PROC. ENTOMOL. SOC. WASH. 95(3), 1993, pp. 449^52 DIEUCHES ARMATIPES C^ALKER) (HETEROPTERA: LYGAEIDAE) NEWLY DISCOVERED IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE Thomas J. Henry and Richard C. Froeschner (TJH) Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Plant Sciences Institute, ARS, USDA, % National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. 20560; (RCF) Department of Entomology, MRC-127, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560. Abstract.— The rhyparochromine lygaeid Dieuches armatipes (Walker) is reported in the New World from the Dominican Republic, Grand Cayman Island, Jamaica, and St. Kitts. Although these are the first confirmed records of this genus and species in the Western Hemisphere, Walker's original description is based on a specimen from "America." Thus, our records challenge the correctness of the recent designation of a neotype from Senegal, Africa. This species is said to be a pest of peanuts in Africa. A redescription and diagnostic information are provided to help distinguish it from other New World Lygaeidae. Key Words: Heteroptera, Lygaeidae, new record, Western Hemiphere, West Indies, Dieuches armatipes Five specimens of the rhyparochromine lygaeid Dieuches armatipes (Walker) have been intercepted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's APHIS/PPQ personnel since 1 984 from the Dominican Republic and Ja-maica at ports of entry in the United States. Discovery of the first specimen did not pro-vide convincing evidence that populations of this species occur in this Hemisphere. Additional interceptions and recent collec-tions from Grand Cayman and St. Kitts is-lands by R. M. Baranowski and W. B. Stein-er, however, indicate that D. armatipes is established in the West Indies. Members of the genus Dieuches Dohrn are restricted to the Old World where the majority of the 1 3 1 species treated by Eyles (1973) occur in the Afro-tropical Region. Dieuches armatipes is one of several species in the genus that have attained pest status. According to Eyles (1973), it has been re-corded as a serious pest of peanuts in several localities of Africa where it reduces the oil content and causes the nuts to shrivel and become bitter. Apparently D. armatipes will attack peanuts in the ground and those stored in piles after harvest. It also has been as-sociated with melons and peppers, but it may be that these crops stored in the field in crates at harvest merely provide an at-tractive hiding place for a bug that otherwise normally feeds on fallen seeds in and around a given crop. In this paper we give the "first" New World records for D. armatipes, review its distribution and hosts, and redescribe and provide photographs of the adult to help recognize this adventive Old World bug. Dieuches armatipes (Walker) (Figs. 1,2) Rhvparochromus armatipes Walker 1872: 91. Dieuches armatipes: Eyles 1973: 99 (rede-scription, neotype designation, synony-my, distribution, economic importance).
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