Pseudoloxops leopardalis, Yasunaga & Duwal, 2017

Yasunaga, Tomohide & Duwal, Ram Keshari, 2017, Plant bugs of the tribe Orthotylini (Heteroptera: Miridae: Orthotylinae) in Thailand, with descriptions of five new species, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 65, pp. 280-298 : 293

Pseudoloxops leopardalis , new species

( Figs. 7E , 9E , 10G–J )

Type material. Holotype male, THAILAND: Nakhon Ratchasima, SERS, N14°30′27″ E101°55′39″, 410 m alt., light trap, 21–22 March 2014, T. Yasunaga & K. Yamada ( DOAT) ( AMNH _ PBI 00380545 ).

Diagnosis. Recognised by the small, rather ovoid body ( Fig. 7E ); distinctly bicolourous (deep red and whitish yellow) dorsum; densely scattered red spots on dorsum; brown stiff setae on head and lateral portions of pronotum and hemelytron; orange-red, semi-circular mark on scutellum; deep red apical half of metafemur; generally slender, elongate left paramere ( Fig. 10I ); and heavily sclerotised endosoma with exaggerated spiculi ( Fig. 10H ).

Description. Male: Body rather ovoid, small-sized; dorsal surface creamy yellow, largely deep red and spotted, somewhat matte, with uniformly distributed, semierect setae and densely distributed, brown, stiff setae on head, pronotum, corium and embolium. Head deep red anteriorly, slightly projected in front; eyes large, each about as wide as vertex; vertex with a faint, orange, mesal stripe; frons striolate medially; clypeus deep red. Antennal segment I rouge, with dark, stiff setae; segments II–IV whitish brown, without reddish tinge. Labium shiny pale reddish brown, slightly exceeding apex of mesocoxa; apex of segment IV reddish brown. Pronotum creamy yellow, with an orange, narrow mark and small red spots at middle and deep red margin; mesoscutum tinged with orange; scutellum creamy yellow, with orange-red, anterior, semi-circular mark and orange apex; pleura red dorsally; scent efferent system creamy yellow. Hemelytron rather matte, somewhat declivous at cuneal fracture; corium except for apical part, clavus and posterior embolium mottled with red, small spots; anterior part of embolium and posterior half of cuneus sanguineous; apex of corium with small, irregular, orange mark; membrane smoky brown, with sanguineous veins. Coxae and legs creamy yellow; apical half of metafemur deep red; proportion of meta-tarsomeres I–III as 4: 4: 5. Abdomen almost uniformly whitish brown, lateral margin of sterna tinged with reddish brown. Male genitalia ( Fig. 10G–J ): Pygophore subtriangular ( Fig. 10G, H ); left paramere simply elongate, slender, L-shaped, tapered towards apex, without a modified sensory lobe or hypophysis ( Fig. 10I ); right paramere hammershaped, subapically thickened and spinulate, with triangular, somewhat flattened hypophysis ( Fig. 10J ); endosoma heavily sclerotised, with three noticeable spiculi, one of which is conspicuously widened base ( Fig. 10H ). Female: Unknown. Measurements. Male: Total body length 2.58; width of head across eyes 0.69; width of vertex 0.26; lengths of antennal segments I–IV 0.29, 1.28, 0.45, 0.30; total length of labium 0.90; basal width of pronotum 0.90; maximum width across hemelytra 1.07; and lengths of metafemur, tibia and tarsus 1.05, 1.50, 0.30.

Etymology. From Latin, leopardalis [= leopard-like], referring to the heavily spotted dorsum of this new species; an adjective.

Biology. Unknown; only a single male was collected using a UV light trap.

Remarks. This new species is superficially similar to P. takaii Yasunaga, 1997 known from the Ryukyus, Japan. However, the latter is a close relative of P. imperatorius ( Distant, 1909) and the following P. pardellus , new species, having the subtriangularly widened left paramere with slender, winding hypophysis, slender, simple right paramere and two short endosomal spiculi. Although the phylogenetic relationship of P. leopardalis to other known congeners is currently unclear, an undescribed species collected in Queensland, Australia possesses the similarly long left paramere and exaggerated spiculi ( Hazali, 2013).

Figures

Fig. 7. Habitus images of Thai Pseudoloxops species. A, P. hibiscus, holotype male; B, P. hibiscus, female; C, P. lateralis, male; D, P. lateralis, female; E, P. leopardalis, holotype male.

Fig. 9. Habitus images of Pseudoloxops species, dried specimens (except for F & I in live). A, P. hibiscus, holotype male; B, P. hibiscus, female; C, P. lateralis, male (SERS); D, P. lateralis, female (SERS); E, P. leopardalis, holotype male; F, G, P. pardellus, male; H, P. pardellus, female; I, P. imperatorius (Nagasaki, Japan); J, P. imperatorius, holotype female from Sri Lanka (BMNH); K, P. lateralis, holotype female from Taiwan (HNHM). Image (K) courtesy of NMNS.

Fig. 10. Male genitalia of Pseudoloxops hibiscus (A–D), P. lateralis (E–F) and P. leopardalis (G–J). A, G, Apex of pygophore, ventral view; F, Apex of pygophore, dorsal view; B, H, pygophore, dorsal view; C, J, right paramere; D, E, I, left paramere. Scale bars = 0.2 mm.