Wingless Corsair Assassin
S2, Male, Head & Thorax
Wingless Corsair Assassin
S2, Male, Fossula Spongiosa
| Wingless Corsair Assassin S2, Male, Head & Thorax | | Wingless Corsair Assassin S2, Male, Fossula Spongiosa | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | True Bugs (Hemiptera) | ||||
| Family: | Assassin Bug (Cimicomorpha, Reduviidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Wingless Corsair Assassin (Ectomocoris sp) | ||||
| This Photo: | 🔍S2, Male, anterior🔎 | ||||
Thank you Danilo Lüdke for helping with the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere ~13.5mm. With these wingless ( "apterous") species, it becomes difficult to differentiate adults and nymphs, as wing development is normally a simple indicator to separate them. In response Danilo said "In Reduviid adults the pronotum is subdivided into fore and hind lobe (not in nymphs) and adults have three tarsal segments (nymphs two). In a nutshell, in nymphs many other structures and appendices looks somewhat more roundish, less developed, but the differences are difficult to describe, there is no general rule for all taxa. We can also consider the genitalia, which aren't fully developed in nymphs. This is a male, the genitals form a kind of capsule. Females have an ovipositor surpassing the abdomen and thereby forming its black tip. The male genital capsule does not reach the abdominal margin, that's why the tip of the abdomen looks rather roundish and red from above. Danilo added "The pads of the tibiae are called 'fossula spongiosa', a structure of hairs and spines producing a viscous substance. It helps to grab and hold prey." On another obs Danilo said "Wingless form, often quickly ID'd as E. patricius, however such IDs aren't reliable as apterous forms of similar species and their differences are yet unknown." Danilo said of our find "What's interesting about your specimen is that this is apparently not Ectomocoris ornatus! The wingless form was formerly called E. patricius but proved to belong to E. ornatus as well. However, the body length of E. ornatus (including measurements for E. patricius) is not known to be < 17.3 mm." ... "yours at 13.5 mm, together with the dark legs we have strong evidence that this is something either undescribed or previously not known from SA! It certainly fits best E. interioris known only from central arid WA (body length 13.4-13.7 mm)." ... "this is a find of high scientific importance" | |||||
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