Creontiades Distant, 1883

Chérot, F. & Malipatil, M. B., 2016, A review of Adelphocoris - Creontiades - Megacoelum complex (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae: Mirini), with descriptions of two new genera and four new species, Zootaxa 4126 (2), pp. 151-206 : 164-166

7. Creontiades Distant, 1883

Creontiades Distant, 1883: 237 (as n. gen.) [type-species by monotypy: Megacoelum rubrinerve Stål, 1862 ]. Creontiades: Slater 1950: 39 , 75 (female genitalia); Carvalho 1956: 78 –82 (Micronesian species, diagnosis, key), 1959: 73–78 (catalog); Pathak 1964: 84 –87 (species of India); Wagner & Weber 1964: 113 (species of France, diagnosis); Carvalho & Gagné 1968: 189 –197 (species of Galapagos, diagnosis, key); Knight 1968: 204 (species of western North America, key); Maldonado 1969: 34 –36 (species of Puerto Rico, diagnosis, key); Pathak 1969: 49 –51 (species of India); Wagner 1974: 267 –270 (Mediterranean species, diagnosis, key); Schmitz 1976: 480 –486 (species of St-Hélène island, diagnosis); Henry & Wheeler in Henry & Froeschner 1988: 302 (catalog); Schuh 1995: 473 –478 (catalog); Cassis & Gross 1995: 165 –166 (catalog); Malipatil & Cassis 1997: 3 (diagnose, review of Australian species); Yasunaga 1997 a: 543 –545 (diagnosis, review of Japanese species), 1998 a: 65–66 (key of Japanese species); Chérot, Yasunaga & Gorczyca 1999: 15 -18 (new generic definition); Kerzhner & Josifov 1999: 90 –91 (catalog); Zheng et al. 2004: 249–253, 690, 701 (generic diagnose, review of Chinese species, key); Schuh 2002–2013 (online catalog); Hernandez & Henry 2010: 67 –68 (species of Cuba, diagnosis, key); Aukema, Rieger & Rabitsch 2013: 196 (catalog).

Diagnosis. Body elongate, total length 6–8, laterally straight, uniformly stramineous, yellow or yellowish brown, sometimes with fine red or brown stripes or small spots ( Figs 16–20); labium reaching posterior coxae; first antennal segment long, curved and club-like; pronotum dorsally almost glabrous with a dull, narrow collar and a pair of stiff erect setae on anterior corners; scutellum flat, mesoscutum slightly pilose. Hemelytra dull to slightly reflective, smooth, their punctation very reduced, dense, narrow and shallow, their pilosity, when present, sparse, recumbent, often hemelytra almost glabrous; veins raised; tibia with light, yellow spines. Secondary gonopore complete, lacking sclerite; phallus lacking comb, true spiculum or phallic support, always with several fields of denticles; parieto-vaginal rings wide, with a pair of anterior projections ( Fig. 23, Ap); dorso-labiate plate reduced. Dorsal wall lacking sclerite. Dorsal process of posterior wall present but undivided, median process reduced or absent.

Included species. According to the published data and our present study, the following species are placed in this genus: C. bipunctatus Poppius, 1915 , C. brevis Yasunaga, 1997 , C. coloripes Hsiao & Meng, 1963 *, C. debilis Van Duzee, 1915 *, C. dilutus (Stål, 1869) *, C. insularis Poppius, 1911 *, C. minutus Poppius, 1915 *, C. pacificus (Stål, 1859) *, C. pallidus (Rambur, 1840) *, C. philippinensis Yasunaga, 1998 , C. purgatus (Stål, 1860) , C. rubrinervis (Stål, 1862) *, C. samoanus Knight, 1935 *, C. sumatrensis Poppius, 1915 *, C. vittipennis Reuter, 1905 b *.

Distribution. Widely distributed genus, known with certainty from Africa ( Cabo Verde, Central, North and West Africa, Sudan, Madagascar), North, Central and South America, Australia, Continental China, Southern Europe and Middle East, India, Korea, Japan, several Pacific Islands including New Caledonia, Philippines Islands and Taiwan (as Formosa).

Host plants. Asteraceae, Bataceae, Chenopodiaceae, Convolvulaceae, Fabaceae and Poaceae ( Hernandez & Henry 2010; Schmitz 1968; Schuh 2002-2013; Yasunaga 1997 a).

Discussion. Numerous species presently placed in Creontiades should be critically revaluated. Several Indian and Oriental species described under the name Creontiades are in the present study transferred to the genus Orientomiris Yasunaga, 1997 . The genus Tricholygus Poppius, 1910 is reinstated for two African species. Some other species—such as those described by Carvalho & Gagné (1968) from Galapagos Islands—are probably not true Creontiades , but should be analysed further before deciding on their eventual reclassification in the complex. The species described by Poppius (1912) as Creontiades from Afrotropical region could effectively belong to this genus as redefined in the present work; however, an analysis of their male and female genitalia would be useful to corroborate this hypothesis.