Tsingala, Sites, 2022

Sites, Robert W., 2022, Phylogeny and revised classification of the saucer bugs (Hemiptera: Nepomorpha: Naucoridae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 195, pp. 1245-1286 : 1272-1273

TSINGALA GEN. NOV.

FIGS 5C, D , 11H , 20

Z o o b a n k r e g i s t r a t i o n: u r n: l s i d: z o o b a n k. org:act: 92EEA10A-6208-404D-8024-C2DBAF79590D

Type species: Tsingala humeralis ( Signoret, 1860) .

Description: Form ovate; widest at embolia; moderately flattened for family.

Head broad, eyes and anterior margin continuously and evenly convex to anterolateral corners of pronotum. Eyes slightly divergent anteriorly; mesal margin straight or nearly so, anteroventral margin concave; narrow band of cuticle posterior to eye widening lateral to eye. Front of head rolled posteroventrally so labrum set back from functional anterior margin, giving a bull-nosed appearance. Labrum broadly, evenly rounded with transverse basal sulcus. Maxillary plate not flap like, but integral with head capsule, immediately posterolateral to labrum. Rostrum with three visible segments, with segments 1 and part of 2 concealed behind labrum. Antenna four segmented with segment 1 short and inconspicuous, 2 and 4 longer, 3 longest; segments 2–3 enlarged, 2–4 setose. Head and pronotum moderately convex transversely.

Pronotum with anterior margin straight between eyes, then becoming concave as margin contours around eye; lateral margins convergent anteriorly and with slight convexity; posterior margin straight with rounded posterolateral corners. Scutellum triangular, lateral margins sinuate, twice as wide as long, evenly domed, heavily punctate. Hemelytra punctate, extending to tip of abdomen. Embolium well defined with embolar suture, yellowish anteriorly, dark posteriorly; clavus well defined with claval and intraclaval sutures; corium, clavus and embolium with sparse, fine hairs.

Propleuron immediately lateral to coxal cavity infuscated and covered with long clavate setae; laterally light coloured and glabrous. Prosternum sharply carinate, anterior surface of carina expressed as an elongate triangle to appress rostrum. Mesosternum roundedly carinate medially with a brush of long hairs and several isolated short, dark spines; carina terminates posteriorly as posteroventrally-directed tubercle. Metaxyphus broad with sharp median carina. Abdominal venter mostly glabrous along midline of III–V, covered with recumbent hairs and long, erect hairs laterally; thin, glabrous band along lateral margin; laterosternites each with 2–5 oval, glabrous depressions near spiracles; laterosternite V posterior margin modified as a variously-shaped lobe in females.

Profemur elongate, inflated, anterior margin with dorsal and ventral rows of golden hairs sandwiching one row of short, dark spines. Protarsus single segmented in females, two segmented in males, each with paired movable pretarsal claws. Males with thick pad of setae on mesotibia and tarsomeres 2 and 3, and to a lesser extent on protibia and both tarsomeres; female with pads of setae greatly reduced. Metafemur with anteroventral oblique, straight row of long setae ( Fig. 5d ). Meso- and metafemora with posteroventral rows of short, spinose setae spaced approximately one spine width apart for most of length, tightly spaced in distal fifth of mesofemur ( Fig. 5c ); posterior margins with dense brush of light-coloured hair; hairs longer on mesofemur. Meso- and metatibiae with rows of long dark-red spines. Long golden swimming hairs sparse on mesotibia and tarsus, profuse on metatibia and tarsus.

Males with aedeagus stout, narrowing apically; parameres asymmetrical, short, generally hatchet shaped; medial lobes of tergum VIII (pseudoparameres) well-developed. Female mediosternite VII (subgenital plate) broad basally, convex transversely, lateral margins convergent posteriorly, shape at apex differs interspecifically.

Diagnosis: In addition to features unique to the subfamily and tribe (see diagnoses above), the labral apex is rounded, the hemelytra lack a fracture from the distal ends of the embolia through the tip of the claval commissure, the anterior margin of the head is rounded rather than sharply margined, and the genus is endemic to Madagascar.

Etymology: In Malagasy, the native language of Madagascar, tsingala is the word for a naucorid bug. As such, I honour the people of Madagascar by elevating their common name for these insects with formal scientific recognition.

Comments: The three species formerly held in Heleocoris known from Madagascar are here transferred to Tsingala . As such, the following new combinations are proposed:

Tsingala humeralis ( Signoret, 1860) comb. nov.

Tsingala naucoroides naucoroides ( Montandon, 1897d) comb. nov.

Tsingala naucoroides ambiguus ( Poisson, 1962) comb. nov.

Tsingala nossibeanus ( Bergroth, 1893) comb. nov.

Figures

Figure 5. Heleocoris elongatus mesofemur (a), metafemur (b), Tsingala gen. nov. sp. C mesofemur (c), metafemur (d). White arrows indicate posteroventral spine rows, black arrows indicate anteroventral spine rows.

Figure 11. Examples of male genital capsule with pygophore, aedeagus and parameres (terga IX and X removed) for each subfamily: Ambrysinae: Ambrysus lunatus (a), Cheirochelinae: Coptocatus kinabalu (b), Cryphocricinae: Cryphocricos hungerfordi (c), Ilyocorinae:Ilyocoris cimicoides (d), Laccocorinae: Laccocoris spurcus (e), Limnocorinae: Limnocoris ovatulus (f), Macrocorinae subfam. nov.: Macrocoris flavicollis (g), Naucorinae: Afronaucoris gen. nov.: Afronaucoris madagascariensis (h).

Figure 20. Tsingala humeralis male: dorsal habitus (a), genital capsule with terga IX and X removed (b), left and right parameres (c). Sizes are not proportional among figures.