Psallops webbi, Herczek, Aleksander & Popov, Yuri A., 2014

Herczek, Aleksander & Popov, Yuri A., 2014, New psallopinous plant bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera, Miridae, Psallopinae) from the New Hebrides and Nigeria, Zootaxa 3878 (4), pp. 366-378 : 372-377

Psallops webbi sp. nov.

( Figs. 9–16)

Diagnosis. Characters distinguishing Psallops webbi from other species include the following: color pattern (red patches on corium adjoining cuneus), unique head length to head width ratio, unique pronotum length to head length ratio, unique metatibia length to metafemur length ratio, as well as the unique matatibia length to metatarsus length ratio (see tab. 1). Finally, the structure of the left paramere is also distinctively characteristic ( Fig. 12 , 13 ).

Description. Male. General coloration of head, pronotum, prosternum, mesosternum, metasternum, first segment of rostrum, cuneus and anterior margin of hemelytra uniformly dark brown. Mandibular plates, clypeus, first segment of the antennae, first and second pair of legs, tibia and tarsi of the third pair of legs and the rostrum (except for the first segment) light yellow. Eyes reddish-brown with paler edges. Mesoscutum, scutellum, and the metafemur reddish-brown. Corium yellow-brown; anterior portion lighter in color. Small red patches on corium adjoining cuneus. Membrane grey-brown, weakly creased, covered with very fine setae. Body surface slightly crumpled, semi-dull. Mesoscutum and scutellum base glossy. Body covered with adpressed, light-colored setae, sparsely distributed over scutellum ( Figs. 10, 11 , 12 ). Segments II, III and IV of antennae absent. Rostrum long, reaching almost to end of hind coxae; first segment of rostrum reaches to mid-length of femora of second pair of legs. External side of metatibia sparsely covered with light-colored spines; length of spines slightly exceeds diameter of tibia. Tarsi 2-segmented.

Body elongate, 2.74x longer than it is wide. Head short, 2.55x wider than it is long (fig. 8;10). Vertex subequal to dorsal width of eye. Eyes partially extending over anterolateral angles of pronotum. Clypeal extends weakly downwards, flattened, and does not overhang beyond surface of frons. Clypeal base is situated at level of foveae antennalis. Mandibular plates narrow, vertical margin reaching mid-length of clypeus. Maxillary plates wide, width nearly reaching to end of clypeus; buccula narrow. Antennae situated directly below the lower edge of the eyes, diameter 1/3 of the total height of the eye measuring from the lower edge of eye. Rostrum thin and long, constituting over 3/4 total body length. Pronotum visibly creased, short, 2.87x wider at base than it is long and 2x wider at base than apical width. Collar narrow, poorly distinguished; calli inconspicuous. Scutellum 3.1x longer than mesoscutum, claval commissura shorter than combined lengths of mesoscutum and scutellum. Postcubital vein on clavus poorly visible. Cells on hemelytral membrane clear, smaller one is strongly reduced ( Figs. 9, 10). Metafemora considerably thickened, 3x longer than their maximum diameter thickness; tibia approximately 1.5x longer than the length of the femur; tarsus 2-segmented, second tarsomere 1.9x longer than first. Aedeagus missing. Paramere structure represents Lygus - type ( Konstantinov, 2003). Left paramere scythe-shaped, with very long apical process; sensory lobe inverted bowl-shaped; basal process short, triangular in shape ( Fig. 13, 14 , 15). Right paramere very short, with widely and don’t distinctly isolate apical process ( Fig. 16).

Female: unknown

Material examined. Holotype: Igboho-Kiohi; 8. 0 7. 1973; Nigeria, R. Linnavuori; paratype; Psallops crassifemur , sp.n. G. Schmitz, 1977. 1 male.

Measurements. Male: body length—2.60; width—0.95; length of head—0.20; width—0.51; height—0.47; dorsal width of eye—0.17; width of vertex—0.19; antennal segments: I—0.15; II, III, IV—missing; rostral segments: I—0.26; II—0.39; III—0.44, IV—0.31; length of pronotum—0.30; anterior width—0.43; posterior width—0.86; length of mesoscutum—0.10; length of scutellum—0.31; length of claval commissura—0.36; length of hind femur—0.78; width—0.26; hind tibia length—1.15; length of tarsus—0.25 (0.09:0.17); length of corium—1.11; length of cuneus—0.35.

Etymology. Named in the honor of our friend Dr. M.D. Webb, a well-known hemipterologist who is a curator in the Department of Entomology, British Museum of Natural History (London).

Remarks. Even though Psallops webbi sp. nov. comes from a region geographically far away from P. schmitzi , the two species share several morphological similarities. These include: eyes weakly extending over the anterolateral angles of pronotum, scutellum length to mesoscutum length ratio ( P. schmitzi : 3.0, P. webbi : 3.1), the ratio of the claval commissura length to combined lengths of the mesoscutum and the scutellum (0.90 and 0.88 respectively), and pronotum length to claval commissura length ratio (0.81 and 0.83 respectively). Also the dorsal eye width to vertex width ratio (0.89 and 0.89 respectively) and head width to vertex width ratio (2.78 and 2.79 respectively) are practically the same in both those species. The ratios of these two species are also similar to those found in Psallops leeae (0.92 and 2.80 respectively). In spite of the above listed similarities, P. w e b bi sp. nov. differs from P. schmitzi sp. nov. and from the remaining species of the genus Psallops with respect to head width to head length ratio, which equals 2.8 (2.17 in P. schmitzi ). Furthermore, the pronotum length to pronotum width ratio is different (2.87) as the metatibia length to femur length ratio (1.47) and metatibia length to metatarsus length ratio (4.6) also differ, the latter being unique for P. w e b bi sp. nov. Apart from that, the left paramere of P. webbi is characterized by a strongly elongated, scythe-shaped hypophysis (longer than that found in P. schmitzi ), and a differently shaped sensory area.

We are greatly indebted to our friend and colleague Mick D. Webb (Natural History Museum, London, UK), who made loaned us the psallopin mirids for our study. We also thank Marzena Zmarzly (Katowice, Poland) for the excellent figure drawings as well as our friend and colleague, Professor Carl W. Schaefer (Storrs, USA), who kindly reviewed this paper and improved it linguistically.

Figures

FIGURE 11. Psallops webbi sp. nov., holotype—lateral view.

FIGURE 12. Psallops webbi sp. nov., holotype—front of head.

FIGURES 13, 14, 15. Psallops webbi sp. nov., holotype—left paramere.