Hornylia nalanda Wygodzinsky, 1966

Boyane, Swapnil S., Ranjith, A. P. & Ghate, Hemant V., 2024, First record of Hornylia nalanda from India (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae), Zootaxa 5506 (1), pp. 104-112 : 105-108

Hornylia nalanda Wygodzinsky, 1966

( Figs. 2–19 )

Hornylia nalanda Wygodzinsky, 1966 (494: original description), Maldonado Capriles (1990: 131, catalogued), Chen et al. (2020: 107, key to species).

Type specimen images examined. Holotype of Hornylia nalanda Wygodzinsky, 1966 , apterous male, “Nalanda Ceylon Horn” (only examined images of this specimen, see Figs. 18 & 19 ), in American Museum of Natural History , New York, USA ( AMNH _ IZC 00321017 ).

Other specimen examined. 1 ♀. INDIA: Kerala, Malappuram, Calicut University Botanical Garden, pitfall traps, 05.viii.2020, coll. A.P. Ranjith, to be deposited in Zoological Survey of India , Pune .

Description.

Apterous male ( Figs. 18 & 19 )

Described by Wygodzinsky, 1966, based on one apterous male (holotype) specimen listed above.

Apterous female ( Figs. 2–17 )

Colouration ( Figs. 2–5 ): Head brownish but laterally dark brown; labium pale brown but visible second segment dark. Antennae with scape and pedicel dark, remaining two antennomeres very pale. Thorax brownish, laterally and ventrally dark brown. Abdomen brown with patches of dark brown on tergites, connexivum dark with anterior onefourth of each segment pale, underside very dark brown to piceous. All legs pale brown with some indistinct fuscous areas. Fore femora with very faint brownish areas that do not appear as well-defined annulations; fore tibia with basal and apical dark areas; fore tarsus darker in basal half. Mid- and hind legs pale brown, their femora with apical fuscous area preceded by indistinct pale area; tibia with dark apex ( Fig. 2 ).

Structure ( Figs. 2–17 ): Body slender, surface dull, covered with granules. Head distinctly granular dorsally and laterally. Pronotum with scattered granules dorsally and laterally. Mesonotum and metanotum with sparse granules only laterally. Abdomen with sparse, scattered granules on dorsal aspect. Fine, short, erect setae present on fore femur and fore tibia ventrally. Very small, adpressed, spine-like setae present on all legs.

Head: Head longer than broad. Eyes very small, not reaching dorsal or ventral margin of head; transverse interocular sulcus distinct and situated just behind middle of eye; anteocular region twice as long as postocular in lateral view. Antennae 4-segmented, antenniferous tubercles situated about middle of anteocular area; scape longest. Labium straight, four segmented, visible first segment more than twice as long as second visible segment but not reaching anterior margin of eye in lateral view; first two visible segments thicker, visible third long and slender ( Fig. 4 ). A short, flap-like forward extension of labrum present.

Thorax: Pronotum longer than mesonotum, mesonotum longer than metanotum ( Fig. 5 ). Pronotum broadest at anterior angles, gradually narrowed posteriorly; anterior lobe and posterior lobes not distinct from each other, latter very small and separated by very shallow transverse sulcus ( Fig. 4 ). Mesonotum and metanotum with delicate longitudinal median carina, lateral margins of meso- and metanotum raised ( Fig. 5 ).

Legs: Fore coxae slender and long, parallel sided, almost as long as pronotum, without any spines or spiniferous processes ventrally; trochanters smooth, without spiniferous process. Fore femora ventrally with three series of spiniferous processes: anteroventral, posteroventral and an accessory series; there are in all six prominent posteroventral spiniferous processes—first process situated close to base longer than rest and longer than diameter of femur, but without penicillate process at tip; remaining five processes are shorter than diameter of femur; there are also many very small processes in between these long and short processes. Anteroventral series is made up of few medium sized processes and many much smaller processes, its first two basal processes are widely separated. Fore tibia less than half as long as femur, slightly dilated apically, with few denticles ventrally; fore tarsus unsegmented, subequal to tibia, gradually tapering, sclerotised, its ventral surface with adpressed setae ( Fig. 3 ). Mid- and hind legs very slender ( Fig. 2 ), hind femora passing apex of abdomen.

Abdomen: Narrow at base, gradually dilated posteriorly, broadest beyond middle and again slightly narrowed towards tip; connexivum narrow ( Figs. 5 , 6 ). Basal (or second) abdominal sternite with small membranous area at base, distinct median keel visible from second to sixth segments ventrally, seventh sternite depressed ventrodorsally, with emargination around blunt median spine ( Fig. 7 ). Female genitalia ( Figs. 8–17 ): terminalia (in situ, not dissected) in dorsal, ventral, lateral and posterior or caudal view are shown in Figs. 8–11 . Eighth tergite slanting, rectangular with outer posterior angles bluntly prominent; ninth tergite almost vertical, its base partly covered under eighth, deeply emarginate at posterior border; setose posterior border of syngonapophysis (gonoplac) visible ( Fig. 11 ; large gonocoxae of eighth segment seen laterally in caudal view of tip of abdomen ( Fig. 11 ). At low magnification, KOH cleared tip of abdomen shows large, sclerotised gonocoxae 8 (gcx8) and associated gonapophyses 8 (gap8) as well as part of gonoplac (gpl) and posterior border of tergite 9 (T9) ( Fig. 12 ); at higher magnification slide-mounted tergites 8 and 9 show sparse punctures and setae as well as two tubercular areas and deep emargination of posterior margin of ninth tergite ( Fig. 13 ). Gonocoxa 8 along with part of bursa copulatrix is shown in Fig. 14 . Isolated gonocoxa 8 appears pentagonal and more sclerotised ( Fig. 15 ) while gonapophysis 8 is triangular with sparse setae distally (posteriorly). Bursa copulatrix appears like a squarish sac with some sclerotised areas / sclerites proximally ( Fig. 16 ). Gonapophysis 9 with partly sclerotised median margin (arrow) and gonoplac with long setae at posterior margin are shown in ventral view ( Fig. 17 ).

Measurements (in mm): Total length 8.00. Head length 1.08; anteocular length 0.63; postocular length 0.25; eye diameter laterally 0.23. Labium: I visible segment 0.50, II visible segment 0.20, III visible segment 0.30. Antenna: I segment 5.00, II segment 3.25, segments III and IV missing. Thorax: pronotum length 1.35, mesonotum 0.75, metanotum 0.55; pronotal width at anterolateral angles 0.63, width at humeral angles 0.40; foreleg: coxa 1.55, femur 2.25, tibia 1.00, tarsus 0.80; mid leg: coxa 0.50, femur 3.8, tibia 5.00; hind leg: coxa 0.50, femur 5.50, tibia 7.50. Abdomen length 4.25.

Figures

FIGURES 18­­­­­­­ –19. Hornylia nalanda Wygodzinsky, holotype male. 18, dorsal view; 19, lateral view.

FIGURES 2–5. Hornylia nalanda Wygodzinsky, female. 2, habitus, lateral; 3, anterior part of body, lateral; 4, close up of head and pronotum, lateral; 5, habitus, dorsal.

FIGURES 6–11. Hornylia nalanda Wygodzinsky, female. 6, abdomen, dorsal; 7, abdomen, ventral, inset showing 7th sternite with emargination and a blunt spine like projection; 8–11, abdomen apical area in dorsal, ventral, lateral, and posterior views, respectively.

FIGURES 12–17. Hornylia nalanda Wygodzinsky. female terminalia. 12, ventral view of tip of abdomen (KOH treated); 13, tergites 8 & 9 in dorsal view slide mounted; 14. gonocoxa 8 with part of bursa copulatrix (ventral view); 15. gonocoxa 8 with attached gonapophysis; 16. bursa copulatrix (ventral view); 17. gonapophysis 9 (red arrow) and gonoplac (black arrow). Abbreviations: gap—gonapophysis, gcx—gonocoxae, gpl—gonoplac, T8 and T9 tergites eight and nine.