Alphocoris lixoides Germar 1839

Alphocoris lixoides Germar, 1839

Figs. 65–72

Alphocoris lixoides Germar, 1839: 59. Syntypes: Senegallia [= Senegal]; ZMHB!

Alphocoris lixoides: Amyot & Serville (1843: 44) (diagnosis, distribution), Dohrn (1859: 4) (catalogue, distribution), Stål (1873: 26) (in key, diagnostic characters, distribution), Lethierry & Severin (1893: 40) (catalogue, distribution), Schouteden (1903: 81) (in key, redescription, distribution), Schouteden (1904: 83) (catalogue, distribution), Schouteden (1905: 6) (record), Kirkaldy (1909: 269) (catalogue, distribution), Villiers (1952: 59) (diagnosis, distribution), Schouteden (1963: 397) (listed), Gillon (1972: 286, 296, 304) (in key, redescription and figures of adult and larva), Gillon (1974: 218) (ecology), Linnavuori (1982: 15) (records, distribution, bionomics), Czaja (2007: 308) (figure, wing venation), Czaja (2013b: 102) (figure, fore wing), Czaja (2016a: 366) (listed, habitus).

Alphocoris lixoidea [inadvertent error]: Herrich-Schäffer (1853: 8) (listed, distribution).

Type material examined. Syntype #1: ♂, ‘Senegal \ Buq’ [blue, hw], ‘Cat. N o \ 121’ [hw], ‘Alphocoris \ lixoides Germ’ [hw], ‘Alphocoris \ lixoides \ Germ.*’ [hw], ‘Type’ [red]; pinned, tarsus of left hind leg lacking (ZMHB) (Figs. 65–68). Syntype #2: ♀, ‘Seneg. Dup.’ [green, hw], ‘121’, ‘Zoolog. Museum \ Berlin’, ‘Alphocoris [hw] \ lixoides [hw] \ * Germ. [hw] \ F. Schumacher det. [pr] reV. [hw]’ [‘det.’ crossed out by hw], ‘Alphocoris \ lixoides Germ. \ C.H.C. Lyal 1973 \ LECTOTYPE’ [red, hw], ‘ Typus ’ [red]; pinned, tarsus of left fore leg lacking (ZMHB) (Figs. 69–72).

Remarks. Alphocoris lixoides is the type species of the genus Alphocoris. It was described based on an unspecified number of but more than one specimen from “Senegallia” [= Senegal] (Germar 1839), and subsequently recorded from India (Dallas 1851, Walker 1867, Atkinson 1884, Atkinson 1887, Distant 1902, Maxwell-Lefroy 1909, ParVeen et al. 2014) and Pakistan (Ahmad & Mushtaq 1977, Ahmad et al. 1979, Ahmad 1980, Ahmad & Moizuddin 1980, Afzal et al. 1982) by a number of authors.

Two specimens, a male and a female, both in excellent condition, potentially representing syntypes of A. lixoides were found in ZMHB (Figs. 65–72). The female (Figs. 69–71) is more similar to the illustration proVided by Germar (1839: plate I fig. III), but there is no ground to exclude the male from the syntype series either. The female bears a handwritten lectotype label of C.H.C. Lyal, but the lectotype designation has apparently neVer been published. None of the Alphocoris species occurring in Southern Asia examined by us is conspecific with the two syntypes, therefore we consider all earlier records of A. lixoides from India and Pakistan as misidentifications. We mention that based on these two syntypes the Afrotropical A. lobulatus Stål, 1873, appears to be conspecific with A. lixoides, but as a reVision of the Afrotropical fauna of Alphocoris is beyond the scope of the present paper, no further analysis of the problem is offered here, and also a lectotype designation for A. lixoides is left for a future reViser.

Distribution. SENEGAL (Germar 1839).— IVORY COAST. Lamto (Schouteden 1963, Gillon 1972, 1974), Odienne–Madinani (LinnaVuori 1982).— NIGERIA (Czaja 2016a).— ERITREA. Halibaret [= Elabered] (Schouteden 1905).—“Tagana” [unlocated] (Schouteden 1903)