Rasahus albomaculatus, the White-Noticed Corsair

wpadmin December 30, 2021 2 min read

Although the Hemiptera started their lengthy evolutionary historical past as plant-feeders, a lot of their subgroups later switched to a predatory life-style, their suctorial mouthparts being simply as fitted to stabbing flesh as vegetation. Among the many most profitable of the predatory bugs the place the murderer bugs of the household Reduviidae.

Picture copyright Jacob Gorneau.

That is Rasahus albomaculatus, a widespread murderer of the Neotropical area, discovered from Mexico to Argentina (Coscaron 1983). Although not one of many largest members of its genus, R. albomaculatus is a decent-sized bug, rising near an inch in size. Rasahus is a genus of the reduviid subfamily Peiratinae, generally generally known as corsairs for his or her fearsome side. Options distinguishing Rasahus from different genera of corsairs embody their massive eyes, a deep grove throughout the pinnacle in entrance of the ocelli, lengthy procoxae, and well-developed spongy pads on the fore- and mid-tibiae. Rasahus albomaculatus is distinguished from different species of the genus by its color sample. The physique is usually black with white patterning on the wings. Stripes alongside the highest of the wing and throughout the mid-length kind a crude H-shape when the wings are closed, with separate spots in the direction of the bottom of the wing and in the direction of the tip. Different noteworthy options embody a scarcity of granulation on the pronotum, and a rounded apex to the scutellum (Swanson 2018).

Corsairs are largely predators of different bugs and never typically harmful to people (although their chunk is meant to be very painful). Certainly, they could be useful to people as amongst their prey are believed to be different reduviids of the subfamily Triatominae, the blood-sucking “kissing bugs” that unfold Chagas illness (opposite to the Wikipedia web page on the western corsair R. thoracicus, corsairs don’t unfold Chagas themselves). Rasahus albomaculatus could present its vertebrate co-habitants with much more comfy dwelling circumstances.

REFERENCES

Coscarón, M. del C. 1983. Revision del genero Rasahus (Insecta, Heteroptera, Reduviidae). Revista del Museo de La Plata (nueva serie) (Zoologia) 13: 75–138.

Swanson, D. R. 2018. Three new species of Rasahus, with clarification on the identities of three different Neotropical corsairs (Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Peiratinae). Zootaxa 4471 (3): 446–472.