Rediscovery of Platerus pilcheri Distant (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), a forgotten assassin bug from India, with comments on its range extension

Abstract

Platerus pilcheri Distant, 1903, a harpactorine reduviid, is rediscovered from India after more than a century since its original description. A brief diagnosis of this species, a note on its range extension, a distributional map, and images of live habitus are provided along with the images of a syntype preserved in the Natural History Museum, London (BMNH). We also present a comparison with the other Indian congeneric species, Platerus bhavanii Livingstone & Ravichandran, 1991, and show that this latter species does not belong in the genus Platerus and is to be treated as species inquirenda. The issue of the subsequent documentation of Platerus bhavanii from Karnataka is also discussed.