Halobatopsis platensis ( Berg, 1879 )

Mazzucconi, Silvia Ana, Reyes, Cristina Armúa De & Estévez, Ana Lía, 2022, Aquatic and semiaquatic Heteroptera (Insecta: Hemiptera) from Iberá Natural Reserve (Corrientes Province, Argentina), Zootaxa 5104 (4), pp. 451-505 : 466

Halobatopsis platensis ( Berg, 1879)

Halobates platensis Berg, 1879 : Hemipt. Argentina, 183–184.

Halobatopsis platensis: Bianchi, 1896 : Annuaire Mus. Zool. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersb., 70.

Material examined. Laguna Iberá RS: 4 ♂, 3 ♀, Iberá Lagoon, 3.xii.2012. On the road to Itatí RS: 1 ♀, Mercedes Department, Pay Ubre Chico Stream, Provincial Route 29, 28.iii.2014.

General distribution. Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay ( Nieser & Melo 1997; Floriano et al. 2017).

Habitat. This species has been found in streams and rivers which are slow to moderately fast-flowing, with or without aquatic vegetation, with or without gallery forests and in shaded or unshaded areas ( Mazzucconi & Bachmann 1995, 2003; Fernández & López Ruf 2006; Pelli et al. 2006; Torres et al. 2007), but it has also been collected in stagnant waterbodies connected to lotic ones (overflows of rivers; pools connected to streams; ponds at waterfall bases) ( Mazzucconi & Bachmann 1995; Pelli et al. 2006; Franco et al. 2020). Halobatopsis platensis has also been recorded from ponds and small lakes and from a lagoon exposed to sunlight and with aquatic vegetation ( Pelli et al. 2006; Torres et al. 2007).

At the INR, specimens were collected in standing and slow-moving water along the margins with gallery forests and without aquatic vegetation of Pay Ubre Chico Stream, in shaded places, and from the margins of the Iberá Lagoon, exposed to sunlight and with emergent and floating vegetation.

Remarks. This is the first record of H. platensis from INR. This species was previously recorded from Corrientes Province by Bachmann (1966b), Mazzucconi & Bachmann (1995) and Mazzucconi (1999).