Finding Padaeus bovillus (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae): A Phylogenetic Placement and the Description of Its Sister...

The pentatomids (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) are the third most speciose family within the Heteroptera or the true bugs. The family occurs worldwide and comprises around five thousand valid species within 950 genera. Padaeus Stål belongs to a complex of other genera of Carpocorini Mulsant and Rey related to Euschistus Dallas. These genera present similarities in color, size, and shape, and share common features. However, among its four congeneric species, Padaeus bovillus Distant has been highlighted as an outlier by the posterior margins of the bucculae evanescent, while its congeneric species present posterior margins of the bucculae lobed. Thus, herein we redescribe P. bovillus and present a hypothesis regarding its phylogenetic placement within the Carpocorini. Furthermore, a new species similar to P. bovillus is described. Four molecular markers (COI, CytB, 16S, and 28S) plus 86 morphological characters were used to infer the phylogeny under Maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference. For the descriptions, we measured 16 morphometric parameters and dissected the genitalic structures. We also include illustrations of the habitus, internal and external genitalic structures, and provide distribution maps. Mitripus seclusus sp. n. Bianchi, Krein, Rider, and Grazia is recovered as the sister species to Mitripus bovillus comb. n., and both within Mitripus Rolston. Among other shared characters, species of Mitripus have the femora unarmed, they have a macula near the apex of the radial vein, and the mandibular plates tapering apically. Mitripus bovillus comb. n. and Mitripus seclusus sp. n. have the posterior margin of the pygophore projecting as a spine, a unique pattern within the genus. According to our results, Mitripus including M. bovillus comb. n. and Mitripus seclusus sp. n. now includes five species.