Malipatilius minutus Kondorosy & Schmidt, 2024

Kondorosy, Előd, Kovács, Szilvia & Schmidt, Péter, 2024, A review of Malipatilius (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Rhyparochromidae), with a checklist of Lygaeoidea occurring in the Papuan Subregion, Zootaxa 5477 (2), pp. 147-170 : 165

Malipatilius minutus Kondorosy & Schmidt , sp. nov.

( Figs. 7 , 16, 17)

Type material. Holotype: [with orange label] Coll. I. R. Sc. N. B. / Canopy mission Papua / New Guinea (Madang / prov.): Baiteta / 24.V.1995. FogAR7 / Leg. Olivier Missa (♂, RMNH).

Description. Colour: Brown, clypeus, antenna except distiflagellum, posterior half of pronotum and scutellum, small oval spot of clavus at apex of scutellum, posterior two-third of corium, obscure spots of membrane and femora yellowish brown; clavus, basal one-third of corium, at apex of clavus an oval spot between veins M and Cu and another spot on exocorium, metepimeroid and rest of legs yellow ( Fig. 7 ).

Surface and vestiture: Punctuation like M. pilosus sp. nov. Most parts of body without visible pubescence; antenna with fine decumbent and semidecumbent setae; legs with very short decumbent pubescence, much shorter than diameter of tibia.

Structure: Head convex in lateral view. Antennal segments incrassate, pedicel and basiflagellum somewhat conical. Largest tooth of profemur considerably shorter than diameter of tibiae. Ostiolar peritreme of metathoracic scent gland apparatus (Fig. 16) long, first orientated straightly towards posterolateral edge of metepisternum, later curved posteriad, ending almost at posterior margin of metepisternum. Evaporatorium large, covering more than two-third of metepisternum.

Measurements: Total body length: 2.33; head: length 0.45, width 0.55, interocular distance 0.34, eye length 0.18, length of antenniferous tubercle 0.06; length of antennomeres: I 0.19, II 0.38, III 0.33, IV 0.39, diameter of basiflagellum 0.09; pronotum: length 0.58, maximum width 0.83, width at transversal furrow 0.66, width at anterior margin 0.45; scutellum: length 0.46, width 0.45; length of claval commissure 0.25.

Diagnosis. M. minutus sp. nov. is conspicuously smaller than other species of Malipatilius except M. szentivanyi sp. nov. It has the smallest eyes among the newly described species (vertex: eye width ratio is 3.18, the closest is M. microps sp. nov., which has this ratio not larger than 3.00); only M. forticornis has even smaller eyes. Its antenniferous tubercles are the shortest in the genus (eyes 2.8 times longer than antenniferous tubercles, while not more than 2.5 times longer in the other species). The scape is also extremely short (0.42 times as long as the head while in all other species at least 0.5 times, but mostly much longer). The fusiform basiflagellum is even thicker than in M. szentivanyi sp. nov. (about 3.71 times versus 4.1 times longer than thick; it is thicker only in M. forticornis ). Finally, the pronotum is only slightly narrowing anteriad (1.83 times wider at the humeral angles than at the anterior margin; in the other species it is at least 1.95 times wider).

Etymology. The specific epithet is the Latin adjective minutus , -a, -um, meaning small, minute, and refers to the small size of the species.

Distribution. M. minutus sp. nov. is known from the seashore of the northeastern part of New Guinea only ( Fig. 17 ).

Figures

FIGURE 17. Distribution of Malipatilius species in New Guinea.

FIGURES 5–8. Dorsal view of Malipatilius spp. 5 M. macrops Kondorosy & Schmidt, sp. nov.; 6 M. pilosus Kondorosy & Schmidt, sp. nov.; 7 M. minutus Kondorosy & Schmidt, sp. nov.; 8 M. szentivanyi Kondorosy & Schmidt, sp. nov.