Additional Florida Records of the Seldom-Collected Lasiomerus andabata (Hemiptera: Nabidae)

Information on the distribution and biology of North American nabids is most extensive for species associated with agroecosystems (Henry & Lattin 1988; Lattin 1989; Braman 2000). For example, Nabis alternatus Parshley, N. americoferus (Carayon), N. roseipennis Reuter, and N. rufusculus Reuter are well-studied generalist predators that help suppress pests of alfalfa, cotton, soybean, and other crops (e.g., Werner & Butler 1957; Braman 2000). In contrast, relatively little is known about the bionomics of nabids found outside managed systems. An obscure North American species is Lasiomerus andabata Kerzhner, known in the United States only from Florida. Torre-Bueno’s (1912) record from Brownsville, Tex. (as N. signatus Uhler), as the first for North America, apparently refers to the nearly cosmopolitan N. capsiformis Germar (Harris 1928). Kerzhner (1992) described L. andabata from Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States (Marion Co., FL), noting that this slender-bodied, usually brachypterous species has been confused with L. signatus , known from Central America, South America, and the West Indies, and with L. spinicrus Reuter, a Brazilian species. Thus, Blatchley (1926) reported L. andabata from Dunedin, FL, as the brachypterous form of L. spinicrus ; seven adults were sifted from plant debris along the bay front and the border of a pond from 27 November to 17 April. The only other published U.S. record of this seldom-collected nabid is a female (paratype), taken on 5 June 1969, in the Ocala National Forest near Halfmoon Lake (Kerzhner 1992). Here I provide new Floridian records of L. andabata based on specimens in the Florida State Collection of Arthropods, Gainesville (FSCA), and my recent collecting. Specimens that I collected are deposited in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Material Examined. USA: Florida: Highlands Co., Rt. 70 near entrance to Hufty Tract, Archbold Biological Station, 9.3 km S of Lake Placid, 17-IV1998, A. G. Wheeler, 2 // , 1 ? ; 17-III-1999, A. G. Wheeler, 3 // , 1 ? , 1 nymph; Orange Co., Winter Park, 21-VII-1944, H. T. Fernald, 1 / (FSCA); Polk Co., Bartow, Kissengen Springs, 15-II-1949, R. F. Hussey, 1 / (FSCA); Rt. 27, 3.2 km S of Waverly, 18-IV-1998, A. G. Wheeler, 1 adult, sex unknown; St. Lucie Co., White City, 14-VII-1983, K. Hibbard, 1 / (FSCA). Material in the FSCA was determined as Nabis spinicrus Reuter by R. F. Hussey (1944 and 1949 specimens) and F. W. Mead (1983 specimen). The specimens I collected were beaten from the crowns of bushy beardgrass or bushy bluestem, Andropogon glomeratus (Walter, Britton, Sterns & Poggenburg; Poaceae). The plants in Highlands County grew along the road in dry, disturbed habitat; those in Polk County were in a wet ditch. I thank Thomas J. Henry, Systematic Entomology Laboratory, USDA, Washington, D.C., for identifying L. andabata ; Tom and Tomohide Yasunaga, Hokkaido University of Education, Ainosato, Sapporo, Japan, for companionship in the field; Rebecca Yahr, Department of Botany, Duke University, Durham, NC (formerly with the Archbold Biological Station, Lake Placid, FL), for identifying the grass Andropogon glomeratus ; and Peter H. Adler, Department of Entomology, Clemson University, for reviewing a draft of the manuscript.