Thaumastocoris macqueeni Rose, 1965

Noack, Ann E., Cassis, Gerasimos & Rose, Harley A., 2011, Systematic revision of Thaumastocoris Kirkaldy (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Thaumastocoridae), Zootaxa 3121, pp. 1-60 : 35-36

Thaumastocoris macqueeni Rose, 1965

(Figure: 5A)

Thaumastocoris macqueeni Rose, 1965: 144 (description); Cassis and Gross 1995: 393 (catalogue); Cassis, Schuh and Brailovsky 1999: 31 (taxonomy)

Holotype: 3, QUEENSLAND: Tibrogargan Creek, via Caboolture, 30 viii 1963, A Macqueen, Thaumastocoris macqueeni HA Rose, T6511 (QM).

Diagnosis. Thaumastocoris macqueeni is recognised by the following characters: macropterous; ovoid body shape; light brown colouration; mandibular plates weakly concave dorsally; moderately pedicellate eyes ( Figure 5 A). It can be distinguished from T. petilus , which has weakly pedicellate eyes, by the macropterous wing condition and ovoid body shape. In addition, T. petilus is narrow in shape, with the hemelytra just extending to TIX, resulting in the abdomen being visible caudally. Thaumastocoris petilus is also straw-coloured with cream markings ( Figure 7 C,D), and not dark brown as in T. macqueeni ( Figure 5 A).

Redescription. Macropterous. Male length 2.94, width 1.19. Colouration. Dorsum light brown with contrasting dark brown to fuscous markings. Head: mostly light yellowish brown; vertex medium brown; clypeus dark brown; lateral margins of mandibular plates and genae with dark brown stripe; gula and bucculae fuscous. Antennae: mostly light brown; AIII and AIV darker brown. Labium: mostly light brown; apex of LIV fuscous. Pronotum: mostly light yellowish brown; midline of callosite region dark brown; disc yellowish brown medially ( Figure 5 A). Thoracic pleura and sterna: pleura mostly dark brown; proepimeron paler posteriorly; sterna uniformly dark brown. Scutellum : mostly fuscous, light yellowish brown posteriorly. Hemelytra: yellowish brown; corium becoming dark brown to fuscous distally; membrane light yellowish brown, apically infused with medium brown ( Figure 5 A). Legs: femora dark brown; tibiae light yellowish brown, distal half of second tarsomere dark brown. Abdomen: uniformly dark brown, lateral margins light brown. Texture. Dorsum moderately polished, with scattered shallow to moderately deep, setose punctures. Head: vertex impunctate; epicranial suture with shallow irregular punctures; genae sparsely punctate, punctures fine; mandibular plates irregularly punctate, punctures shallow. Pronotum: callosite region polished, irregular distribution of shallow punctures along midline and anterolateral angles; disc densely and regularly punctate, punctures moderately deep, humeral angles impunctate. Thoracic pleura and sterna: proepimeron with regular distribution of shallow punctures; thoracic sterna mostly with irregular distribution of sparse, shallow punctures. Scutellum : densely and regularly punctate, punctures moderately deep, midline polished posteriorly. Hemelytra: clavus and corium with uniform and moderate distribution of deep punctures, larger than on pronotal disc ( Figure 5 A). Abdomen: impunctate, moderately polished. Vestiture. Dorsum with uniform distribution of setose punctures, setae short, erect, straw-coloured. Lateral aspects of body with uniform, fine, light straw-coloured, decumbent setae. Ventral surface of body with shorter decumbent setae, most densely distributed on mandibular plates and medially on prosternum. Antennae: uniform distribution of decumbent setae intermixed with fine, erect setae; AIII–AIV with same setae on lateral margins, otherwise bare. Structure. Head: mandibular plates elongate, surpassing clypeus by less than clypeal length, contiguous medially, flared anteriorly, weakly concave dorsally, anterolateral margins weakly recurved; vertex weakly swollen; genae swollen; bucculae weakly arcuate; gula weakly concave. Eyes: moderately pedicellate. Antennae: AI and AII cylindrical; AIII and AIV weakly dorsoventrally flattened; AII weakly distally expanded. Labium: elongate, reaching midpoint of forecoxae. Pronotum: weakly constricted medially; callosite region longer in length than disc, disc broader; callosite region depressed along midline; anterolateral angles oblique; lateral margins of disc weakly arcuate. Thoracic pleura and sterna: metapleuron weakly swollen posteroventrally; prosternum broad anteriorly. Hemelytra: covering abdomen; medial margin of corium convex, apex of corium at membrane blunt, medial margin more than 45° to costal margin ( Figure 5 A). Legs: forecoxal separation greater than coxal width; fore and mesofemora strongly incrassate; fossula spongiosa elongate, reaching distal margin of second tarsomere; tibial teeth not observable. Male Genitalia: paramere subrectangular.

Female unknown.

Measurements. See Table 2.

Distribution. The single specimen of T. macqueeni was collected at Tibrogargan Creek, near Caboolture, in southeast Queensland ( Figure 20 B).

Host plant. Unknown.

Remarks. The macropterous hemelytra of T. macqueeni are unique to this species. The paramere was illustrated by Rose (1965) and is subrectangular, similar to that of T. nadeli or T. slateri .

Figures

FIGURE 5. Habitus, dorsal view. A Thaumastocoris macqueeni. B Thaumastocoris kalaako. C and D Thaumastocoris majeri. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURE 7. Habitus, dorsal view. A and B Thaumastocoris peregrinus. C and D Thaumastocoris petilus. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURE 20. Distribution map. A. Thaumastocoris australicus, T. busso, T. freomooreae and T. hackeri B. Thaumastocoris kalaako, T. majeri, T. macqueeni and T. nadeli.