This insect was found at Guilin, China, near Shi Wai Tao Yuan river, at Shangri-La thematic park.The Coreid expert Harry Brailovsky identified me as "an
Homoeocerus, probably
maculatus".But the name
Homoeocerus maculatus doesn't exist. There are some similar-spelling names such as
Homoeocerus macula,
Homoeocerus immaculatus and
Uranocoris maculatus (member of the same tribe, Homoeocerini, but described as new to science from New Guinea and very unlikely to be this one).
Homoeocerus immaculatus lacks white spots and can be ruled out.
Homoeocerus macula looks like a good fit, but see my selection below.After comparison of lots of species, it's clear for me that it belongs to genus
Homoeocerus and subgenus
Anacanthocoris. But this is an speciose subgenus with a lot of species. I looked for images of every possible species. It has been very useful the website
data.nhm.ac.uk/dataset/collection-specimens/resource/05ff... with illustrations of the type specimens of most species in the genus. It was great for rule out species that are physically different, such as those that lacks white spots at coriae.At the final selection, I choosed these four possible candidates:
Homoeocerus biguttatus In the mentioned website is illustrated under its synonym
Homoeocerus sikkimensis. By the name, it's at least a species present in China. Looks like very similar, tough shamefully, the type specimens lacks the last antennal segment. There are apparently no illustrations of live specimens in the net.
Homoeocerus lucidus is also very similar, but the type specimen lacks the whole head. There are apparently no illustrations of live specimens in the net.
Homoeocerus bipustulatus looks good, howeverm the antennae have each segment with a white tip and the last segment with white basal half and black apical half, in the images of alive specimens found. Also, the tip of the coriae (behind the white spot) looks like more vividly coloured in
H. bipustulatus than in this specimen...And finally
Homoeocerus macula is tempting because the phonetic resemblance of the original ID of the coreid expert, and the antennae have the same coloration. However looks like slightly different in shape, and the posterior margin of the pronotum is white, unlike my specimen. The white dots on coriae also tends to be bigger.So I'm struggling with these results, and trying to find the species of this specimen. The coreid expert seems no longer active and both of his emails are no longer working. Any help will be welcome, especially regarding which ones of the mentioned species can be found in Guilin province and which ones not.