Mounds of diversity: towards a taxonomic revision of the Malagasy genus Ulpius Stal (Hemiptera: Reduviidae)

The genus Ulpius Stål in the family Reduviidae (or assassin bugs) currently consists of 9 described species, all endemic to Madagascar. Species of the genus are large, often brightly colored, and have interesting morphology displayed in mountainous pronotal tubercles and a curiously undulating margin of the abdomen. Despite their conspicuousness, no new species have been described in well over fifty years nor has the group ever been taxonomically revised since its inception in 1865. Identifying species is difficult due to the absence of an identification key. Our sorting of material from the California Academy of Sciences and the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle (~50 specimens) has revealed at least 2 undescribed species. Species were identified based on comparisons with photographs of the holotypes housed at the Hungarian Museum of Natural History, The Natural History Museum, and the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien. Specimen data were databased to create distribution maps of the species of Ulpius and the new species described. Diagnoses for all species of Ulpius and a key to species are provided. A preliminary phylogeny of the species of Ulpius is also presented.