Vizcayaptera, Heiss, 2018

Heiss, Ernst, 2018, Two new genera and species of flat bugs from the Philippines (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Aradidae), Zootaxa 4500 (3), pp. 426-432 : 428-429

Vizcayaptera gen.nov.

Type species: Vizcayaptera minuta sp.nov.

Etymology. Refers to the Philippine Province of Nueva Vizcaya in Central Luzon where this new taxon was found.

Diagnosis. Apterous, small sized; body egg-shaped, surface smooth and shiny, finely granulate along lateral margins of body, the median thoracic ridge and elevation of tergal disk; coloration piceous, legs and antennae yellowish brown; legs and antennal segment I beset with sparse short erect bristles.

Description. Head: Larger than wide, clypeus short reaching one quarter of antennal segment I; antenniferous lobes acute: antennae more than twice the width of head, segment I longest; rostrum short, arising from an open atrium reaching half-length of head.

Pronotum: Trapezoidal, lateral granulate margins converging anteriorly, disk with a longitudinal furrow and smooth ovate plates laterally; meso—and metanotum split at middle by a longitudinal bottle-shaped granulate ridge separated by deep furrows from lateral ovate plates, the lateral margins granulate; metanotum posteriorly fused to narrow granulate transverse mtg I, this fused to mtg II which is split medially by a ridge.

Abdomen: Tergal plate smooth, only slightly elevated along midline; deltg II+III fused, deltg III–VII separated by sutures, their surface with two round smooth callosities each and granulate margins; spiracles II–VII lateral on dorsally reflexed vltg II–VII and visible from above, VIII lateral on ptg VIII.

Venter: Prosternum with an inverted T-shaped carina, median part of meso- and metasternum smooth, fused to sterna II+III; IV–VI separated by deep transverse furrows; sternite VI with a concave posterior incision for the reception of the medially split sternite VII.

Legs: Unarmed, trochanters fused to femora but fusion line distinct.

Comparative notes and discussion. Only two apterous Carventinae are recorded so far from Philippine Islands: Ainocoris dybasi ( Drake, 1957) from Sulu Island and Trigonaptera pandani Kormilev, 1968 from Palawan. Vizcayaptera differs from both and all other apterous Aradidae genera described to date from Oriental and Indosaustralian Regions by a combination of characters such as small size, oval habitus, open rostral atrium, structure of head and thorax and position of spiracles.

Although only a single female specimen is available which is not resembling any other flatbug, these differences justify the erection and introduction of a new genus for it.