Plagiognathus louisianus, SCHUH, 2001

SCHUH, RANDALL T., 2001, Revision Of New World Plagiognathus Fieber, With Comments On The Palearctic Fauna And The Description Of A New Genus (Heteroptera: Miridae: Phylinae), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2001 (266), pp. 1-267 : 158

Plagiognathus louisianus , new species Figures 9 , 17 , 27

HOLOTYPE: Male: ‘‘[ USA] LA [Louisiana]: E. Baton Rouge Par., Baton Rouge, 13­V­ 1986, Coll. E. G. Riley’ ’. Deposited in the American Museum of Natural History.

DIAGNOSIS: Recognized by the moderately large size, pale antennal segments 2, 3, and 4, only antennal segment 2 being dark at base, the dense covering of pale, shining, recumbent setae on the dorsum, the generally pale coxae, trochanters and femora, and the dorsum with extensive pale areas, the scutellum usually pale laterally with a dark median, longitudinal stripe or, less commonly, entirely dark or pale (fig. 9). Most similar in size and coloration to albatus (fig. 5) and punctatipes (fig. 12), but easily separated from punctatipes by the entirely castaneous dorsum and the tibiae being pale at the articulation with the femora in that species, and from albatus by the structure of the male genitalia and the somewhat more robust body form in louisianus .

DESCRIPTION: Male: Moderately large, robust; total length 3.77–4.13, length apex clypeus–cuneal fracture 2.76–3.02, width across pronotum 1.25–1.31. COLORATION (fig. 9): Dorsum varying from pale or weakly golden to brown; anterior lobe of pronotum, at least midline of scutellum, and posterior one­half of corium mostly brown, remainder of dorsum, including costal margin of wing, mostly pale to golden; vertex pale, frons par­ tially pale, face polished and deeply castaneous at and below level of antennal insertion; antennal segment 1 castaneous except for conspicuous pale apical annulus, segment 2 dark at extreme base, remainder of segment pale (fig. 17), segments 3 and 4 pale; labium pale except basal two­thirds of segment 1 and apex; venter castaneous, including metathoracic scent­gland evaporatory area; legs, including coxae, pale, femora with faint darker spots; dorsal tibial spines with small dark spots at bases; tibiae weakly dark at point of articulation with femora. SURFACE AND VESTITURE: Dorsum weakly granular, smooth, weakly shining. Vestiture of dorsum composed of rather densely placed, recumbent, faintly golden, shining, simple setae. STRUCTURE: Body relatively broad, hemelytra nearly parallel­sided; frons nearly straight across as viewed from above, clypeus at most barely visible from above; anteocular distance less than 0.5 times diameter of antennal segment 1; head barely projecting below level of eye; labium reaching to about apex of hind coxae. GENITALIA (fig. 27): Body of vesica more or less U­shaped, base of vesica reaching to near level of secondary gonopore; posterior apical spine nearly straight, weakly angled relative to body of vesica, anterior spine only moderately elongate, weakly angled relative to body of vesica, and sharply bend subapically; flange narrow, not surpassing body of vesica, and just surpassing base of gonopore.

Female: Very similar to male in coloration but more strongly ovoid. Total length 3.93– 4.24, length apex clypeus–cuneal fracture 2.80–2.96, width across pronotum 1.28– 1.32.

HOST: Unknown.

DISTRIBUTION: Louisiana.

ETYMOLOGY: Named for its occurrence in Louisiana.

PARATYPES: USA.— Louisiana: East Baton Rouge Parish: Baton Rouge, April 26, 1986 — May 13, 1986, E. G. Riley, 13, 2♀ (DAR). Baton Rouge, LSU campus, May 9, 1986 — May 31, 1985, D. A. Rider, 43, 3♀ (AMNH, DAR). St. Landry Parish: Thistlewaite WMA, June 27, 1986, E. G. Riley and D. A. Rider, 53, 12♀ (AMNH, DAR, USNM, LSU).

Figures

Fig. 9. Habitus figures of Nearctic Plagiognathus spp. (see p. 263 for localities).

Fig. 17. Antennal segments 1 and 2 of Nearctic Plagiognathus spp.

Fig. 27. Male genitalia of Nearctic Plagiognathus spp.