Journal of
Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2018 | 10(9): 12282–12285
A record after 52 years, and additional description of the emesine
assassin bug Emesopsis nubila (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae) from western India
Balasaheb V. Sarode 1,
Nikhil U. Joshi 2, Pratik P. Pansare
3 & Hemant V. Ghate 4
1,2,3,4 Post-Graduate Research Centre, Department
of Zoology, Modern College of Arts Science and Commerce, Shivajinagar,
Pune, Maharashtra 411005, India
1 balasahebs78@gmail.com, 2 niksjoshi20@gmail.com,
3 pansareptk101@gmail.com, 4 hemantghate@gmail.com
(corresponding author)
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3956.10.9.12282-12285
| ZooBank:
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0756250B-D31D-422B-9357-DA5958300D29
Editor: Tadashi
Ishikawa, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Kanagawa,
Japan. Date
of publication: 26 August 2018 (online & print)
Manuscript details: Ms
# 3956 | Received 15 December 2017 | Final received 04 June 2018 | Finally
accepted 12 July 2018
Citation: Sarode, B.V., N.U. Joshi, P.P. Pansare & H.V. Ghate (2018).
A
record after 52 years, and additional description of the emesine
assassin bug Emesopsis nubila
(Hemiptera: Reduviidae:
Emesinae) from western India. Journal
of Threatened Taxa 10(9): 12282–12285; https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3956.10.9.12282-12285
Copyright: © Sarode et al. 2018.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any
medium, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the
authors and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Dr.
David Redei (Nankai
University, China) for constant help and encouragement. We also thank Dr.
Tadashi Ishikawa (Tokyo University of Agriculture) for literature and other
help. We are indebted to the reviewer
for critical comments that have helped to shorten and improve the contents of
this note. We thank Mr.
Mihir Joshi for collection of the female bug from the
Katraj area of Pune city. Finally, we are grateful to
the authorities of Modern College for the facilities and support.
A small, 5mm long, hairy female bug with long legs,
till date not recognized by the authors, was collected near a source of light
in Katraj area of Pune City, Maharashtra, the western
part of India. Subsequently, a similar
male specimen was collected in Shirur, near Pune, in
a grassy patch. One dead male was also
found trapped in a spider’s web at Daund, near
Pune. All the three specimens were
identified using keys in Wygodzinsky (1966) as Emesopsis nubila Uhler, 1893, which is an emesine
assassin bug species belonging to the tribe Ploiariolini
and is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical zones all around the
world. These specimens represent the
first record of E. nubila from Maharashtra
State as well as western part of India. An earlier record of this species (as Calphurnia reticulata)
was from Calcutta (now Kolkata) (Distant 1910); the checklist of Reduviidae by Ambrose (2006) also states Kolkata as a
locality based on Distant’s work and not on the basis
of any fresh collections. Thus, this finding
is a rediscovery of this bug after a prolonged period and also extends the
range of its distribution considerably westwards as far as India is
concerned. Although widespread, this bug
has not been recorded from India in many years, except perhaps the record by Wygodzinsky (1966) of a specimen from Coimbatore, southern
India.
In this note, we provide many images of the
morphological characters of this species as we strongly support the idea of Ang et al. (2013) who state in the context of taxonomic papers,
“We propose that descriptions should become more data-rich by presenting large
amounts of images and illustrations to cover as much morphology as possible”.
Material and Methods
Material examined: one female from Katraj,
Pune (coll. M. Joshi; October 2016); one male from Shirur,
Pune (coll. B. Sarode, June 2017); one male from Daund, Pune (coll. P. Pansare,
November 2017). Bugs were studied under
a Leica stereozoom (MZ6) microscope and also
photographed with an attached Canon Powershot S50
camera. Several images were stacked using Combine ZM software and the images
were processed with Adobe Photoshop CS5.
Measurements were done with Erma stage and ocular micrometer
and an accurate scale. The pygophore was dissected after treating the last three
abdominal segments with hot 10% KOH, the phallic complex was dissected and the parameres and phallus were separated and mounted in
polyvinyl lactophenol (PVLP) with lignin pink dye,
and photographed. All specimens and
slides of genitalia are preserved in Modern College of Arts, Science and
Commerce, Shivajinagar, Pune.
Measurements: All measurements
(based on one male (MCZH 132, June 2017) and one female (MCZH 131, October
2016) given below are in mm and they are separated as male / female.
Total length 4.5 / 5.125, total length of head 0.625 /
0.625, anteocular length 0.1 / 0.125, postocular length 0.25 / 0.25, head width dorsally at eye
0.5 / 0.5; antenna: length of first segment 1.75 / 1.875, second segment 1 /
1.125, third segment 1 / mutilated, fourth segment 0.375 / mutilated; labium:
length of first visible segment 0.3 / 0.275, second visible (globular) segment
0.15 / 0.18, third visible segment 0.2 / 0.18; thorax length 1.125 / 0.8, pronotum length 0.625 / 0.75, width at anterior angles of pronotum 0.45 / 0.375, pronotum widdth at humeral angles 0.675 / 0.625; fore leg: length of
coxa 0.625 / 0.75, femur 1.125 / 1.375, tibia 0.8 /
1.05, tarsus with claw 0.25 / 0.25; mid leg: length of coxa
0.2 / 0.2, femur 1.875 / 1.9, tibia 2.45 / 2.5, tarsus with claw 0.125 / 0.15;
hind leg: length of coxa 0.25 / 0.25, femur 2.875 /
3, tibia 3.875 / 3.95, tarsus with claw 0.125 / 0.125; length of fore wing:
3.75 / 3.75, maximum width of fore wing 1.125 / 1.125; male pygophore:
length measured laterally up to the tip 1.25; length of paramere
excluding curved portion 0.625; length of extended phallus 1.65; length of phallobase in extended phallus 0.5; length of articulatory
apparatus in extended phallus 0.4.
Heteroptera, Reduviidae, Emesinae, Ploiariolini
Emesopsis nubila Uhler, 1893
Ishikawa & Okajima
(2006) have recently given generic diagnosis, synonyms, additional description
and illustrations of E. nubila. Synonyms are therefore omitted here.
Diagnosis: The diagnostic
characters for E. nubila are, in brief: head
and pronotum yellowish-brown with long erect setae,
posterior pronotal lobe about twice as long as
anterior pronotal lobe, mid and hind legs with long
setae, forewing with typical markings, endosoma of
male genitalia with a pair of vesica arms only, and vesica arm thickened in basal half and slender in apical
half.
Additional description: Small, delicate,
thread-legged bug, with very hairy body.
Overall color brown to reddish-brown, ventrally
partly dark brown; antennae partly dark brown; membrane of fore wing with a few
pale brown spots, veins slightly darker; legs with brown annulations (Image
1A,B). Male darker
ventrally than female (at least in the examples before us).
Head small, anteocular part
much shorter than sub-globose postocular
part; eyes comparatively large; pronotum with short
and narrow anterior lobe and long and broad posterior lobe (nearly twice as
long as anterior lobe), covered with long colorless wooly setae, these setae densest on posterior lobe of pronotum; female slightly more hairy than male (Image
1C,D). Second visible
segment of labium swollen, as seen in lateral view (Image 1E). Pronotum completely covering mesonotum; metanotum with vertical spine (Image 1F).
Fore wing showing typical venation, especially
reticulate pattern at base, with brownish spots on membrane (Image 1G).
Fore legs with long coxae;
femur with anteroventral and posteroventral
series of very small spiniform setae; tibia slightly
shorter than femur; tarsus two-segmented; brownish annulation visible on coxa, femur and tibia (Image 1H); mid and hind legs long,
slender, with brown annulations; long setae covering on all legs.
Pro-, meso- and metasterna reddish-brown; pleural regions slightly darker
(Image 1I,J). Prosternum furrowed in median region; mesosternum
with smooth and glabrous patch laterally. Abdomen slender and darker
in male (Image 2A), and broad, pale yellow brown but darker at base and apex
ventrally in female (Image 2B).
Pygophore elongate, laterally
slightly compressed, ventrally convex, setose, moderately sclerotized, with
arrow like spiny posterosuperior process projecting
above parameres (Image 2C-E). Parameres slightly
curved, setose (Image 2F,G). Phallotheca moderately sclerotized; articulatory apparatus
short but stout, basal plates fused in apical half; conjunctiva membaranous; vesica with paired
processes that are broad at base and narrowed distally (Image 2H–J). Female terminalia
(stained with eosin) densely covered with setae (Image 2K).
Discussion
The above-mentioned characters match with those
described by earlier workers. To confirm
the species further, we compared the images of pygophore
and phallus with the figures given by Wygodzinsky
(1966), Villiers (1979) and photos given by Ishikawa & Yasunaga
(2004), as well as Ishikawa & Okajima (2006).
The checklist of the Indian species of Reduviidae (Ambrose 2006) includes E. nubila and another species, namely Emesopsis
bimedia Ravichandran
& Livingstone, 1989 from ‘Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu’. This latter species has been never recorded
again. Wygodzinsky
(1966) studied a specimen of E. nubila from
Coimbatore and what has been described as E. bimedia may also be E. nubila. From the description given by the authors
(and one line drawing of dorsal habitus in unpublished thesis, Ravichandran 1988), it is difficult to compare E. bimedia and E. nubila;
the authors state the difference to be the absence of setae on mid and hind
legs and absence of piceous spot near antennae in E.
bimedia (Ravichandran
& Livingstone 1989). Efforts to
collect material in Coimbatore and comparison with actual type (if available)
are essential to settle this problem.
We believe this to be the first photographically
illustrated documentation and brief description of Emesopsis
nubila found in India. After Distant’s
original description of Calphurnia reticulata Distant, 1909, currently a junior synonym of
E. nubila, there is no subsequent record from India. Lack of extensive surveys and lack of
expertise in taxonomy of this subfamily in India are probably the main reasons
for the poor state of our knowledge about Emesinae of
India.
In a brief two-year survey of Emesinae
near Pune, Maharashtra State, we have come across several such bugs which will be the subject of separate papers; Kulkarni & Ghate (2016a) have
already reported the presence of Myiophanes
greeni Distant (type locality Sri Lanka) from
India for the first time. Subsequently,
a new emesine species, namely Bagauda
ernstmyeri Kulkarni
& Ghate, 2016 was also added to the Indian fauna
(Kulkarni & Ghate
2016b). This indicates that these small
and delicate emesine bugs need more attention as we hardly know about their distribution in
India.
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