Search

With more than 886 species in ∼137 genera, Ectrichodiinae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) are the largest animal clade of millipede predators. Recent phylogenetic studies have created a framework for our understanding of ectrichodiine evolutionary history, but no fossil species have been described. EctrichodiellaFracker and Bruner, 1924, belongs to the earliest diverging lineage of Ectrichodiinae, and a better understanding of the morphology and biodiversity of this genus may provide insights into the early evolution of the subfamily. The genus is composed of two described species, Ectrichodiella minima (Valdés, 1910) and Ectrichodiella rafaeli (Gil-Santana and Coletto-Silva, 2005) from Cuba and Brazil, respectively. Here, four new species of Ectrichodiella are described, with three representing extant taxa known only from French Guiana (E. caballina, n. sp., E. nouraguensis, n. sp., and E. obscura, n. sp.), while the fourth is based on a Miocene Dominican amber fossil (Ectrichodiella electrina, n. sp.). Diagnoses, descriptions, habitus and detailed morphological images, an identification key, and a distribution map are provided. A cladistic analysis based on 45 morphological characters that includes the fossil species corroborates the monophyly of Ectrichodiella, but the relationship of the fossil species to the five extant species remains ambiguous. Nevertheless, this phylogenetic placement makes Ectrichodiella electrina, a valuable fossil calibration for future divergence dating analyses, despite its relatively young age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aphelonotus Uhler is revised with the recognition of 14 species, six of them described as new: A, alvarengai, A. elongatus, A. minutus, A. paramedius, A. taino, and A. xenos. Aphelonotus brevirostris Carayon and Villiers is treated as a junior synonym of A. fraterculus Harris. Color habitus images and illustrations of the male parameres are provided for all species; morphology for the adult female of A. major is documented through the use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Measurements of male and female specimens are presented and analyzed, documenting a strong correlation between total length and the length of the proximal portion of the antennal pedicel and the consequent utility of either of these measurements in species discrimination. Nymphs are described for the first time for the genus, for the species A. fraterculus, A. major, and A. xenos; their morphology is documented by SEM and color images. Distributional maps show a pattern of occurrence restricted primarily to the New World tropics, including Cuba, with a single species known from the Congo Basin and East Africa. All specimens were provided with unique specimen identifiers and their associated data are now available on the Internet [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]