Brontostoma Kirkaldy 1904

Brontostoma Kirkaldy, 1904

The genus Brontostoma Kirkaldy, 1904, currently includes just over twenty species (Maldonado 1990; Dougherty 1995; Gil-Santana et al. 2004; 2005; Gil-Santana & Baena 2009). Although Maldonado (1990) and Dougherty (1995) disagreed regarding the validity of some of the described species (see Gil-Santana et al. 2005 for a complete discussion), the generic concept of Brontostoma is the same in both Dougherty (1995) and Carpintero & Maldonado (1996).

Species of Brontostoma are brightly colored with red, orange, yellow, and black or, rarely, buff-yellow and brown (Dougherty 1995). The main character used for separation of the species has been the coloration pattern (Wygodzinsky 1951), despite the intra-specific variation observed in several species and doubts on the limits between some specific taxa (Wygodzinsky 1951; Dougherty 1995; Carpintero & Maldonado 1996; Gil-Santana et al. 2005). Because the coloration patterns in Ectrichodiinae seem to be aposematic, with apparent Müllerian mimicry between many species (Dougherty 1995; Gil-Santana et al. 2005), coloration may not be useful for ascertaining the proximity between some species within each genus. Several species of Brontostoma have similar structural characteristics that are more useful for generic diagnosis than for species determination. In many species of the genus there is sexual dimorphism; females are usually bigger than males and may have thickened forelegs, widened abdomens, and reduced eyes and wings (Dougherty 1995).

The Brontostoma species already cited in Brazil (Stål 1872; Lethierry & Severin 1896; Wygodzinsky 1949, 1951; Maldonado 1990; Dougherty 1995; Gil-Santana et al. 2004, 2005; Gil-Santana 2008) are: Brontostoma alboannulatum (Stål, 1860), B. bahiensis Gil-Santana, Costa & Marques, 2004, B. basalis (Stål, 1859), B. circumductum (Stål, 1859), B. colossus (Distant, 1902), B. discus (Burmeister, 1835), B. doughertyae Gil-Santana, Lopes, Marques & Jurberg, 2005, B. fraternum (Stål, 1859), B. infensum Wygodzinsky, 1951, B. oglobini oglobini Wygodzinsky, 1951, B. rubrovenosum (Stål, 1860), B. rubrum (Amyot & Serville, 1843), B. sanguinosum (Stål, 1872), and B. trux (Stål, 1859).