Cogwheel Assassin Bug - Arilus gallus

This was a large sized Assassin Bug, named Cogwheel Assassin Bug - Arilus gallus because of the structure on its thorax that looks like a Cogwheel.

Picture of the nymphs can be seen here :

comments (4)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

Incredible insect!
Note that not even eol.org knows about Arilus gallus. I wonder if it perhaps has a synonym. Posted 9 years ago
1. Albert Kang
  
  Lion
  
  Not so sure about the synonym, there are quite a few species of Cogwheel Assassin Bug, even all the way up in US. Posted 9 years ago
2. WildFlower
  
  Lion
  
  This is strange indeed. Neither the Catalgue of life nor the GBIF have currently entries for this species.
  There are 41 occurrences from Costa Rica in the Insecta of Costa Rica (INBio) dataset which are only listed at the genus level.
  These entries are based on GBIF data which is no longer available.
  http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Arilus+gallus
  http://zipcodezoo.com/index.php/Arilus_gallus
  This entry is based on the book Systematic catalogue of the Reduviidae of the world (Insecta:Heteroptera)
  http://www.biolib.cz/en/taxon/id865078/
  According to the same catalogue Costa Rica is not within the distribution range of the species.
  http://biotaxa.org/cl/article/view/11.3.1662/13505
  There are two pinned specimens in different collections that look like this one.
  http://www2.nrm.se/en/het_nrm/g/arilus_gallus.html
  http://ciencias.medellin.unal.edu.co/museos/entomologico/
  There's this article with some photos but these bugs don't look the same to me.
  https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxsYXVyZW5wZml0enNpbW1vbnN8Z3g6NjAzNzgzOGY2YzE0Njc1Yw
  There is also this key, linking the name Prionotus with Arilus
  http://www.botanicus.org/primeocr/mbgserv14/botanicus5/BCA_00_00_0/bca_17_02_00/bca_17_02_00_307.txt Posted 9 years ago, modified 9 years ago
3. 1. Albert Kang
    
    Lion
    
    Thanks, WildFlower for your details research.
    I was given the ID when I posted this picture to Project Noah, and the person who helped with the ID specifically mentioned that Arilus gallus are reported from Costa Rica. Posted 9 years ago