PODISUS NIGRISPINUS (DALLAS) AND PODISUS SAGITTA (FABRICIUS) (HETEROPTERA: PENTATOMIDAE): CORRECTION OF A MISIDENTIFICATION

Abstract

De Clercq and Degheele (1990, 1992) described the morphology and bionomics of a predatory stink bug under the name of Podisus sagitta (Fabricius). The studies were based on a culture started from specimens originating from Surinam. Workers from the Agricultural University of Wageningen, The Netherlands, who provided us with the specimens, referred to the species by the name “Podisus sagittus (L.)”(Adidharma 1986), which we corrected to P. sagitta (Fabricius), the name mentioned by Van Duzee (1916). Subsequent to our studies, Thomas (1992) published an illustrated key to the New World species belonging to the pentatomid subfamily Asopinae, which, for the first time, enabled accurate identification of species.