Leptocoris carnivorus, Usinger, 1946

Usinger, Robert L., 1946, Hemiptera Heteroptera of Guam, Insects of Guam II, Honolulu, Hawaii: Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Bulletin 189, pp. 11-103 : 25-26

15. Leptocoris carnivorus , new species ( fig. 1 , a, b).

Elongate-oval, reddish in color with black appendages and membrane and infuscated clavus and inner corium; upper surface clothed with a very short, inconspicuous pubescence, rostrum reaching to second or third visible abdominal segment. Pronotum with a strongly elevated anterior lobe and a well-developed median longitudinal carina which becomes obsolete posteriorly. Size: 12 to 15 mm.

Head three fourths as long as broad across eyes, 35: 47; tylus and juga convex, the tylus with a few, short, erect, black bristles anteriorly; vertex distinctly longitudinally sulcate at middle, with a swollen or elevated carina on either side in front of eyes extending to antenniferous tubercles; swollen postocular lobes about one third as long as eyes; eyes less than half as wide as interocular space, 10: 26; ocelli prominent, about twice as far apart as distance from an ocellus to an eye; bucculae short, decreasing just behind level of bases of antennae. Antennae five times as long as head and pronotum together, proportion of segments one to four as 17: 58: 58: 73. Rostrum reaching from middle of second to middle of third visible abdominal segment; proportion of segments one to four as 32: 36: 30: 30.

Pronotum half again as long as head, about one third broader than long; anterior lobe a little less than one fifth of total length of pronotum, strongly convex, abruptly depressed behind, with a rounded elevated marginal lobe on either side; anterior margin distinctly but narrowly elevated; posterior lobe only moderately elevated, distinctly, closely punctate except along lateral and posterior margins, sublaterally slightly depressed; a distinct median longitudinal carina interrupted only at anterior constriction and becoming obsolescent near posterior margin; posterior margin strongly depressed, carinate. Scutellum triangular, about as broad across base as long, feebly elevated and simple. Hemelytra exceeding tip of abdomen and concealing all of abdominal disk except narrowly at sides of middle of connexivum.

Under surface densely covered with a short, appressed, pale pubescence interrupted by numerous glabrous spots in which are inserted long, erect, pale hairs.

Male genital segment distinctive of the species, the ninth segment almost twice as broad at base as long to apices of posterior arms (26: 14); these arms stout, subcylindrical, slightly converging posteriorly, the entire segment clothed with very long, erect hairs. Claspers long, slender and sinuate, curved downward apically, extending half again as far beyond level of apices of genital arms as total length of these arms.

Color bright red with black appendages and membrane, and more or less infuscated clavus, inner corium, thoracic sterna and pleura and faintly infuscated abdominal venter.

Holotype male, allotype female, and 24 paratypes, Cetti Bay, May 28, on Thespesia populnea , Swezey and Usinger; 11 specimens, Barrigada, July 22, on Morinda , Swezey; five specimens, Ritidian Point , June 2, Swezey and Usinger ; four specimens, Mt. Alifan , June 27, Usinger; Barrigada , July 22, clustered by the hundreds on Morinda leaves, Swezey; one specimen, Guam, Sept. 28, 1938, on Colubrina asiatica , Oakley. A single, apparently perfectly typical male is at hand from Palau Islands, Ngeremlengui, Galmiskan, April 23, 1936, Z. Ono. At Ritidian Point, eggs, nymphs of all stages, and adults were common. They were also seen in large numbers at Machanao on June 5. The nymphs ran about on the ground and on dead leaves and were often seen feeding on dead nymphs and adults of their own species.

This species runs to L. abdominalis in Sta.l's key (Enum. Hemipt. 3: 99, 1873) but differs from descriptions of that species in its smaller size (16 to 20 mm. in abdominalis ) and its red abdomen (black in abdominalis ). A more detailed comparison is impossible in the absence of authentically determined specimens but taprobanensis (Dallas), which Distant in 1902 placed as a variety of abdominalis , has very slender genital arms which are strongly convergent posteriorly. L. ahnnei (Cheesman) and related Polynesian species have much broader genital arms which are posteriorly strongly divergent. The Philippine rufomarginatus (Fabricius), although much larger, differently colored and with an entircly different pronotum, has genitalia somewhat similar to the Micronesian species. The arms are broader, however, and longer and slightly divergent and the median claspers are relatively short, scarcely exceeding level of apices of arms. I have a single female from Luzon which resembles the Guam species very closely in structure but the head and pronotum are clothed with much longer, erect, black bristles, the pronotum is narrower behind and the clavus and corium are almost entirely infuscated. This last may be augur (Fabricius) whose lateral pronotal margins are described by Distant (Fauna Brit. India, Rhynch. 1:420, 1902) as "moderately hirsute." A female of insularis Kirkaldy from Fiji differs in its uniformly darker coloration and longer rostrum.

Figures

FIGURt 1.-Leptocoris camivoms: a, outline of dorsal view of head and pronotum; b, ventral view of last abdominal segment of male showing hairy posterior arms, slender median process and slender claspers on each side of middle.