Plant Bug - Pycnoderes obscuratus

Pycnoderes obscuratus Knight, male

Moved from Pycnoderes. ID'd from specimen, now a photo-voucher. Thanks John.

This was difficult to ID due to lack of recent key (none since Blatchley). Using Blatchley, it just didn't key to anything that made sense, due to its small size (2.5 mm), non-sulcate pronotum, and coloration. Double-checking the catalog (1) led me to realize that one of Knight's species (originally a subspecies of P. balli) was missing from Blatchley's key (though mentioned in the text) and was described from Pennsylvania. So this must be it! Matches the description perfectly.

… Brad Barnd, 17 June, 2016 - 9:12pm

Lives up to it's name it seems :-)

Thanks for all the ID's!

… John Rosenfeld, 17 June, 2016 - 9:41pm

Attempted to key it out.

Based on the key in Blatchley's 1926 "Heteroptera of N. Am." (p. 868-869), this bug keys out to P. infuscatus based on:
-- 2nd antennal segment about as long as the width of the head;
-- All femora at least partly/mostly fuscous in color;
-- Veins of wing membrane blackish;
-- Joint 2 of antennae (between 2nd and 3rd segments) part pale, part brown.
At that time (1926), the species was "known only from the Black Mountains, N. Car." Since that work is incomplete for North American and perhaps out of date, I can't be confident that the taxonomy is still the same, but I'm sure the distribution must have been more widely documented by now.

… Chuck Sexton, 20 July, 2015 - 9:08pm

Thanks for taking the time to key this out Chuck

Perhaps WonGun has references for the current taxonomy.

… John Rosenfeld, 20 July, 2015 - 9:27pm

Great photography, by the way!

… Chuck Sexton, 20 July, 2015 - 9:53pm

Moved

Moved from Plant Bugs.

… WonGun Kim, 24 July, 2014 - 2:42am