Description of the female of Procryphocricos perplexus Polhemus (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Naucoridae)

The predominantly Neotropical tribe Cryphocricini (Naucoridae: Cryphocricinae) comprises two described genera. Of these, the nominate genus, Cryphocricos (Signoret 1850), is widely distributed from Argentina north to Texas, and is represented by 14 described species (La Rivers 1971, 1974, 1976). This genus uses plastral ventilation (Parsons & Hewson 1974) and, thus, has drawn interest and been the subject of several associated studies of morphology and biology (Parsons 1974, Sites 1990, Sites & Nichols 1993, Lopez-Ruf et al. 2000). The second genus is monotypic, represented by Procryphocricos perplexus Polhemus. Nothing has been published concerning this genus since the original description, which was based on only two male specimens collected from rootmats in a river in Colombia (Polhemus 1991). Nothing is known of its biology or ecology, and the female was unknown. Presented here is the description of the female of this species.