Felisacus nigricornis Poppius, 1912

Namyatova, Anna A. & Cassis, Gerasimos, 2016, Revision And Phylogeny Of The Fern-Inhabiting Genus Felisacus Distant (Insecta: Heteroptera: Miridae: Bryocorinae) Anna A. Namyatova And Gerasimos Cassis, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2016 (403), pp. 1-169 : 131

Felisacus nigricornis Poppius

Figure 21

Felisacus nigricornis Poppius, 1912: 2 (original description).

DIAGNOSIS: Recognized by the following characters: head, pronotum, scutellum, base of clavus red; main part of clavus, claval commissure apically, inner margin of corium and antennal segments I–II black; outer and inner parts of cuneus brown; body length 4.0.

DESCRIPTION (from Poppius (1912), translated from German):

Head, pronotum, scutellum, as well as base of clavus, red; apex of clypeus, collar, rest of clavus, claval commissure apically, inner margin of corium, narrow outer margin of embolium, as well as antennal segments I–II (segments III–IV lost) black; narrow inner margin of embolium, corium apically, outer and inner parts of cuneus, as well as membrane cell, brown; rest of hemelytron transparent, colorless; ventral side of body red, posterior part of body with yellow marking medially; antennal segment I basally red; labium and legs yellow; femora basally whitish yellow, somewhat reddish apically. Head from anterior view slightly longer than wide, tapering; occipital region delimited with depression; from lateral view slightly longer than basal height; frons slightly less than twice as long as eye diameter; eye rather large, distinctly protruding, very finely granulate; labium reaching mesofemora, with segment I not reaching posterior margin of head; segment II slightly longer, slightly narrower than segment I. Antennae long, clothed with suberect setae; segment I almost longer than pronotum, segment II slightly longer, slightly narrower than segment I. Pronotum distinctly longer than wide, posterior margin almost twice as long as anterior margin; calli delimited with depression; calli large, merged with each other, collar narrow; pronotal disc distinctly convex and declivous. Hemelytron in female longer than posterior part of body. Legs with pale setae. Length 4, width 1 mm.

DISTRIBUTION: New Guinea (fig. 21).

HOST PLANTS: Unknown.

DISCUSSION: The type of Felisacus nigricornis is preserved in the Hungarian Museum of Natural Sciences, but is mutilated ( Carvalho, 1980); this was also confirmed by the curators of this collection (András Orosz and Dávid R é dei, personal commun.). We did not find any additional specimens which could be assigned to this species. Poppius (1911) compared F. nigricornis with F. elegantulus . Based on Poppius’ description, the affinities of this species are not clear. Carvalho (1981) also redescribed F. nigricornis based on additional material.

There are six Felisacus species known from New Guinea: F. dauloi , F. javanus , F. nigrescens . F. longiceps , F. magnificus , and F. minutus . They all differ from F. nigricornis in coloration. Felisacus dauloi can be separated from F. nigricornis in the head, pronotum, scutellum, and inner part of the clavus mostly yellow, the outer part of the clavus colorless, antennal segment I–II reddish brown, the cuneus mostly colorless, translucent with its margins and often apex yellow, red or mostly yellow. Felisacus javanus differs from F. nigricornis by the head yellow to brown, antennal segment I pale brown, sometimes with a reddish tinge, segment II reddish brown, the pronotum mostly yellow, the scutellum whitish yellow to pale brown, sometimes with a reddish tinge laterally, the inner part of the clavus mostly whitish yellow to yellow, the outer part of the clavus colorless; the cuneus with its inner part red and the outer part whitish yellow. Felisacus nigrescens differs from F. nigricornis by the head mostly pale brown, brown dorsally, the pronotum brown to dark brown, the scutellum yellow to pale brown, the inner part of the clavus brown, the outer part of the clavus colorless, brown apically, the cuneus colorless with the inner part and margins brown. Felisacus minutus is separated from F. nigricornis in the head and the anterior part of the pronotum mostly pale brown with a reddish tinge, the posterior part of the pronotum brown with a wide yellow stripe medially, the cuneus red with the outer part yellow and the margins brown. Felisacus magnificus and F. longiceps differ from F. nigricornis by the head and the anterior part of the pronotum yellow to pale brown, the posterior part of the pronotum dark brown to black, the C-shaped marking on the corium reaching R+M anteriorly and posteriorly, and the cuneus mostly colorless and red apically. No other Felisacus species have the head, pronotum, and scutellum red.

Figures

FIGURE 21. Distribution of F. bradi.