Brochymena Amyot & Serville, 1843

Rider, David A. & Swanson, Daniel R., 2021, A distributional synopsis of the Pentatomidae (Heteroptera) north of Mexico, including new state and provincial records, Zootaxa 5015 (1), pp. 1-69 : 29-30

Brochymena Amyot & Serville, 1843

This is a relatively speciose genus (presently 15 species) containing dark grey or blackish, cryptically-colored species; that is, they blend in very well with the tree bark upon which they frequent. The species of Brochymena were reviewed in a series of papers published by the well-known pentatomidologist, Herbert Ruckes (1939a, b, c, 1946a), culminating in a systematic review ( Ruckes 1947). Although this work was very thorough and detailed, the identification keys were constructed to reflect phylogeny; thus, they are very difficult to use. Fortunately, this difficult genus has undergone a more recent review ( Larivière 1992, 1994), in which easier-to-use keys have been provided. In these recent works, Larivière divided the genus into two genera: Brochymena and Parabrochymena (see later in this work). Although this arrangement seems to have gained favor ( Ahmad & McPherson 1998), there remains some question as to whether Parabrochymena is generically distinct from Brochymena .

Brochymena affinis Van Duzee, 1904

Distribution: Canada: BC. United States: AZ ( Larivière 1992), CA, CO, ID, MT ( Larivière 1992), NE ( Larivière 1992), NM (Bundy 2012), NV, OR, SD ( Larivière 1992), UT, WA. (Baja California)

Comments: Torre-Bueno (1939a) listed Iowa for this species, but Froeschner (1988) indicated that this must be an error for Idaho, which Torre-Bueno did not list, and which was one of the original localities given by Van Duzee (1904) for this species.