Genus

Neotropiconyttus Kirkaldy, 1909: 388 [as a new name for Amaurosphodrus Stål, 1872]; Wygodzinsky 1949: 42 [catalog]; Putshkov and Putshkov 1985: 53 [catalog]; Maldonado 1990: 241 [catalog]; Maldonado and Lozada 1992: 162 [comments on diagnostic characteristics], 165 [in key]; Gil-Santana 2015: 30 [citation as a wasp-mimetic genus], 37 [in key]; Gil-Santana 2016: 92 [citation as a wasp-mimetic genus]; Gil-Santana et al. 2017: 41 [citation as a wasp-mimetic genus]; Gil-Santana and Oliveira 2023: 164 [citation as a wasp-mimetic genus], 200 [in key].

Type species.

[Zelus] alboannulatus Stål, 1855 by original designation, Kirkaldy, 1909: 388.

Diagnosis.

Neotropiconyttus may be separated from other wasp-mimicking genera by the following set of characters: Head fairly setose to very densely setose, especially on ventral and postocular portions, postantennal spines curved and directed forward; pronotum not inflated; scutellum visible from above; fore femora thicker only basally; fore tibiae straight.

Description.

Integument smooth. Head: gibbous, large, approximately as long as wide across eyes (neck excluded); with sparse long and short, straight or somewhat curved blackish setae; the latter much denser, forming pubescence of long blackish thick setae on postocular portion and gula. Clypeus straight in dorsal view, curved in lateral view. Antennal insertion at level of upper 1 / 3 of eye; scape straight, shiny; pedicel straight or somewhat curved; basiflagellomere slightly curved or straight; in [known] males somewhat thickened in basal ~ 1 / 2; distiflagellomere slightly curved and thinner than the other segments. Postantennal spines strongly curved and directed forward. Eyes globose, glabrous, projecting laterally, prominent in dorsal view, close to dorsal margin of head; reaching or not reaching ventral margin of head. Interocular sulcus thin and shallow, curved laterally. Just anterior to it, on midline, a small oval fossa followed anteriorly by a very short thin shallow median sulcus, which sometimes is not evident. Ocelli and portion between them elevated, the former somewhat closer to eyes than to each other. Labium stout, curved, reaching prosternum approximately at proximal part of its distal 1 / 3; segment II (first visible) thickest and longest, straight, reaching level of distal 1 / 3 of eye or its posterior margin; segment IV shortest, triangular, tapering. Neck thin. Thorax: Anterior collar narrow; anterolateral angles prominent, subtriangular. Transverse sulcus not deep, interrupted before middle by a pair of submedian shallow carinae; slightly curved laterally. Mid-longitudinal sulcus on fore lobe of pronotum moderately deep; disc of hind lobe smooth; lateral longitudinal sulci well marked at posterior 1 / 2 to posterior 2 / 3 of hind lobe of pronotum. Humeral angle slightly or not elevated, rounded at lateral margin. Scutellum with margins elevated, apex rounded. Legs: coxae globose; femora and tibiae slender, elongated, and generally straight. Fore femur shorter than head and pronotum together, thickened at basal portion and somewhat curved at midportion; middle and hind femora slightly thickened basally, sometimes dilated subapically and slightly narrower approximately at median portion where distal pale annuli may be located; apices of all femora with a pair of lateral small tubercles. Fore tibiae thickened apically, where there is a dorsal spur and a mesal comb. Hemelytra long, surpassing abdomen by ~ 1 / 2 length of membrane. Abdomen: elongated; spiracles rounded.