Camptibia obscura, gen. and sp. n. (Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Harpactorinae) from China

A new harpactorine reduviid, Camptibia obscura, gen. et sp. n., from China is described. A key to related genera is pro­ vided. The functional morphology of the fore legs of this species is discussed.


INTRODUCTION
The subfamily Harpactorinae is the largest and most poorly studied subfamily of the Reduviidae.More than 300 genera and 2000 species are known (Putshkov & Putshkov, 1985;Maldonado-Capriles, 1990).Most of the Oriental species of this subfamily are listed in the works of Stal (1874), Distant (1904), Miller (1940Miller ( , 1948) ) and Hsiao & Ren (1981).About 150 valid species of Chinese assassin bugs in 43 genera in this subfamily have been reported prior to this study (Hsiao & Ren, 1981;Ren, 1988;Cai, 1991Cai, , 1995;;Putshkov & Putshkov, 1996;Hua, 2000).During revisionary work on East Asian Reduvii dae, we found a remarkable species with strange tibiae.This interesting reduviid can't be placed in any known genus of Reduviidae.So, we have erected a new genus for this species.

Diagnosis.
Large sized, elongate.Head distinctly shorter than pronotum (Fig. 1); eyes medium sized, pro truding laterally; ocelli widely separated; anteocular por tion subequal to postocular portion in length, with a small tubercle posterad to each antennifer; first antennal seg ment nearly as long as head and pronotum together, third nearly twice as long as second; rostrum robust, first seg ment the longest and slightly longer than the other two segments (Fig. 4).Anterior pronotal lobe small, slightly sculptured; posterior pronotal lobe nearly twice as long and wide as anterior pronotal lobe; lateral pronotal angles angled, posterior margin of pronotum slightly concave; stridulitrum of subwide, total-striate type (Cai et al., 1994); scutellum unarmed; fore femora medially thick ened, mid and hind leg slender; tibiae without spongy fossa, apical 1/3 of fore tibiae distinctly bent (Fig. 2).
Etymology."Camp" in Greek means bent.The genus is so named because the type species has bent fore tibiae.Feminine.

Remarks.
The new genus is similar to Rihirbus Stál (Fig. 3), but the fore tibiae of the new genus never have big teeth-like projections subapically.The structure of the fore tibiae also resembles that in the genus Agyrius Stál, 1863 but the femur of the new genus is not distinctly thickened and the first antennal segment is much longer than the head.It is similar to Villanovanus Distant in gen eral body plan, especially the male, but it belongs to a member of new genus because its fore tibiae are distinctly bent.The new genus resembles Brassivola Distant in the structure of the fore tibia, but the pronotum of the latter have four erect discal spines and lateral pronotal angles have horizontally directed spines.The new genus belongs to the tribe Euagorasini Distant, 1904 (as a division, Euagorasaria) according to Hsiao & Ren's (1981) as it has an postantennal tubercle and each femur lacks a spine.female, bases of mid and hind tibiae, apical 1/4 of mid and hind tibiae (except apices) dark yellow to yellowish brown.
Structure.Body somewhat slender.Body surface (except antennae, eyes, rostrum) clothed with yellowish bent short hairs; lower surface of fore femora and fore trochanters densely clothed with short hairs (Fig. 2); legs bear scattered long hairs.Head nearly cylindrical; first rostral segment slightly longer than combined length of the remaining segments and extending beyond the eyes; first antennal segment of male nearly 2.4 times as long as second, first antennal segment of female about 2.8 times as long as second.Collar process small, not distinct.Anterior half of posterior pronotal lobe with three indis tinct longitudinal carinae, lateral pronotal margin nearly rectangular (Fig. 1); fore femur moderately thick, mid and hind femur nearly the same thickness; hemelytron extending beyond abdominal tip.Abdomen of female slightly dilated laterally and that of male not so.Abdominal tip of female is shown in Figs 5, 6. Claspers clavate, distinctly bent, apex slightly thicker (Fig. 10); median pygophore process short, apex rounded (Figs 8,  9).The resting structure of phallus is shown in Figs 11 13.Basal plate long, basal plate bridge short and thin; pedicel short and simple.Phallosoma long ovate, dorsal phallothecal sclerite strongly sclerotized, distal portion distinctly wrinkled; struts fused basally and separated dis tally (Fig. 13).Base of dorsal surface of endosoma with two sclerotized processes (Fig. 14); vesica densely cov ered with different-sized small processes, with longer ones on the sides.Type material.Holotype, 2; China, Guangxi, Pingxiang, Mt.Daqing; 29.IV.1986;Hua Wei leg; apical two segments of right antenna missing.Paratype, 1 k; same data as holotype.The type specimens will be deposited in the collection of China Agricul tural University.
The structure of the legs of Reduviidae was surveyed by Miller (1942).Most assassin bugs have raptorial fore legs in broad sense.The femora, tibiae, even trochanters and coxae are often armed with teeth, spines, and hairs.In a large number of species of Reduviidae, the lower sur face of the apical portion of fore tibiae bears a so-called "spongy fossa", a pad of specialized setae (= fossula spongiosa), which enhances the gripping capacity of the legs during the capture of prey.But no the member of the Harpactorinae has a spongy fossa.In Camptibia, nearly the whole length of lower surface of the femur is covered with short hairs and scattered longer hairs.The lower sur face of the fore tibia is covered with scattered erect hairs and the apical 2/3 covered with short erect hairs.The lower surface of the fore trochanter, basal 2/5 of the lower surface of fore femur and apex of fore tibia is densely covered with erect short hairs similar to those on the spongy fossa of other reduviids, but the areas of cuticle covered by dense hairs are not less sclerotized than the remaining areas.Similar pubescence is also found on the legs of species belonging to the genus Rihirbus Stál (Fig. 3) and even of some species of Belostomatidae and Nepidae.Comparing the fore leg structure in Camptibia gen.nov.and Rihirbus we conclude that Camptibia gen.nov.can possibly more effectively hold on to big and smoother prey than Rihirbus Stál, 1861.