Axiagastus dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1937

Kment, Petr, Lemaître, Valérie A., Webb, Michael D. & Roca-Cusachs, Marcos, 2025, Revision of the Austro-Oriental shield-bug genus Axiagastus (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomidae), with the description of five new species, and taxonomic notes on related genera, Zootaxa 5603 (1), pp. 1-82 : 40-42

Axiagastus dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1937

( Figs 110–113)

Axiagastus dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1937: 322 (original description). Holotype: ♂, “ Singapore? Alte Sammlung [= old collection]” (ZMUH).

Axiagastus dubius : Weidner (1972): 114 (type information).

Type locality.? Singapore .

Type material. Holotype: ♂ ( Figs 110–113), “ Singapore. [p]? [hw] /Alte Sammlung. [p] // Axiagastus / n. spec? / nicht Rosmarus! [Breddin’s hw] // A. C. Jensen-/ Haarup / determ. 1931-32 [p] // Type [p, red label] // Type Coll. J-Hrp [p, label with black submarginal line] // Axiagastus / dubius J-Hrps / Det. [hw] Jensen-Haarup. [p, label with black submarginal line] // ZMH 81525 [p]” ( ZMUH). The specimen is pinned through the scutellum, considerably damaged, both hemelytra, left and right antennomeres IIb–IV, and right metatarsomeres II–III lost. We examined images provided by courtesy of Eileen Nguyen ( ZMUH) and Martin Husemann (University of Hamburg).

Original description ( Jensen-Haarup 1937, translated from the German). “Very similar to A. rosmarus Dall. , but, as Breddin noted on a label placed underneath the animal, not this species. Colouring brownish and yellow. The scutellum is elongate, much longer than wide at the base. It is missing the two large black spots on the anterior part of the scutellum as well as the curved dark spot in front of the tip, which are found in A. rosmarus ; the tip is bearing an almost circular, pale spot. The hemelytra bearing, past its middle, a pale spot next to the main vein. Length of the body (without membrane) 14 mm.”

Etymology. The specific epithet is the Latin adjective dubius (- a, - um), meaning “doubtful”.

Remarks. Axiagastus dubius was originally described by Jensen-Haarup (1937) based on a male specimen collected from Singapore (as a doubtful locality). The specimen is currently deposited in the Museum of Nature Hamburg—Zoology, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (ZMUH).This species is characterized by the chocolate brown colouration, with a more or less pale, circular spot on the apex of the scutellum.