Published December 31, 2013 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Pseudovelia fulva Ye, Polhemus & Bu, 2013, sp. n.

Description

Pseudovelia fulva sp. n.

(Figs. 4, 17, 29, 41, 53, 65, 77, 89, 101, 113, 125)

Material examined. Holotype: apterous male, CHINA, Guangxi Prov., Nanning city, Wuming County, Damingshan Mountain Nature Reserve, 28 May 2011, Zhen Ye leg. (NKUM). Paratype: CHINA, Guangxi Prov.: 3 apterous males, 5 apterous females, same data as holotype (NKUM).

Description. Apterous male (Fig. 4). Colour: ground colour blackish brown, head blackish brown, clypeus and median line of head dark brown; labrum black, rostrum dark orange with black apex, buccula dark orange; basal part of antennal segment I orange, apical half dark, segments II–IV brown, inner margin along eyes with prominent silvery pubescence; pronotum dark orange, posterior portion with dense, black spots; legs mainly dark yellow, with apices of femur and tibia weakly infuscated, tarsus black, basal part of femur yellowish; abdomen mainly brown, lateral portions of mediotergite I, entirety of mediotergites II and III, medial portions of mediotergites VI and VII, and internal margins of laterotergites III–V with prominent silvery pubescence; segment VIII, pygophore and proctiger yellowish, each weakly infuscated apically. Structural characteristics: body length: 2.26–2.29 (holotype: 2.28), small-sized, rather stout, bearing short, suberect, grayish hairs, areas around the eyes and antennal segment I bearing scattered, long, suberect, grayish hairs. Head short and wide, width: 0.54–0.56, length: 0.33–0.34, head width about 1.62 times head length, relatively perpendicular; labrum angular, buccula clearly visible, but not produced posteriorly; eyes bare except for the presence of two ocular setae, inner margin of eyes with prominent silvery pubescence; antenna about 0.66 times as long as body, lengths of antennal segments I–IV: 0.44, 0.30, 0.30, 0.46. Pronotum relatively broad, width: 0.73–0.74, length: 0.39–0.41, about 1.87 times as wide as long; bearing scattered dark punctures on posterior portion of pronotal lobe, hind margin straight, anterior margin slightly emarginated; metanotum completely hidden beneath pronotal lobe except laterally. Legs with venter of fore tibia (Figs. 17, 29) flat, with dense, suberect, short setae, length of grasping comb 0.22, about 0.35 times fore tibial length (Fig. 29); middle leg (Fig. 41) relatively slender, with short, suberect hairs; hind tibia (Fig. 53) straight, with dense, short, decumbent hairs, hind tarsal segment I short, about 0.5 times length of hind tarsal segment II, venter of hind tarsal segment I with a row of black, relatively long bristles (Fig. 65), ventral arolium bristle-like; lengths of leg segments (femur, tibia and tarsus): fore leg: 0.70, 0.62 and 0.31, middle leg: 0.80, 0.80 and 0.44 (0.14+0.3), hind leg: 0.94, 0.95 and 0.54 (0.17+0.37); mediotergites almost flat, connexival segments III–V roughly rectangular, slightly raised; mediotergites II–V subequal in length; abdominal venter flat, slightly concave medially. Genital segments: rather small, segment VIII (Figs. 77, 89, 101, 113) about 1.43 times as long as wide, posterior margin with short, sparse, brown hairs, ventrally with a sub-circular shaped depression, anterior portion of this depression with patches of very short brown hairs; lateral portions of pygophore (Fig. 125) with clusters of slender, brown hairs, posterior margin with short, sparse, black hairs; proctiger small, with rather blunt apex, posterior margin with rather short, black hairs; paramere symmetrical, rather small, stick-like, with rounded, widened apex.

Apterous female. Body medium-sized, larger than male, slightly elongate, body length: 2.67–2.69; structure of head including antenna as in male, head width: 0.6–0.61, head length: 0.38–0.40, head width about 1.57 times head length, antenna about 0.55 times as long as body, lengths of antennal segments I–IV: 0.46, 0.28, 0.30, 0.44; hind margin of pronotum straight, width: 0.80–0.82, length: 0.39–0.41, about 2.0 times as wide as long; fore tibia without grasping comb, hind tibia and tarsus not modified, hind tibia slender and straight, venter of hind tarsal segment I without a row or cluster of bristles; lengths of leg segments (femur, tibia and tarsus): fore leg: 0.45, 0.61 and 0.31, middle leg: 0.85, 0.86 and 0.45 (0.13+0.32), hind leg: 0.95, 1.05 and 0.50 (0.16+0.34); abdomen pleurally and ventrally without special modifications, connexiva flat and slightly narrow, converging posteriorly and touching caudally; end of abdomen raised in lateral view, gonocoxa I elongate, proctiger blackish brown, with dense, short hairs.

Macropterous female and macropterous male: unknown.

Etymology. The specific epithet “ fulva ” (from Latin, meaning tawny) refers to the brownish colour of the water which this species inhabits.

Diagnosis. In the apterous morph of the male, P. fulva sp. n. seems to be closely related to P. ullrichi. These two species both possess prominent silvery pubescence on the inner margins of the eyes, and have hind tarsal segment I about 0.5 times as long as hind tarsal segment II. However, P. f u l v a sp. n. can be distinguished by the presence of a grasping comb about 0.35 times the length of the tibia (in P. u l l r i c h i, the grasping comb is about 0.51–0.55 times the tibial length), and by differences in the structure of abdominal ventrite VIII (Figs. 77, 89, 101, 113).

Distribution. China (Guangxi) (Fig. 138).

Notes

Published as part of Ye, Zhen, Polhemus, Dan A. & Bu, Wenjun, 2013, A taxonomic contribution to the genus Pseudovelia Hoberlandt, 1951 (Hemiptera: Veliidae) from China, with descriptions of ten new species, pp. 290-318 in Zootaxa 3636 (2) on pages 295-296, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3636.2.4, http://zenodo.org/record/217240

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Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Family
Macroveliidae
Genus
Pseudovelia
Kingdom
Animalia
Order
Hemiptera
Phylum
Arthropoda
Species
fulva
Taxonomic status
sp. nov.
Taxon rank
species
Taxonomic concept label
Pseudovelia fulva Ye, Polhemus & Bu, 2013