Description of some immature stages of Nabis (Tropiconabis) capsiformis (Hemiptera: Nabidae)

Descripción de algunos estadios inmaduros de Nabis (Tropiconabis) capsiformis (Hemiptera: Nabidae)

Marcela Cornelis¹, Estela M. Quirán¹ and María C. Coscarón²*

¹ Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de La Pampa, Uruguay 151, L6300CLB Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina.

Recibido: 23 marzo 2012
Aceptado: 07 junio 2012

Abstract

Instars III-V of Nabis (Tropiconabis) capsiformis Germar are described and illustrated, based on specimens from La Pampa, Argentina (new record).

Key words: Heteroptera, Nabidae, Nabinae, Nabis (Tropiconabis) capsiformis, nymphs.

Resumen

Palabras clave: Heteroptera, Nabidae, Nabinae, Nabis (Tropiconabis) capsiformis, ninfas.

Introduction

Nabidae, also known as "damsel bugs", belong to the infraorder Cimicomorpha (Leston et al., 1954) and consist of 31 genera and about 386 species distributed in all the biogeographic regions of the world (Henry, 2009). Nabis belongs to the subfamily Nabinae and has 15 species (Volpi and Coscarön, 2010). Pericart (1987) gave a general contribution to the knowledge of the immature stages of Nabidae. Up to this moment, contributions on instars included 3 species of Nabis: N. alternatus Parshley (Taylor, 1949), N. roseipennis Reuter and N. rufuluscus Reuter (Mudinger, 1922); several species of Nabicula: N. americolimbata Carayon, N. flavomarginata Scholtz, N. limbata Dahlbom, N. nigrovittata nearctica Kerzhner, N. propinqua Reuter, N. subcoleoptrata Kirby and N. vanduzeei Kirkaldy (Lariviere, 1994); Lasiomerus annulatus Reuter (Lariviere, 1993); and Arachnocoris albomaculatus Scott (Myers, 1925) (Nabinae); and Alloeorhynchus trimacula Stein (Cervantes-Peredo, 2004) (Prostenmatinae). Ojeda-Pena (1971) described the nymphs, eggs, and biology of Nabis (Tropiconabis) capsiformis German in Peru. Elvin and Sloderbeck (1984) made a key to the nymphs of 4 species of Nabidae from southeastern USA: N. roseipennis Reuter, N. americoferus Carayon, N. (Tropiconabis) capsiformis (Germar), and Hoplistoceslis deceptivus (Harris).

Nabids are generalist predators, feeding on a wide variety of small arthropods (Harris, 1928; Irwin and Shepard, 1980; Jervis, 1990). Many species are numerically important in crops such as soybean, cotton, alfalfa and snuff. The Heteroptera predators of soybean, including Nabis spp., constitute 40 to 89% of the total insect predators (Irwin and Shepard, 1980). Frascarolo and Nasca (1997) cite N. capsiformis as the most common predator in soybeans in the province of Tucuman, Argentina. Additional information in relation to the biology was given by Jessep (1964), Hormchan et al. (1976), Samson and Blood (1979) and Fathipour and Jafari (2008). According to Kerzhner (1983), "pale damsel bugs" are long-winged bugs that fly well, and are the most widespread species in the Nabidae.

Our purpose is to describe the immature stages III-V of N. (T.) capsiformis. Instars I and II were not found.

Materials and methods

The material was collected using a sweep net on May 1, 2010 in Medicago sativa L. (Fabaceae) in Winifreda, La Pampa, Argentina (36°19'28 .59" S, 64°19'50 .84" W). Measurements are in millimeters. Images were taken with a stereoscopic microscope Kyowa 72X and digital camera Samsung L700. The material was deposited in the Museo de La Plata, Argentina.

Descriptions

Instar III (Fig. 1a): body elongate light brown (in some specimens is brown) and setose. Length 2.52-3.11 (mean= 2.93; n= 4). Head: length 0.55-0.60 (mean= 0.58), width 0.45-0.48 (mean= 0.46), light brown at the base of the antennae and clypeus, and eyes and post-ocular region; eye width 0.18-0.22 (mean= 0.20), vertex width 0.21-0.27 (mean= 0.24). Rostrum: lengths of segment I: 0.15-0.18 (mean= 0.16), II: 0.36-0.42 (mean= 0.38), III: 0.36- 0.40 (mean= 0.37), IV: 0.270.30 (mean= 0.28); ratio of segment lengths about 1: 2.37: 2.31: 1.68. Antenna: lengths of antennal segments I: 0.30-0.42 (mean= 0.39), II: 0.45-0.63 (mean= 0.57), III: 0.88-0.93 (mean= 0.91), IV: 0.76- 0.84(mean= 0.81); ratio of segment about 1: 1.41: 2.11: 1.88. Pronotum brown with a red stripe that runs from the pronotum and anterior half of pteroteca and abdomen length 0.40-0.45 (mean= 0.43), width 0.49-0.51 (mean= 0.50). Wing pads length 0.46-0.49 (mean= 0.47) light brown. Abdomen: length 1.95-2.10 (mean= 2.04), width 0.66-0.70 (mean= 0.70). Legs light brown, fore femora: length 0.90-0.96 (mean= 0.94), width 0.16-0.18 (mean= 0.17); middle femora: length 0.81-0.85 (mean= 0.83), width 0.10-0.15 (mean= 0.12); hind femora: length 1.20-1.26 (mean= 1.22), width 0.09-0.12 (mean= 0.10).

Instar IV (Fig. 1b): body elongate light brown (in some specimens is brown) and setose. Length 3.44-3.70 (mean= 3.54; n= 3). Head: length 0.70-0.77 (mean= 0.72), width 0.52-0.61 (mean= 0.56), buccula + maxillary plate with a red stain, brown at the base of the antennae and clypeus, and eyes and post-ocular region; eye width 0.21-0.28 (mean= 0.24), vertex width 0.24-0.28 (mean= 0.27). Rostrum: lengths of segment I: 0.21-0.24 (mean= 0.22), II: 0.45-0.52 (mean= 0.48), III: 0.42-0.52 (mean= 0.47), IV: 0.30-0.33 (mean= 0.31); ratio of segment lengths about 1: 2.22: 2.18: 1.40. Antenna: lengths of antennal segments I: 0.49-0.56 (mean= 0.53), II: 0.880.94 (mean= 0.91), III: 1.26-1.29 (mean= 1.28), IV: 0.85-0.91 (mean= 0.87); ratio of segment about 1: 1.68: 2.37: 1.61. Pronotum dark brown with a red stripe that runs from the pronotum and anterior half of pteroteca and abdomen; length 0.45-0.52 (mean= 0.49), width 0.63-0.70 (mean= 0.66). Wing pads length 0.77-0.80 (mean= 0.78), brown. Ventral abdomen stripe in the connexival suture, length 2.10-2.38 (mean= 2.22), width 0.75-0.84 (mean= 0.79). Legs light brown, fore femora: length 1.26-1.33 (mean= 1.30), width 0.22-0.24 (mean= 0.23); middle femora: length 1.08-1.15 (mean= 1.12), width 0.14-0.17 (mean= 0.15); hind femora: length 1.70-1.80 (mean= 1.75), width 0.10-0.14 (mean= 0.12).

Instar V (Fig. 1c): body elongate light brown (in some specimens brown) and setose. Length 4.99-5.51 (mean= 5.19; n= 7). Head: length 0.84-1.00 (mean= 0.89), width 0.65-0.71 (mean= 0.67), with 1+1 red in the post-ocular region (Fig. 1d), buccula + maxillary plate with a red stain (Fig. 1e), brown at the base of the antennae and clypeus, and eyes and post-ocular region; eye width 0.27-0.31 (mean= 0.29), width vertex 0.32-0.37 (mean= 0.33). Rostrum: lengths of segment I: 0.25-0.31 (mean= 0.28), II: 0.69-0.77 (mean= 0.71), III: 0.69-0.75 (mean= 0.71), IV: 0.37-0.41 (mean= 0.38); ratio of segment lengths about 1: 2.57: 2.53: 1.35. Antenna: lengths of antennal segments I: 0.80-0.86 (mean= 0.82), II: 1.251.30 (mean= 1.27), III: 1.59-1.68 (mean= 1.64), IV: 0.79-1.05 (mean= 0.94); ratio of segment about 1: 1.54: 2: 1.15. Pronotum darker with a red stripe that runs from the pronotum and anterior half of pteroteca and abdomen; length 0.71-0.80 (mean= 0.76), width 0.88-1.00 (mean= 0.96). Wing pads length 1.87-1.93 (mean= 1.90), brown. Ventral abdomen stripe in the connexival suture (Fig 1e); length 3.02-3.99 (mean= 3.57), width 0.96-1.55 (mean= 1.15). Legs light brown, fore femora: length 1.74-1.81 (mean= 1.77), width 0.31-0.35 (mean= 0.33); middle femora: length 1.57-2.18 (mean= 1.80), width 0.19-0.26 (mean= 0.21); hind femora: length 2.35-2.64 (mean= 2.44), width 0.13-0.19 (mean= 0.15).

Taxonomic summary

Distribution: Argentina: Buenos Aires (without locality); La Pampa (Winifreda), new record; Mendoza: Potrerillos (32°57'2.67" S, 69°12'20.26" W); Misiones (without locality); Salta: Rio Bermejo, Salto. Brazil: Corumba (19°0'35.36" S, 57°39'17.08" W), Pipora, Rio de Janeiro (22°54'12.74" S, 43°12'34.51" W), Santarem (2°26'21.97" S; 54°41'55.45" W). British Guyana. Chile: Arica (18°29'14.56" S, 70°19'19.77" W). Mexico. Peru: Lima (12°2'36" S, 77°1'42" W). Uruguay: Montevideo (34°49'59.69" S, 56°9'59.83" W).

Observations: According to Harris (1928), this is a cosmopolitan species occurring in the USA from North Carolina to Texas and southward into South America. In a later publication Harris (1939) gives more information about locality records (which are mentioned above) and states that Potrerillos is in Misiones, but the only Potrerillos found in Argentina is in Mendoza; whereas Arica is in Chile and not in Peru, as mentioned in his publication.

Acknowledgements

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