills east of Bhamo , a town on the upper Irrawady River in northern Burma. The currently known range extends from this region northeastward into southern China and northern Laos ( Fig. 16 ) .

Material examined. – BURMA [ MYANMAR], Kachin Division: 3 brachypterous males, 3 brachypterous females, 1 immature, Catcin Cauri, Fea , Aug.–Nov.1886 ( MSNG,

NMNH, MHNP, JTPC). CHINA, Yunnan: 3 brachypterous males, 5 brachypterous females, 100 km W. of Kunming, Diaolin Nat. Res. , 22 May–2 Jun.1993, E. Jendek and O. Sausa ( NHMW) . LAOS, Xiang Khoang Prov.: 1 brachypterous male, 1 brachypterous female, 1 immature, Xieng Khouang, Muong Pek , 15 Dec.1918, R . V . de Salvaza ( BMNH, RMNH) .

Figures

Fig.16. Distributions of Cheirochela species in Indochina:squares = C. birmaniensis; diamonds = C. assamensis; circles = C. feana.

Figs. 7–11. Cheirochela species, male right paramere: 7, C. assamensis, holotype; 8, C. feana, paratype. 9. C. birmaniensis, holotype; 10, C. tonkina, paratype; 11, C. thailandana, paratype.

Fig. 2. Cheirochela tonkina Polhemus & Polhemus. Male, dorsal habitus. Drawn by Young Sohn.