Grimaldinia, Popov, Yuri A. & Heiss, Ernst, 2014

Popov, Yuri A. & Heiss, Ernst, 2014, Grimaldinia pronotalis n. gen., n. sp. from Mid-Cretaceous Burmese Amber (Hemiptera: Heteroptera, Leptopodidae, Leptosaldinae), Zootaxa 3878 (5), pp. 444-450 : 445-448

Genus Grimaldinia n.gen.

Type species. Grimaldinia pronotalis n.sp.

Diagnosis. Distinguished from the only habitually similar extant genus the Neotropical Saldolepta, with one species, S. kistnerorum from Ecuador (Schuh & Polhemus, 1980) and Colombia ( Ortuño et al. 2007), by the small size, submacropterous alary condition, bare dorsal surface of body, absence of cephalic trichobotria, large reniform eyes that overlap at least the pronotal collar, very short antennae, very short and stout rostrum almost reaching procoxae, posterior margin of pronotum strongly emarginated at middle, reduced hemelytral membrane with 6 small cells, head pronotum and hemelytra unpunctured and covered with the same fine microsculpture, and hemelytra without pale markings.

Description. Specimen small submacropterous adult, length 3mm; SURFACE AND VESTITURE: surface of head, pronotum and hemelytra appearing finely punctured in low magnification, but higher magnification (400x) shows, that these punctures are the sieve-pores introduced by Cobben (1978), later recognized as trumpet-shaped microtrichia ( Andersen & Weir 2004); surface of scutellum with a granular structure different from that of head, pronotum and hemelytra; cells of wings shiny in appearance. STRUCTURE: Body elongate oval, attenuated posteriorly; Head about 5x as wide as long; frontal plate declivent, not produced anteriorly; ocelli widely separated; eyes large and elongate, overlapping anterior lobes of pronotum; vertex flat; eyes laterally raised, dorsally taller in height than vertex; antennae short, ventrally inserted, almost concealed beneath eyes in dorsal view with only a larger and a small and thinner terminal segment partly visible. Pronotum about twice as wide as long at middle; pronotal collar very narrow and barely visible from above; lateral margins evenly and widely rounded, anterior margin convex; posterior margin strongly emarginated at middle; disk flat with a shallow longitudinal depression medially. Visible portion of mesoscutum very narrow, difficult to trace.

PHOTO 1. Grimaldinia pronotalis n.gen., n.sp., dorsal view.

PHOTO 2. Grimaldinia pronotalis n.gen., n.sp., lateral view.

Scutellum triangular, about as long as wide at basal margin; lateral margins straight, apex acute; hemelytra slightly produced laterally and posteriorly over abdomen, surface convex; lateral margins evenly rounded, converging posteriorly; clavus distinct, claval commissure insignificantly longer than scutellum length, lateral costal fracture (cf) shallow but discernible, corial fracture (cof) short, reaching nearly to claval apex level; anterolateral angles showing a flattened unpunctured invagination; narrow membrane of the left forewing overlapping the right one, with 4 larger elongate and 2 smaller round cells, but difficult to discern as the veins show the same microsculpture as the surface of hemelytra.

Legs bent ventrally and obscured by impurities of the amber, hard to discern; fore femora incrassate, fore tibiae thickened with few apical spines, tarsus seemingly bisegmented, slightly curved claws which are about as long as tarsal segment; middle and hind femora and tibiae slender and longer relative to fore femora and tibiae, segmentation of middle tarsus also seemingly bisegmented, hind tarsus with 3 segments, but with shorter claws.

Etymology. The specific epithet is a patronym for our colleague David Grimaldi, dipterologist at the AMNH, in recognition of his systematic work on fossil insects, including leptopodomorphan bugs.

Discussion. Possessing the main characters known for Leptosaldinae (see above), the peculiar genus Grimaldinia n.gen. stands apart from all known leptosaldines and is to be considered as another isolated new genus like generally all leptosaldine bugs.

This extinct enigmatic genus differs clearly from all known leptosaldine genera by the uncommonly short antennae, absence of cephalic trichobotria, the unusual short and thick rostrum hardly extending to procoxae, strongly medially emarginated posterior margin of pronotum, incrassate fore femora and tibiae, and the bare surface of body. However, Grimaldinia also shows a flattened and stout habitus, very short rostrum, similar proportion of the transversal pronotun (twice as wide as long), and thickened fore femur, that superficially resembles the extant South American Saldolepta kistnerorum Schuh & Polhemus.