Loxa cf. viridis - Loxa Stinkbug (Palisot de Beauvois, 1805, according to some places, while in others, Palisot, 1811)

Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomomorpha: Pentatomoidea: Pentatomidae: Pentatominae: Chlorocorini

There are three close to identical-looking members of the Loxa genus in Brazil: Loxa deducta (Walker, 1867), Loxa virescens (Amyot & Serville, 1843) and Loxa viridis (Palisot de Beauvois, 1805, according to some places, while in others, Palisot, 1811). All of them possess distribution in the state of Santa Catarina, in Brazil.

L. viridis occurs, according to the source I will provide further down, in Florida and Texas to Brazil and Argentina; Floreana, Isabela, Santa Cruz. I had to resort to the study of morphology to differentiate them.

L. viridis's general color is green. The lateral margins of the juga are often lighter in coloring than the disk on the head. Anterolateral margins on the pronotrum are serrated, normally lighter than the pronotrum disk; umeral angles very projected with sharp spikes, moderately to very elevated, directioned laterally or anterolaterally, sporting the same coloring as the anterolateral margins or red. They possess a pale spot on the peak of the radial venation. Males measure from 18,3 to 25,3mm, while females range from 18,9 to 25,3mm.

L. virescens has a green generalized coloring. The pronotrum normally has a transversal line of pale wrinkles between the umeral angles; umeral spikes are normally lighter than the pronotrum disk, rarely red; anterolateral margins are crennelated. The corium normally has a disk-like pale spot, with this sometimes being concolored and obscure or totally absent. Males are usually 18,7-21,4mm in size, while females range from 19,2-24,7mm in size.

L. deducta has a generalized green coloring. The juga has dense red punctuations on the medium and lateral margins, these sometimes concolored in the medium band. Clypeum with a medium band normally punctuated in red approximately until the basal half. The pronotrum's anterolateral margin is serrated; umeral angles developed in elevated spikes projected laterally. Corium with numerous pale and disperse calli. Adults measure around 13,3 to 16,3mm in males and 16,3 to 19,4mm in females.

The genus Loxa are known to feed on Anarcadiaceae (Lythraea brasiliensis March.; Schinus molle L.) ("Aroeira-Cinzenta"; "Aroeira-Mansa"), Euphorbiaceae (Sebatiania klotzschiana (Müll. Arg.)) ("Branquinho"), Fabaceae (Glycine max (L.) Merrill; Bauhinia candicans Benth.; Tipuana tipu (Benth.) DC.) ("Soja"; "Pata-de-Vaca"; "Tipa"); Oleaceae (Ligustrum lucidium (Ait.)) ("Ligustro"); Solanaceae (Solanum sisymbrifolium Lam.) ("Joá"). There may be more.

Loxa viridis was the conclusion I reached, but giving the benefit of the doubt as I'm no expert, I'll leave the species as doubtful until further notice. Loxa viridis is a member of the order Hemiptera, suborder Heteroptera infraorder Pentatomomorpha, superfamily Pentatomoidea, family Pentatomidae, subfamily Pentatominae and tribe Chlorocorini, although some entities place them under the tribe Pentatomini.

Source: https://books.google.com.br/books?id=mITflLCTmKMC&pg=PA253&lpg=PA253&dq=loxa viridis distribution&source=bl&ots=3huLoyM6bu&sig=twJbehWw7y-nnEGkiuapKLaz-Is&hl=pt-BR&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwihqsWN4c7ZAhUBxVkKHQrwCcQQ6AEwEHoECAIQAQ#v=onepage&q=loxa viridis distribution&f=false

There is another source filed as a PDF, but the link is offline. If you wish the file, contact me at oscarcbneto@hotmail.com

Encyclopedia of Life: http://eol.org/pages/608962/details

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loxa_viridis