A New Species of Orthaea, a Neotropical Myodochine Genus With an Unusual Habitat (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae: Rhyparochrominae)

The genus Orthaea, as described by Dallas (1852), was monotypic, with O. consuta the type species, and was treated by Sthl (1874) as a subgenus of Pamera (Say, 1832). In 1914, Van Duzee argued against the use of the generic name Pamera, which Say (1832) had merely employed in a faunal list with no type or original species given, and suggested Orthaea as the valid generic name for a growing assemblage of myodochine species. In his subsequent catalogue of Hemiptera (Van Duzee, 1917) Pamera Sthl (nec Say, 1832) 1874, Plociomerus A & S 1843, Gyndes Stl 1862, and Diplonotus Stl 1872 were listed as synonyms of Orthaea, which generally persisted as the name employed for the group in question until Barber (1939) synonymized it with Pachybrachius (Hahn, 1826). Harrington’s 1980 monograph of the tribe Myodochini recognized the large, catch-all genus Pachybrachius as polyphyletic, including several genera and representing separate lineages involving three of the four male genitalic types for the tribe. In that study (Harrington, 1980), the genus Orthaea, with genitalic Type IV, was resurrected from synonymy with Pachybrachius and noted to include the type species O. consuta and one other species, Orthaea procincta (Breddin) (1901). The present paper describes a new species, Orthaea alveusincola, and provides features to distinguish it and the other two known species from each other. Details of the habitat in which the type series was collected are provided since this genus apparently occupies a niche unique for members of the tribe Myodochini. All measurements in the following description are in millimeters and the Villalobos color chart (Palmer, 1962) has been used as a standard.