Dados do Trabalho

Título

To be or not to be, that's the question: Is Rhodnius zeledoni Jurberg, Rocha & Galvão, 2009 a junior synonym of Rhodnius domesticus Neiva & Pinto, 1923 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae)?

Introdução

Rhodnius zeledoni Jurberg, Rocha & Galvão, 2009 was described from a single specimen, a dead and damaged male collected in 2007 in the municipality of Ribeirópolis, in the state of Sergipe, Northeast of Brazil. The insect was previously identified as Rhodnius domesticus by the last author (Galvão), but according to the first author (Jurberg) R. zeledoni was related to Rhodnius paraensis, from which it differs by the proportions of the head, coloration of the legs and phallic structure of the male genitalia. No comparisons between R. zeledoni and R. domesticus were presented in the original description paper. Since its description, the taxonomic status of R. zeledoni remains as questionable.

Objetivo (s)

To compare R. zeledoni with R. domesticus

Material e Métodos

The present study review and compare R. zeledoni with R. domesticus based on head and wing geometric morphometrics and morphological analysis.

Resultados e Conclusão

Our analysis revealed no diagnostic characters between the two species. The only difference found was in the tonality of the general coloration, with R. zeledoni light brown and R. domesticus orange brown, which has been recognized as an existing phenotypic variation between populations resulting from ecological diversity. Furthermore, our analysis also revealed the morphometric similarity between these species. Therefore, we formally propose R. zeledoni as a junior synonym of R. domesticus.

Palavras-chave

Chagas disease; vectors; synonym; morphological analysis; geometric morphometry

Agradecimentos

Supported by CAPES; CNPq; FAPERJ and FAPESP