Rhiginia bimaculata Breddin 1914

Rhiginia bimaculata Breddin, 1914

(Figs. 1–9)

Morphological remarks. Rhiginia bimaculata is a moderately sized species (15–16 mm), and the images of the male holotype presented by Gil-Santana (2019) (wrongly labeled as female holotype in his Fig. 1 caption) and provided by SDEI for the present study (Figs. 1–6) match Breddin’s (1914) description of the color: the specimen is largely dark brown to black, with the dorsum of the head, pronotum (except two small paramedial and two lateral black spots on the transverse sulcus), and base of the corium orangish. The connexivum also has a very narrow yellow to orange margin on the dorsal surface, but it is entirely yellow to orange on the ventral surface. It is unclear to what extent this color pattern may vary. The head appears somewhat subrectangular, with a very elevated clypeus somewhat rounded at the median portion and a slightly convex frons in lateral view. The ocelli are separated from one another by a little more than the diameter of an ocellus and occupy half to two-thirds of the ocellar tubercle in lateral view (Figs. 1, 3–4). The pronotum has a medially concaved anterior margin and rounded, almost indiscernible, anterolateral protuberances. The anterior lobe is approximately half the length of the posterior lobe, the medial longitudinal sulcus is very shallow near the anterior margin, and the transverse sulcus lacks deep paramedial punctations (Fig. 1). Additionally, the hemelytra (Fig. 1) ends just before the apex of the abdomen, the inner discal cell (Cu+1A cell) in the membrane is subrectangular, and the proximal margin of the Cu+1A membranal cell is about twice that of the outer discal membranal cell (M+Cu cell). Abdominal sternite II has longitudinal ridges medially (Fig. 2). The coloration in the female (Figs. 7–9) is similar to the male holotype. In the female, the anterior pronotal lobe is subequal in length to the posterior lobe, and the hemelytra do not surpass the anterior margin of tergite VII. Additionally, the female appears to have a more ovate or globular head, strongly convex frons above the eyes, slightly elevated clypeus, and smaller ocelli that are separated by more than the diameter of an ocellus and that occupy less area on the ocellar tubercle.

Discussion. Breddin’s (1914) short original description is dominated with information on color patterns, appears to be based on a single male specimen, lacks illustrations, and includes very little information on structural characters. After Breddin’s (1914) description, R. bimaculata was only cited in catalogs and checklists (Gil-Santana 2019). Gil-Santana (2019), however, presented a photograph of the dorsal habitus of the male holotype of R. bimaculata, the first figure presented of this species in the literature despite its large geographical distribution (Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador). Given that we only have a single female specimen in our possession, in addition to images of the male holotype, there is a need for a more comprehensive examination of specimens to re-describe R. bimaculata and document more structural features and color variation to facilitate accurate identification of this species.

Material examined. Holotype: – Palmar– / (Ecuad.) / R. Haensch S. // Rhiginia / bimaculata / Breddin // Typus // Holotypus // Col. / Breddin // DEI Hemimetabola / # 100198 (1 ♂) (SDEI). Other specimen material: HONDURAS: / Atlantida – Aug 12, / 2006 Bonta-Wells // Rhiginia bimaculata / (Breddin, 1914) / det. M. Forthman 2020 (1 ♀) (CSCA).