Catalogo De Nabidae Neotropicales

Catalogue of Nabidae (Insecta: Hemiptera: Heteroptera) for Neotropical Region

LORENA N. VOLPI and MARIA DEL CARMEN COSCARÓN
División Entomología, Museo de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n, B1900DNG La Plata, Argentina.
E-mail: lorenan@hotmail.com


Abstract





The Nabidae (Hemiptera) of the Neotropical Region are catalogued. A total of 12 genera and 83 species are listed togetherwith their synonyms. References are given to the original descriptions and the subsequent taxonomic position, the location of types, and the geographic distribution. A comprehensive bibliography is provided.





Key words: Nabidae, catalogue, Neotropical, taxonomy, distribution






Introduction



Nabidae have been placed within the superfamily Cimicoidea in the infraorderCimicomorpha (Leston et al. 1954, Schuh and Stys 1991). Most species are of moderate size, only occasionally exceeding 10 mm in length. Many are elongate and of drab coloration, whereas others are more scout-bodied and occasionally possess distinctive red and black color patterns. The first pair of legs are slightly enlarged with a fossula spongiosa used to capture their prey. They are commonlyknown as “damsel bugs” due to the movement made when their front legs are raised. Lattin (1989) gave an exhaustive review of the biology of nabids. They are active predators found in leaf litter and upon plants. Nabinae appear to be predators on a wide variety of small arthropods including aphids, larvae and adults of the Hemiptera, thrips, caterpillars and acari, whereas Prostenmatinae appear toprey exclusively on other Heteroptera, especially Lygaeidae.
Nabids insert their eggs into plant tissue with only operculum remaining visible (Braman 2000).
Many species are numerically important in agricultural systems such as soybean, cotton, alfalfa and tobacco. Heteropteran predators in soybean, including Nabis spp., comprise 40 to 89% of the total predatory insects (Irwing andShepard, 1980).
There is no clear consensus concerning organization of the major subdivisions of the family. Stål (1873) provided the first useful classification, recognizing three tribes: Nabina, Coriscina and Pachynomina. Carayon (1970), Kerzhner (1981) and Pericart (1987) recognized four subfamilies: Medocostinae, Velocipedinae, Nabinae and Prostemmatinae. We follow the subfamiliesclassification of Schuh and Stys (1991) in defining the Nabidae as including only the Nabinae and Prostemmatinae. They defined the nabids on the basis of labial, with 4 distinct segments and membrane venation, and the presence of Ekblom's organ, Kerzhner´s (1981) classification is followed for the tribes.
The subfamily Nabinae is classified into four tribes: Arachnocorini, Carthasini, Gorpini andNabini which are united by the presence of moderately long labial segments and the lack of scutellar trichobothria. The subfamily Prostemmatinae is divided into the Phorticini and Palearctic Prostemmatini tribes, each with only two genera, both of which possess scutellar trichobothria and have the posterior foramen of the pygophore in a caudal or ventral position. Prostemmatini is considered to bemore primitive (Kerzhner 1981, 1996).
The family includes 20 genera and about 500 species distributed worldwide (Schuh and Slater, 1995). For the Palearctic Region 9 genera and 123 species are known (Kerzhner, 1996). For Canada and Continental United States there are 10 genera and 41 species cited (Henry and Lattin, 1988; Kerzhner and Henry, 2008). In the Neotropical Region there are onlypartial catalogue for Argentina, 2 genera and 7 species (Pennington, 1920-1921); Ecuador, 2 genera and 4 species (Froeschner, 1981); Galapagos, 1 genus and 3 species (Froeschner, 1985) and Panama 10 genera and 17 species (Froeschner, 1999). In this catalogue 12 genera and 83 species are listed.






Existent information for the Nabidae is scarce. Consequently, the taxonomic...