Felisacus myersi, Namyatova & Cassis, 2016

Namyatova, Anna A. & Cassis, Gerasimos, 2016, Revision And Phylogeny Of The Fern-Inhabiting Genus Felisacus Distant (Insecta: Heteroptera: Miridae: Bryocorinae) Anna A. Namyatova And Gerasimos Cassis, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2016 (403), pp. 1-169 : 126-128

Felisacus myersi , sp. nov.

Figures 6 , 9C , 12 AE, AF, 15C, 19 DIAGNOSIS: Recognized by the following combination of characters: antennal segment I ca. 1.5–1.8× as long as head width; pronotum mostly yellow; dorsal surface of head brown to dark brown; inner part of clavus often whitish yellow to yellow; cuneus mostly colorless with p ale brown to brown margins; cylindrical antennal segment I (as in Namyatova et al., 2016: fig. 8A), transverse depression on head extending laterally, vertex upraised (as in Namyatova et al., 2016: fig. 6D). setae on femora mostly longer than antennal segment II width; labium reaching middle of mesosternum or slightly surpassing it; cuneus ca. 3× as long as base; medial part of right paramere slightly wider than basal part, shorter than basal and apical parts combined (fig. 12AE); apical part of left paramere not widened, ca. 3× as long as wide (fig. 12AF); vesica with five spicules, including spicules A, C, D, G, I (fig. 9C).

DESCRIPTION: Male. Total length 3.4–4.2. COLORATION (fig. 6): Head: Dorsal surface of head brown to dark brown, yellow posteriorly, anterior side of head pale brown to brown, sometimes with yellow markings below inferior margin of antennal fossa; clypeus pale brown to dark brown, darkened apically; tubercles around antennal fossa yellow to pale brown, sometimes brown dorsally; mandibular plate often yellow to brown; maxillary plate whitish yellow to pale brown; buccula whitish yellow to yellow; ventral side of head yellow. Eye whitish yellow to brown, sometimes with reddish tinge. Labium: Often uniformly whitish yellow to yellow, sometimes segment I yellow to pale brown, rarely segment II brownish basally or labium uniformly pale brown. Antenna: Segment I often pale brown or brown, paler at base and darkened apically, rarely yellow with pale brown apex; segment II brown to dark brown, often paler basally; segments III– IV dark brown. Thorax: Pronotum often yellow with pale brown or brownish anterior margin and brown posteriorly, sometimes posterior part of pronotum yellow with pale brown humeral angles; mesoscutum yellow; scutellum yellow, often pale brown to dark brown apically, sometimes depression and punctures between mesoscutum and scutellum pale brown; thoracic pleura yellow to pale brown, scent gland evaporative area uniformly whitish yellow to yellow, sometimes with reddish or pale brown apex. Hemelytron: Mostly translucent; inner part of clavus sometimes opaque, whitish yellow to yellow, often with pale brown or brown apex and lateral margins, rarely inner part of clavus pale brown with brown to dark brown lateral margins; outer part of clavus whitish yellow, rarely brown apically; corium mostly colorless, vein from apical part of clavus to cuneus pale brown to brown, often marking along inner margin on corium pale brown to brown; embolium colorless, sometimes whitish yellow to yellow with pale brown to brown margins; cuneus mostly colorless with pale brown to brownish margins; membrane colorless with yellow to brown veins. Legs: Coxae whitish yellow to yellow; femora whitish yellow to yellow basally and yellow to pale brown apically, sometimes also with small reddish markings apically; tibiae yellow, often darkened basally and paler apically, sometimes uniformly whitish yellow to pale brown, sometimes with reddish stripe basally; tarsi uniformly pale brown to brown or with segment I yellow. Abdomen: Ventral and lateral sides of pregenital segments whitish yellow, sometimes third and fourth segments pale brown, dorsal surface of pregenital segments reddish, pale brown or brown, genital capsule whitish yellow to pale brown. SURFACE AND VESTITURE: Corium smooth, with shallow and small punctures. Dorsum clothed with suberect setae slightly longer than antennal segment II diameter; antennal segment I with rare suberect setae subequal to or slightly longer than antennal segment II diameter; femora with suberect setae longer than antennal segment II diameter, abdomen clothed with suberect mostly short simple setae. STRUCTURE AND MEASUREMENTS: Body ca. 4.5–4.6× as long as pronotum width. Head: Transverse depression delimiting occipital region present dorsally and laterally (as in Namyatova et al., 2016: fig. 4E); distance between depression and pronotum distinctly shorter than eye diameter; longitudinal sulcus on dorsal surface longer than eye diameter; distance from eye to pronotum slightly longer than eye diameter, not swollen laterally (as in Namyatova et al., 2016: fig. 4E); vertex ca. 1.6–1.9× as wide as eye, vertex upraised (as in Namyatova et al., 2016: fig. 6D). Labium (as in Namyatova et al., 2016: figs. 6D, 9C): Reaching middle of mesosternum or slightly surpassing it; segments I and II greatly reduced, combined subequal to half of segment III; segment I shorter than wide; segment II slightly longer than wide, its dorsal surface elongate posteriorly; segment III slightly longer than ventral side of head; segment IV ca. 1.5× as long as segment III. Antenna: Segment I straight (as in Namyatova et al., 2016: fig. 8A), ca. 1.8–2.0× as long as head width, ca. 1.2–1.3× as long as pronotum width; segment II ca. 1.9–2.3× as long as head width, ca. 1.3–1.5× as long as pronotum width; segments III slightly longer than segment II; segment IV ca. 0.3× as long as segment III. Thorax: Anterior part of pronotum slightly shorter than posterior part; collar delimited; posterior part slightly upraised; posterior margin of pronotum concave; pronotum ca. 1.2–1.3× as wide as long and ca. 1.4–1.6× as wide as head; mesoscutum exposed. Hemelytron: Area along inner margin of corium almost flat; inner margin of cuneus convex (as in Namyatova et al., 2016: fig. 13E), outer margin of cuneus ca. 3× as long as base. Abdomen: Genital capsule rotated left at right angle relative to rest of abdomen. Genitalia: Genital capsule (fig. 15C) ventral wall ca. 1.7× as long as dorsal wall, posterior margin smooth, semioval, without outgrowth(s), its apex inclined leftward, not curved; sides of genital capsule on modified; right paramere socket slightly acute, left paramere socket rounded; distance between paramere sockets ca. 0.4× as long as genital capsule width at base. Right paramere (fig. 12AE) distinctly curved in apical half; apex slightly concave, medial part only slighter wider than basal part, bearing setae, with outer margin straight and inner margin convex; outer angle distinct, slightly swollen; inner angle indistinct, not bearing setae; basal part of paramere ca. 0.15–0.2× as long as rest of paramere. Left paramere (fig. 12AF) L-shaped; apical part flattened, with tooth on posterior side medially and without outgrowth on dorsal surface; middle part widened, without swelling or outgrowth; setae only on middle part near outer margin. Aedeagus (gen- eral view as in Namyatova and Cassis, in press: fig. 22I) conjunctiva weakly sclerotized, secondary gonopore placed at base of vesica in repose; sclerotization around secondary gonopore shorter than wide; vesica with four spicules, including spicules A, C, D, G, I (fig. 9C).

Female. Total length 3.7–4.2. COLORATION (fig. 6): Head: Color pattern similar to male, but anterior side of head pale brown to brown, sometimes with yellow markings along inferior margin of antennal fossa of head; lateral side yellow to pale brown, with brown stripe along eye margin or with brown making below eye, mandibular plate pale brown or brown. Labium: Whitish yellow or yellow often with segment I somewhat darker, yellow, brownish yellow or pale brown, segment II rarely brownish at base, segment III rarely with reddish tinge. Antenna: As in male. Thorax: Additionally to coloration of pronotum described in males, collar rarely brownish dorsally, posterior part of pronotum rarely almost uniformly brownish, yellow only anteriorly with dark brown markings near posterior angles; scutellum and mesoscutum as in male, but sometimes scutellum pale brown or brown; thoracic pleura yellow to pale brown, scent gland evaporative area whitish yellow to yellow with yellow or pale brown apex. Hemelytron: Similar to male, but inner part of clavus sometimes yellow to pale brown basally and brown to dark brown apically or uniformly brown to dark brown; cuneus sometimes with yellow tinge. Legs: As in male. Abdomen: Ventral and lateral sides of segments whitish yellow to brown; dorsal surface pale brown to brown. SURFACE AND VESTITURE: As in male. STRUCTURE AND MEASUREMENTS: Structure as in males; body ca. 4.3–4.6× as long as width of pronotum; vertex ca. 1.8–2.1× as wide as eye; antennal segment I ca. 1.6–2.0× as long as head width, ca. 1.0–1.3× as long as pronotum width; segment II ca. 2.0–2.1× as long as width of head, ca. 1.2–1.4× as long as width of pronotum; pronotum ca. 1.2–1.3× as wide as long and ca. 1.5–1.7× as wide as head. Genitalia (as in Namyatova et al., 2016: fig. 23F, G): Dorsal labiate plate wider than distance between apodemes of second valvula; mostly smooth, without distinct striations, with semicircular sclerite and distinct sclerotized rings laterally; lateral oviducts placed almost medially, very close to each other, spermathecal gland placed between lateral oviducts; dorsal labiate plate with distinct tubercles, without membranous lobe medially.

DISTRIBUTION: Vanuatu (Aneityum, Tanna, and Erromanga islands) (fig. 19).

HOST PLANTS: Unknown.

ETYMOLOGY: Species is names after Shepherd Myers, former curator of the BPBM insect collection, who kindly helped us during a visit (by A.A.N.) to that museum and loaned specimens.

DISCUSSION: Felisacus myersi is similar to F. meilingae in the external structure (fig. 6) and the shape of vesical spicules (cf. fig. 9B with 9C), but the latter species differs by the yellow dorsal surface of the head, the inner part of the cuneus is mostly pale brown to brown and the presence of additional small vesical spicule distally (fig. 9B).

MATERIAL EXAMINED: Holotype: VANUATU: Taeffa : Aneityum Is. : vicinity of Anelghowhat [Analgahaut], Aneityum Island , New Hebrides, 20.22505 ° S 169.76858 ° E, 18 Jul 1971, G.F. Gross, 1♀ (00017546) ( SAMA). Paratypes: VANUATU: Taeffa : Aneityum Is. : Anelghowhat [Anelgaohat], Aneityum [Aneytioum] Is., New Hebrides, 20.22505 ° S 169.76858 ° E, 100 m, Nov 1978, N.L.H. Krauss Coll., 1♀ (00042212) ( BPBM). vicinity of Anelghowhat [Analgahaut], Aneityum Island, New Hebrides, 20.22505 ° S 169.76858 ° E, 18 Jul 1971, G.F. Gross, 4♀ (00017547–00017550) ( SAMA) ; 19 Jul 1971, G.F. Gross, 1♀ (00017551), 13 (00017661) ( SAMA) ; 20 Jul 1971, G.F. Gross, 13 (00017662) ( SAMA) ; 22 Jul 1971, G.F. Gross, 4♀ (00017542–00017545), 63 (00017655– 00017660) ( SAMA). Erromango Is. : Port Narvin [Narevin], Erromango [Erromanga] Is. , New Hebrides, 18.74923 ° S 169.20622 ° E, 25 Aug 1979, N.L.H. Krauss Coll., 1♀ (00042213) ( BPBM). Tanna Is.: Lenakel, 0–200 m, 19.51921 ° S 169.28217 ° E, 150 m, Mar 1980, N.L.H. Krauss, 1 sex unknown (00042219) ( BPBM) ; Jan 1981, N.L.H. Krauss, 1♀ (00042214) ( BPBM). Lenakel , Tanna Is. , New Hebrides, 19.52733 ° S 169.26935 ° E, 50 m, Nov 1978, N.L.H. Krauss Coll., 33 (00042215–00042217) ( BPBM). West Coast , Tanna Is., New Hebrides, 19.54157 ° S 169.26939 ° E, 12 Mar 1964, R. Straatman, 13 (00042218) ( BPBM) .

Figures

FIGURE 6. Habitus of Felisacus species.

FIGURE 9. Vesical spicules of Felisacus species.

FIGURE 12. Parameres of Felisacus species.