Renda debilis

Renda debilis (Sharp, 1885)

Fig. 6

Plochionocerus debilis Sharp, 1885: 472; Herman, 2001: 3748 (Renda).

Type material. Lectotype (here designated), male: “ Plochionocerus debilis Type D. S. San Joaquín, Guatemala. Champion (in the plaque with the specimen) / Type / San Joaquín, Vera Paz. Champion / B.C.A. Col. I. 2. Plochionocerus debilis Sharp / Syntype ” (BMNH). Paralectotype, female: “ Plochionocerus debilis S. Geronimo. Guatemala. Champion (in the plaque with the specimen) / S. Geronimo, Guatemala. Champion / B.C.A. Col. I. 2. Plochionocerus debilis Sharp / Syntype ” (BMNH).

Additional material. “ GUATEMALA: Verapaz, Copan, Conradt.” (1?, FMNH). “ MEXICO, no locality data” (1♂, FMNH).

Redescription. Total length 12.5–12.9 mm. Body black, antennae, mouthparts and tarsi reddish brown, and posterior third of fifth visible abdominal segment, pregenital and genital segments yellow.

Head. Quadrate oval (similar to Fig. 19); clearly convex dorsally and slightly convex ventrally; dorsal surface with dense umbilical punctures, except for smooth front; vertex with denser punctures forming net; ventral surface with moderately dense and unevenly distributed, umbilicate punctures separated by 2–3x their width (Fig. 23); temple convex (Fig. 27); eyes 0.28x as long as head, interocular distance 0.67x cephalic width (at eye level); first antennomere 1.6x length of antennomeres 2–3 combined, apical antennomere 0.85x length of antennomeres 9–10 combined; labrum slightly bilobed (Fig. 54); with mandibular external channel; conical apical maxillary palpomere (Fig. 40), as long as preapical palpomere; apical labial palpomere with slightly widened and flattened apex (Fig. 44), nearly twice as long as preapical palpomere.

Thorax. Pronotum 1.38x as long as wide; 1.08x as wide as head; with moderately dense fine punctures, except for wide, longitudinal impunctate area; without lateral depressed area at posterior third (Fig. 52). Elytra as long as pronotum; with fine setae as dense as those on pronotum. Prosternum with fine setae as sparse as on meso and metasternum.

Abdomen. Densely covered with long, pale setae that are denser on lateral borders.

Aedeagus. Ovally elongate, with base of median lobe widened; total length 2.5 mm; asymmetrical parameres (left shorter), 0.23x as long as median lobe (right paramere); apical area of median lobe 0.15x total length of median lobe; internal sac with sclerotized structures (Fig. 78).

Variation. Females are longer than males. In males examined, the abdominal segments are yellow and in females they are red-yellow. However, the female specimens are overall paler than males and are probably teneral.

Comparison. This species can be confused with R. brasiliana due to the similar color pattern of the body, the temple convex of the head and the conical apical maxillary palpomere. Distinguishing characteristics of both species are included in the remarks for R. brasiliana.

Remarks. Two syntypes are recorded in the original description (Sharp, 1885), which correspond with the specimens studied. Designation of the lectotype was necessary to avoid future confusions of this species with similar species, such as R. brasiliana.

Geographic distribution. Guatemala and Mexico (Herman, 2001; Navarrete-Heredia et al. 2002).