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Taxonomic notes on the genus Onychomesa Wygodzinsky (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae)

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Abstract

The thread-legged bug genus Onychomesa Wygodzinsky 1966 (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae: Emesini, formerly Metapterini) and its three described species are reviewed. The Sri Lankan species Ischnonyctes alatus Distant 1903 is resurrected from the synonymy with Schidium marcidum (Uhler, 1896) and transferred to Onychomesa, and O. susainathani Wygodzinsky, 1966 is considered a junior synonym of this species, resulting in the following taxonomic changes: O. alata (Distant  1903), stat. rev. et comb. nov. = O. susainathani Wygodzinsky 1966, syn. nov. The lectotype of I. alatus is designated. A new species, O. schuhi Chen et Cai, sp. nov., is described from Hainan Island, southern China. An updated key to the species of Onychomesa is provided.

The species is registered in ZooBank (http://zoobank.org/8F582127-631F-4CD9-9E02-C3CD14AA52DC).

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All of the data that support the findings of this study are available in the main text.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Valerie A. Lemaître (BMNH) for reading and correcting the manuscript. We sincerely appreciate Randall T. Schuh (AMNH) and Tadashi Ishikawa (TUA) for the loan of the type specimens, and Jiazhi Zhang (Imperial College London, London) for his help in the photography. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their critical reading and helpful comments on the manuscript, and Amr Mohamed for his editorial work. This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32120103006), the China Scholarship Council (No. 202106350082) and the 2115 Talent Development Program of China Agricultural University.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China, 32120103006, Wanzhi Cai; China Scholarship Council, 202106350082, Zhuo Chen; 2115 Talent Development Program of China Agricultural University, Wanzhi Cai.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology and MOA Key Lab of Pest Monitoring and Green Management, College of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University, Yuanmingyuan West Road, Beijing, 100193, China

    Zhuo Chen & Wanzhi Cai

  2. Department of Life Sciences (Insects), The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK

    Michael D. Webb

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  1. Zhuo Chen
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Correspondence to Wanzhi Cai.

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Chen, Z., Webb, M.D. & Cai, W. Taxonomic notes on the genus Onychomesa Wygodzinsky (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae). Int J Trop Insect Sci 44, 555–570 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-023-01149-6

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