Sejanus biniguni Schuh, 1984

Menard, Katrina L. & Schuh, Randall T., 2011, Revision Of Leucophoropterini: Diagnoses, Key To Genera, Redescription Of The Australian Fauna, And Descriptions Of New Indo-Pacific Genera And Species (Insecta: Hemiptera: Miridae), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (361), pp. 1-159 : 151

Sejanus biniguni Schuh

Sejanus biniguni Schuh, 1984: 157 , figs. 499, 504, 508, 517–519 (n. sp., diag., descr., DV, MG).

DISCUSSION: Schuh (1984) stated that he tentatively included several species within Sejanus until knowledge of the fauna of the Indo-Pacific matures and acknowledged that they may belong to other lineages despite genitalic and claw characters that are similar to congeners and the Leucophoropterini more broadly. Sejanus biniguni from Papua New Guinea is one of those taxa, and based on the results of a subfamily-level analysis (Menard et al., in press) this species has a combination of several characters that make its placement within Sejanus and Leucophoropterini problematic. First, the left paramere is unlike any Leucophoropterini , with the posterior process bent down at an angle from the base ( Schuh, 1984: fig. 518), whereas all Leucophoropterini have the posterior process straight. Second, while the endosoma is C-shaped with a horsecollar–shaped secondary gonopore, it possesses spicules surrounding the secondary gonopore, while all Leucophoropterini have no elaborations around the secondary gonopore. Lastly, the coloration is unlike Sejanus , Ausejanus , and all other Leucophoropterini ; Sejanus biniguni is primarily yellow with faint red longitudinal stripes on the pronotum and scutellum and has pigmentation in the form of spots on the metafemora and at the bases of the tibial spines ( Schuh, 1984), whereas in all Leucophoropterini the head, thorax, and often the appendages are either dark brown or red and have unicolorous metafemoral and metatibial coloration (however, cf. Sejanus luteoelytratus for an exception).

DISTRIBUTION: Papua New Guinea.

HOLOTYPE: PAPUA NEW GUINEA: unknown: Biniguni , Gwariu River, 150 m, 27 Jul 1953 – 14 Aug 1973, G.M. Tate, 18 ( AMNH).

SPECIMENS EXAMINED: PAPUA NEW GUINEA: unknown: Biniguni, Gwariu River, 150 m, 27 Jul 1953 – 14 Aug 1973, G.M. Tate, 18 (00196098), paratype, 78 (00196091– 00196097) ( AMNH).