Paloniella garmsi, Krüger, 2018

Krüger, Andreas, 2018, Vehicle-mounted net sampling of airborne micro-Heteroptera in western Liberia, West Africa: 1. Isometopinae (Miridae), Zootaxa 4378 (4), pp. 491-515 : 498

Paloniella garmsi sp. nov.

( Figure 6 )

Description. Male. Length 2 mm (figure 6 A). Maximum width across hemelytra 1.4. Head (figure 6B–D) dorsal width 0.67–0.68, length 0.14–0.16; facial width across genae below eyes 0.63; facial length 0.37–0.42. Anterior interocular space 0.23, posterior space 0.25. Dorsal width of eye 0.23, maximum diameter 0.27, height 0.28. Height of gena 0.1. Ocellus width 0.04; interocellar space 0.14. Maximum width of pronotum 1.15; median length 0.39. Scutellum length 0.61–0.66, width 0.76–0.8. Antennal segment II 0.5, III 0.15, IV 0.1 (figure 6E); II with fine bristle-like hairs slightly shorter than segment is thick, 3.3x as long as segment III, III almost as long as IV.

Head dorsally 4.2–4.9x as wide as long; in front 1.6–1.8x as broad as high. Interocular space equal to maximum eye width; ocelli 3.5x their width apart. Frons and genae markedly punctate, without horizontal furrow; face shining, without hairs. Frons and vertex yellowish brown, genae below eyes darker. Antennal segment II pale, apical third as well as III and IV brown. Rostrum brown to dark brown, reaching hind coxae.

Pronotum narrowly explanate and broadly arcuate laterally, reflexed upwardly antero-laterally, posterior margin deeply bisinuate. Scutellum strongly elevated. Mesoscutum medially depressed. Pronotum, mesoscutum and scutellum pubescent with short hairs, dark chocolate brown, apical quarter of scutellum contrasting white.

Hemelytra largely hyaline, except clavus on basal half and corium basally brown. Femora dark brown except apical yellow band; fore tibia yellowish, mid tibia brown, hind tibia basally yellow, rest brown. Venter brown.

Genitalia (figure 6F): everted endosoma of aedeagus strikingly elongate and angulate, with a short secondary branch at angle, mid section with long spines, otherwise echinulated. Right paramere with rather strong apical process and with slight proximal projection; medially with one seta. Left paramere simple, with smooth proximal bulb, pilose.

Female. Unknown.

Specimens examined. ♂ holotype, Liberia, Bong county, LRU house 15 — Bong Mine Airfield, N06°47’ W10°19’, 17.iv 1989, 6 pm (leg. Garms) . 1♂ paratype, Liberia, Bong county, Menla—LRU, N06°48’ W10°21’ – N06°56’ W10°15’, 13.iv 1989, 6–7 pm (leg. Garms) .

Etymology. This species is named after Professor Rolf Garms (Hamburg), who conducted the field work and collected all specimens dealt with in the present study.

Remarks. This appears to be a variable species, as the head and pronotum of the two available males feature slightly different shapes. Of all Afrotropical species of Paloniella, this and P. erinacea sp. nov. display an unique head morphology in having the smallest proportion of dorsal head width to length, i.e. only less than 5x as opposed to nearly 7x to up to 17x in the males of the other species ( Slater & Schuh, 1969; Akingbohungbe, 1996). This in combination with the rather high gena makes it very difficult to speculate about the affinity to other species.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Paloniella garmsi sp. nov. male. A—habitus; B—head, frontal view; C—head laterad; D—head, dorsad; Eantenna; F—parameres and aedeagus. Scales: A = 1 mm;B–E = 0.5 mm; F = 0.1 mm.