Notes on Blaudus Stål, 1872 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Acanthosomatidae)

Blaudus Stål is a monospecific genus of Acanthosomatidae described from Ecuador and Colombia. The male of B. ruficornis Stål is unknown (Kumar, 1974), and there is no information concerning the biology or host plants of this species. Tunaria Piran, with its only known species Tunaria andicola Piran, was described from Bolivia on the basis of a single female specimen. Several authors have considered Tunaria to be closely related to Blaudus, based on the description and figure Piran provided. However, apparently no new specimens of this species have been discovered, and no one has recently made any further comments on its relationship with Blaudus. Therefore, it has been omitted in recent contributions on the Neotropical Acanthosomatidae.  Now, nearly six decades after the description of Tunaria, we have discovered two specimens of T. andicola in the United States National Museum. After careful examination of these specimens, we have concluded that Tunaria is congeneric with Blaudus, and Blaudus andicola should be recognized as a new combination.