Psallops niedzwiedzkii Herczek & Popov

Herczek, Aleksander, Popov, Yuri A. & Gorczyca, Jacek, 2016, Psallopsniedzwiedzkii, a new species from Ghana with a key to African species (Heteroptera, Miridae, Psallopinae), ZooKeys 603, pp. 161-169 : 163-165

Taxon classification Animalia Hemiptera Miridae

Psallops niedzwiedzkii Herczek & Popov sp. n.

Material examined.

Holotype: male. X. 65, Forest, Ghana, 2°28'W, 5°25'N, L. R. Cole. D. Leston coll. BM. 1976-509.

Diagnosis.

Recognized by the following combination of characters: yellow brown frons and clypeus, a pale reddish-brown, semihyaline corium with a darker embolium, a dark brown cuneus with a lighter apex, metatibiae ferruginous with yellowish apical part. Psallops niedzwiedzkii sp. n. is unique due to the ratio (3.78) of its antennae I and II segments, head width to length ratio (2.7), pronotum width to length ratio (2.47), hind tibia to hind femur length ratio (1.12), hind tibia length to pronotum width ratio (1.16) and others. The species is also defined by the distinctive structure of the aedeagus and left paramere (Figs 5, 6, 7).

Description.

Male. Coloration and vestiture: body generally brownish ferruginous, elongate with brown, semi-erect setae; setae sparsely distributed on pronotum. Dorsal surface weakly smooth, pronotum shagreened. Head, eyes, antennal segments II, rostrum, pronotum, scutellum, cuneus and femora dark brown. Anterior portion of hemelytron and mesoscutum reddish brown. Antennal segment I, frons, clypeus, mandibular and maxillary plates and coxae yellowish brown. Protibiae yellow, mesotibiae brown. Distal 2/3 of metatibiae ferruginous, apical 1/3 yellowish. External tibiae with two rows of brown spines. Membrane slightly smoky, grey.

Structure: body elongated, 2.67 × longer than wide. Head 2.7 × wider than long at plane of vertex. Eyes not dissociate at curvatures of vertex (Figs 1, 3). Vertex wide - at narrowest 0.5 × as wide as eye. Clypeus relatively short and almost half height of eye, smoothly fused to frons. Mandibular plate wide and short; maxillary plate narrower than buccula. Fovea antennalis situated low, eyes deeply indented. Labium reaches middle coxa. Antennal segments I and II equally thick; segment I 3.78 × shorter than II. Pronotum 1.6 × longer than head and 2.47 × wider than long. Collar clearly visible, but calli weakly marked. Scutellum shorter than pronotum; cumulative length of mesoscutum and scutellum equal to length of claval commissure (1.03). PCu on clavus weakly marked. Corium 3.27 × longer than cuneus. Hemelytral membrane with large cell well-developed, with length 2.22 × width; smaller cell strongly reduced; vein M forming obvious long process, somewhat shorter than length of large cell (Figs 1, 2). Metafemora, slightly thickened, approximately 3.73 × longer than maximum width. Tibiae 2.71 × longer than length of tarsus. Tarsi two-segmented, with hind second tarsal segment 2.60 × as long as first. Aedeagus delicate and membranous; apical portion of endosoma with eight sublinear strip-like blunt spines with different lengths; medial portion of endosoma with one bunch of sharp tipped spicules (Figs 6, 7). Left paramere scythe-shaped, with sensory lobe with inverted bowl shape; apical process narrow, elongated and subtlety serrate. Paramere body stoutly adjoins apical process (Fig. 5). Right paramere missing.

Female. Unknown.

Measurements. male: body length - 2.30; width - 0.86; head: length - 0.20; width - 0.54; height - 0.45; dorsal width of eye - 0.24; width of vertex - 0.12; antennal segments: I - 0.14; II - 0.53; III and IV - missing; rostral segments: I - 0.28; II - 0.26; III - 0.11, IV - 0.13; length of pronotum - 0.32; anterior width - 0.35; posterior width - 0.79; length of mesoscutum - 0.081; length of scutellum - 0.25; length of claval commissurae - 0.42; length of hind femur - 0.82; width - 0.22; hind tibia - 0.92; length of tarsus - 0.34 (I- 0.10; II- 0.26); length of hemelytron - 1,79; length of corium - 1.08; length of cuneus - 0.33.

Etymology.

Named in honour of our friend Jacek Niedzwiedzki.

Remarks.

Psallops niedzwiedzkii , sp. n. is distinguished from other species of Psallops primarily by the ratios of the head, antenna, pronotum and legs (see Table 1). The new species also shares certain characters with a few widely distributed species: Psallops linnavuorii , Psallops myiocephalus Yasunaga, 1999, Psallops sakarat Yasunaga, 2010, and Psallops webbii . The new species resembles Psallops sakarat in the head to vertex width ratio (4.5), head to pronotum width ratio (0.68 and 0.69, respectively) and pronotum to head width ratio (1.46 and 1.44, respectively). The second and third ratios are also typical of Psallops miocephalus (the former 0.69 and the latter 1.44). The head width to length ratio and the scutellum to mesoscutum length ratio are similar to those in Psallops webbii (2.79 and 3.1, respectively).

The structure of the aedeagus approximates that in Psallops linnavuorii although the number of apical spines, shape and arrangement of the bunched medial spicules are different. In Psallops linnavuorii the endosoma has two dense bunches of medial sclerotized spicules and four long, blunt tipped spines apically. Moreover, the shape of the left paramere in Psallops linnavuorii is similar to Psallops niedzwiedzkii ; both species are not thickened at the area adjoining the apical process.