Abstract
An intraspecific variation of the male genitalia of Phasmatocoris papei Gil-Santana, 2018 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae: Emesini), i.e., the absence (holotype) / presence (paratype) of the sclerotization of approximately basal two thirds of the ventral wall of phallosoma, reported by Gil-Santana (2018), was found to be incorrect. A subsequent reexamination of the specimens revealed that the misjudgement was based on a breakage of this structure in the phallus of the holotype. In fact, the ventral wall of phallosoma was completely sclerotized at its basal two-thirds in both specimens and should be considered as a species level character of Ph. papei.
References
Castro-Huertas, V., Forero, D. & Grazia, J. (2018) Comparative genitalic morphology in ten genera of thread-legged bugs of the tribe Metapterini, and its phylogenetic importance (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae). Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae, 58 (1), 91–125.
Gil-Santana, H.R. (2018) A new species of Phasmatocoris from French Guiana, with short taxonomic notes on two described species and an updated key (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae). Zootaxa, 4413 (3), 491–506.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4413.3.4