Insects found in birds’ nests from Argentina. Cyanoliseus patagonus (Vieillot, 1818) [Aves: Psittacidae], with the description of Cyanolicimex patagonicus, gen. n., sp. n., and a key to the genera of Haematosiphoninae (Hemiptera: Cimicidae)

Abstract

The Burrowing Parrot, Cyanoliseus patagonus (Vieillot, 1817) [Aves: Psittacidae], is one of the most southern Neotropical parrots. They require sandstone, limestone, or earth cliffs where they excavate their colonial nest-burrows. Adult C. p. patagonus excavate their own nest-burrows, most of them about 1.5 m deep. Each burrow is occupied by a single pair that lay one clutch of two to five eggs per year, directly on the sand of the breeding chamber. The breeding birds abandon the place until the start of the next breeding attempt in the following year. Burrow nests from Río Negro province (Argentina) are inhabited by two ectoparasitic insects, the flea Hectopsylla narium (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae), and Cyanolicimex patagonicus, gen. n., sp. n. (Hemiptera: Cimicidae). The Rio Negro province is the southernmost known limit for Haematosiphoninae in the Western Hemisphere, and C. patagonicus is the third Haematosiphoninae with a Psittacidae bird as host. As the South American genera of Haematosiphoninae cannot be separated using the available key due to unsatisfactory characters, the proposition of new characters for the identification of the four South American genera, together with the corresponding modifications to the key, are presented.

Occurrences of Ornithocoris toledoi (Cimicidae) on a free-range chicken farm in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

“…Despite the morphological similarities between O. toledoi and O. pallidus, they can be separated by the dark-brown body ( Figure 3B), which is typical of O. toledoi (CARVALHO, 1939;JANSEN, 1979;MORAES, 1939;PINTO, 1927), and the ratio between the width and pronotum head width (PW/HW) proposed by Usinger (1966). In the specimens collected by us, this ratio (PW/HW) was approximately 1.8, matching the diagnosis of O. toledoi by Usinger (1966) and Di Iorio et al (2010).…”

“…These external characters of the genitalia are typical of O. toledoi (JANSEN, 1979;JURBERG & AZEVEDO, 1982). As expected, these measurements varied between the specimens collected (Table 1) and among specimens of O. toledoi from other regions (PINTO, 1927;CARVALHO, 1939;MORAES, 1939;USINGER, 1966;JANSEN, 1979;DI IORIO et al 2010). Morphometric variations may be influenced by the specimen's physiological status, adaptive changes, genetic differences (DUJARDIN & SLICE, 2007), feeding or climatic conditions (JANSEN, 1979).…”

“…Two voucher specimens (female and male) were deposited in the "Angelo Moreira da Costa Lima" Entomological Collection (CECL) of the Biology Institute, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (accession numbers 12501 and 12502, respectively). We identified our specimens in accordance with Pinto (1927), Carvalho (1939), Moraes (1939), Usinger (1959Usinger ( , 1966, Jansen (1979), Jurberg & Azevedo (1982) and Di Iorio et al (2010).…”

“…It has also been found infesting chickens in other South American countries, such as Bolivia and Argentina (RYCKMAN et al, 1981). Although there is one report of the genus Ornithocoris in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (OTTO et al, 2008), its identification was questioned by Di Iorio et al (2010). The species O. pallidus was described from the nests of Pygochelidon cyanoleuca (Vielliot, 1817) (Aves: Passeriformes) in Viçosa, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.…”

First Report of Burrowing Parrot (Cyanoliseus Patagonus) Nesting in Tree Cavities

“…The Burrowing Parrot (Cyanoliseus patagonus) is a medium-sized parrot that lives in the southern Neotropical region. It is common in shrubby steppes and grasslands of arid and semi-arid regions of Argentina, Chile, and, in the past, in Uruguay (Di Iorio et al 2010, Masello et al 2011, Couve et al 2016. As with many other Psittaciformes, the Burrowing Parrot is highly gregarious, usually moving and roosting in large flocks of up to 3000 individuals and nesting in large colonies (Masello & Quillfeldt 2002, Masello et al 2006, Grilli et al 2012, Tella et al 2014, Sánchez et al 2016, Ramirez-Herranz et al 2017.…”