A survey of the saicine assassin bugs of Taiwan (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae)
Author
Rédei, Dávid
Hungarian Natural History Museum, Department of Zoology, H- 1088 Budapest, Baross u. 13, Hungary; e-mail: redei @ zoo. zoo. nhmus. hu
Author
Tsai, Jing-Fu
National Chung Hsing University, Department of Entomology, Kuo Kuang Road 250, Taichung 40227, Taiwan; e-mail: afu 0630 @ gmail. com
text
Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae
2010
2010-06-30
50
1
15
32
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.5325170
0374-1036
5325170
Polytoxus rufinervis
Hsiao, 1965
Diagnosis.
Polytoxus rufinervis
can be diagnosed by the following combination of characters: body relatively large (
9–12 mm
), bright red in colour, posterior lobe of pronotum with large dark brown spot reaching posterior margin; head and pronotum rather elongate; mesonotum carinate along meson; male genitalia as in
Figs. 33–52
.
Taxonomy.
Polytoxus rufinervis
was described after a single female from
Yunnan
,
China
; the male has remained unknown so far.
ISHIKAWA & OKAJIMA (2003)
reported it from the Sa Pa District in northern
Vietnam
, based on
two females
. We could examine a series consisting of males and females from the Sa Pa District and agree with the identification of
ISHIKAWA & OKAJIMA (2003)
.
We also examined several specimens of
P. ardens
Ishikawa
& Yano, 2002
(described from
Japan
) from
Taiwan
, and our identification was confirmed by T. Ishikawa (pers. comm.). Although the specimens from
Vietnam
and
Taiwan
are different in colour, males from both localities have identical genitalia, and consequently there is no doubt about their conspecificity.
Nevertheless, specimens from
Taiwan
and
Japan
have a distinct longitudinal stripe in the middle of the fore wing. This stripe is obsolete or missing in specimens from
Vietnam
(examined by us) or
China
(
HSIAO 1965
,
HSIAO & REN 1981
). This striking and consistent difference in coloration is most probably a result of their geographical isolation; therefore we treat
P. ardens
as a geographical subspecies of
P. rufinervis
.