Stephanitis Stal , 1873

Souma, Jun, 2022, Integrative taxonomy of the Lauraceae - feeding species of the genus Stephanitis (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Tingidae) from Japan, Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 69 (2), pp. 219-281 : 219

Genus Stephanitis Stal, 1873

Stephanitis Stål, 1873: 119. Type species: Acanthia pyri Fabricius, 1775, by subsequent designation ( Oshanin 1912: 130). For other synonyms and detailed description, see Péricart (1983), Péricart and Golub (1996) and Souma (2020c).

Remarks.

To date, only macropterous morphs are known for members of the genus Stephanitis . To the best of the author’s knowledge, most species of this genus feed on the abaxial surface of angiospermous leaves, as do many lace bugs ( Schuh and Weirauch 2020). The nominotypical subgenus Stephanitis Stephanitis is distinguished from the other two subgenera, Menodora and Norba , by the following characteristics ( Horváth 1912; Takeya 1963): pronotum tricarinate (unicarinate in Norba ); lateral carina ridge-like or laminate (composed of a single row of areolae) (shell-like in Menodora ); posterolateral angle of paranotum not protruding posteriad (protruding in Menodora ); and hemelytral anterior margin not curved inwards in basal part (curved in Menodora ). Nevertheless, four Japanese species- S. (N.) aperta , S. (N.) mendica , S. (N.) morimotoi Takeya, 1963 and S. (S.) tabidula [= S. (S.) fasciicarina syn. nov.]-have a unicarinate or tricarinate pronotum as intraspecific variation ( Takeya 1931, 1963; Souma 2021c). Stephanitis (Norba) mendica is the type species of the subgenus Stephanitis Norba ( Drake and Poor 1936). " Stephanitis (Norba) aperta " and " S. (S.) tabidula " possessing a unicarinate and tricarinate pronotum, respectively, reported in a previous study ( Takeya 1963) are misidentifications of S. (S.) tabidula and S. (N.) aperta , respectively (see material examined of each species). However, S. (S.) tabidula possessing a unicarinate pronotum was confirmed in the present study. Therefore, the presence or absence of lateral carinae varies intraspecifically in at least three species. In conclusion, the number of the pronotal carinae is important for identifying most species, but insufficient for subgenus delimitation. Since the present author considers that molecular phylogenetic analysis using a high number of species and gene regions is necessary to synonymise Norba with the nominotypical subgenus Norba Stephanitis , the subgeneric status of ten species treated in the present study follows the current classification.