Pleuroxonotus stysi, Konstantinov, 2008

Konstantinov, Fedor V., 2008, Three new species of Phylini (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae: Phylinae) from Central Asia, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 48 (2), pp. 403-418 : 404-408

Pleuroxonotus stysi sp. nov.

( Figs. 1-4 , 9-10, 13-17 )

Type material. HOLOTYPE: J, KAZAKHSTAN: EAST KAZAKHSTAN PROV.: Zaysan city, 5 km along Rd to Zaysan Lake , 47.48333 ° N 84.8 ° E, 21 Sep 1971, Asanova ( AMNH _ PBI 00240875 ) . PARATYPES: KAZAKHSTAN: EAST KAZAKHSTAN PROV.: E coast of Alakol Lake, 46.2 ° N 82 ° E, Chernyakovskaya, 1 ♀ ( AMNH _ PBI 00153716 ). Kyzylkum Sands on Irtysh river, 30 km S Samarskoye, 48.744 ° N 83.368 ° E, 03 Aug 1978 – 04 Aug 1978, I. M. Kerzhner, Chondrilla sp. , 1 J ( AMNH _ PBI 00153711 ). Zaysan city, 5 km along Rd to Zaysan Lake , 47.48333 ° N 84.8 ° E, 21 Sep 1971, Asanova, 2 JJ ( AMNH _ PBI 00153708 , AMNH _ PBI 00252579 ), 1 ♀ ( AMNH _ PBI 00155342 ) ; 28 Aug 1975, Asanova , 3 JJ ( AMNH _ PBI 00153709 - AMNH _ PBI 00153710 , AMNH _ PBI 00236850 ), 3 ♀♀ ( AMNH _ PBI 00224404 , AMNH _ PBI 00224481 , AMNH _ PBI 00225936 ) ; 05 Aug 1975, Asanova , 3 ♀♀ ( AMNH _ PBI 00150813 , AMNH _ PBI 00153721 , AMNH _ PBI 00159191 ) . Additional material examined. KAZAKHSTAN: EAST KAZAKHSTAN PROV.: Kyzylkum Sands on Irtysh river, 30 km S Samarskoye, 48.744 ° N 83.368 ° E, 03 Aug 1978 – 04 Aug 1978, I. M. Kerzhner, Chondrilla sp. , 4 larvae ( AMNH _PBI 00153722- AMNH _PBI 00153725).

Description. Male. COLORATION ( Figs. 1-2 ): Bright yellow. Head: Uniformly yellow; labium with darkened apex of last segment; antenna pale, dirty yellow to light yellow-brown. Thorax: Pronotum, scutellum, and thoracic pleurites uniformly bright yellow, without any dark markings. Legs: Uniformly yellow, with dark tibial spines, apically darkened third tarsal segment and claws. Hemelytra: Uniformly yellow to greenish-yellow, usually with wide, indistinctly bordered pale brown stripe along inner margin; entire cuneus except lateral margin distinctly orange red, uniformly greenish-yellow in fresh specimens; membrane with smoky, semitransparent inner region and brown lateral stripe extending through both cells to apex; veins yellow. Abdomen: Uniformly yellow.

SURFACE AND VESTITURE. Dorsum shining, pronotum slightly granulate, scutellum and hemelytra smooth; dorsum with dense, simple, decumbent, short and thick black setae, and with simple, decumbent, short silver setae on scutellum and at sides of pronotum and hemelytra; venter with reclining, pale, simple setae, scarce on thorax and dense on abdomen; all appendages with dense short, black, semiadpressed, simple setae, especially dense on antennae; tibial spines shorter than width of tibia; first antennal segment without spinelike setae on medial surface.

STRUCTURE. Elongate oval, body 3.4-3.7 × as long as width of pronotum; total body length 7.5-8.0. Head ( Fig. 3 ): Elongate, projecting anteriorly, about 1.75 × as long as eye in anterior view, with very large eyes; vertex 1.2-1.4 × as wide as eye, frons weakly convex and projecting beyond anterior margin of eyes, clypeus prominent, extending far beyond antennal fossa; antenna rather long, second antennal segment 1.0-1.2 × as long as basal width of pronotum and 1.7-2.0 × as long as width of head; labium slightly surpassing fore coxae. Thorax: Pronotum 1.8-2.0 × as wide as long, with strongly carinate anteriolateral angles, distinctly carinate and slightly concave lateral margins, rounded posterolateral angles; calli distinctly demarcated by shallow impression; metathoracic scent-gland evaporatory area elongate oval, broadly rounded dorsally. Legs: Slender, hind femora rather thin and long, almost reaching apex of abdomen, third tarsal segment slightly longer than first and second segments combined ( Fig. 16 ), claw rather long, thin, moderately bent at middle, pulvillus flaplike, barely reaching midpoint of claw, apically free, not attach to claw ( Fig. 17 ).

MALE GENITALIA. Genital capsule:Approximately one-third of abdomen, conical, gradually tapering and broadly rounded apically, without distinctive ornamentation. Parameres: Right paramere narrow, lanceolate, with comparatively short, truncate apical process ( Fig. 15 ); left paramere with strongly sclerotized, claw-shaped, dorsally tuberous sensory lobe, apical process thin, nearly as long as whole body of paramere, distinctly curved at middle, apically rounded ( Fig. 14 ). Apex of theca: Typical of many phylines ( Fig. 13 ). Vesica: S-shaped, body of vesica with several shallow longitudinal ridges, apical portion with two sclerotized straps separated by membranous area and apically terminating with straight, long, thin and acute apical blade; secondary gonopore subapical, with well developed sculpture, placed on membrane lateral to sclerotized strap of vesica ( Figs. 9-10 ).

Female. COLORATION. As in male, but usually paler ( Fig. 2 ).

SURFACE AND VESTITURE. As in male.

STRUCTURE. Somewhat smaller and broader than male, length 3.1-3.4 × width of pronotum, total body length 7.3-7.8. Head ( Fig. 4 ): Distinctly projecting anteriorly, about 2.5 as long as eye in anterior view, eyes smaller, dorsal width of eye 0.7-0.85 × than in male, vertex 2.2-2.4 × as wide as eye, clypeus markedly prominent, wider and distinctly more projected anteriorly than in male; second antennal segment 0.9-1.1 × as long as basal width of pronotum, 1.8-2.0 × as long as width of head. Thorax: Pronotum 1.6-1.9 × as wide as long, with lateral margins delimited by shallow longitudinal impressions, finely upturned and more strongly carinate than in male ( Fig. 4 ).

Differential diagnosis. Recognized by the large body size, almost pale general coloration with orange tinge on cuneus ( Figs. 1-2 ), short labium slightly surpassing fore coxae, and large eyes in males ( Fig. 3 ). Easily distinguished from all three hitherto known species of the genus by the total body length exceeding 7.3 in both sexes, while body length in other species reaching at most 7.0. Pleuroxonotus nasutus Reuter, 1904 resembles the new species in having the short rostrum and trace of pale brown stripe along inner margin of hemelytra, but differs in the uniformly pale cuneus and smaller eyes, with vertex 1.4-1.5 × as wide as eye in males, 1.9-2.1 × as wide as eye in females (see description of metrics of P. stysi sp. nov.). Pleuroxonotus longicornis (Reuter, 1900) close to P. stysi sp. nov. in having comparatively large eyes, but differs in labium extending to middle coxae, long and narrow body, males 3.9-4.3 ×, females 3.6-3.7 × as long as basal width of pronotum (see description of metrics of P. stysi sp. nov.), somewhat longer antennae, and uniformly pale cuneus. Male genitalia of these species, although differing in size and degree of sclerotization, are structurally too similar to be used as reliable taxonomic characters ( Figs. 10-12 ).

Etymology. The species is named in honor of Prof. Pavel Štys on the occasion of his 75 th birthday and for his many contributions to our knowledge of Heteroptera .

Host plant. Chondrilla sp. (Asteraceae) .

Distribution. Kazakhstan, East Kazakhstan province.

Figures

Figs. 1-8. Dorsal habitus photographs.1-4 – Pleuroxonotus stysi sp. nov.1 – male; 2 – female; 3 – head and pronotum, male; 4 – head and pronotum, female,. 5-6 – Lepidargyrus fasciatus sp. nov. 5 – male; 6 – female. 7 – Macrotylus subattenuatus sp. nov., male; 8 – Macrotylus attenuatus Jakovlev, 1882, female, lectotype.

Figs. 9-17. Pleuroxonotus spp., genitalia and tarsus. 9-12 – vesica. 9-10 – P. stysi sp. nov.: 9 – lateral view; 10 – ventral view. 11 – P. longicornis (Reuter, 1900), ventral view. 12 – P. nasutus Reuter, 1904, ventral view. 13-17 – P. stysi sp. nov.: 13 – apex of theca; 14 – left paramere; 15 – right paramere; 16 – tarsus; 17 – pretarsus. Scale bars = 0.05 mm.