Chilocoris quadraticollis, Linnavuori, 1993

Chilocoris quadraticollis was originally described from the Republic of the Congo by Linnavuori (1993), and since that time, no other specimens of this species were sampled and identified. In addition, its biology was completely unknown.

Browsing through the Cydnidae material borrowed several years ago from the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren (Belgium), two females of this species collected in the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire) were found.

Ch. quadraticollis can be easily recognised among all Afrotropical species of the genus Chilocoris Mayr, 1865 by its pronotum shape, i.e., its lateral margins have distinct insinuation at mid-length ( Fig. 1).

Material examined: one female: Dans nid de Myrmicaria ; Coll. Mus. Congo, Kivu: Butembo, terr. Lubero 1740 m., R.P.M.J. Célis, XI-1955 ; one female: Congo belge: Kivu, Kinyamahura ( Djomba ), 1800 m., 23-viii-1934, G.F. de Witte: 551.

Remarks on biology: What was very important was that one female was sampled from an ant nest of a species representing the genus Myrmicaria Saunders, 1842 ( Hymenoptera : Formicidae : Myrmicinae ). However, our knowledge of burrower bugs associated with ants was very limited, as only two cydnid species representing the genus Amnestus Dallas, 1851 ( Cydnidae : Amnestinae) were hitherto reported in association with ants in Brazil ( Froeschner 1975). Therefore, it was impossible to state whether Ch. quadraticollis habitually shared the nest of a species of ant and could be regarded as a myrmecophile ( Kronauer & Pierce 2011), or were only an occasional inhabitant of the anthill.

Distribution ( Fig. 2): The species was known until now only from a single locality in the Republic of the Congo ( Linnavuori 1993); its two additional localities were herein, for the first time, reported from the Democratic Republic of Congo.