Cyrtopeltocoris Reuter, 1876

Wyniger, Denise, Schuh, Randall T. & Henry, Thomas J., 2023, Revision of the North American Hallodapini (Insecta: Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae: Phylinae), American Museum Novitates 2023 (3994), pp. 1-48 : 7-12

Cyrtopeltocoris Reuter

Cyrtopeltocoris Reuter, 1876: 81 (new genus); Carvalho, 1958: 136 (catalog); Schuh, 1974: 301 (tribal placement); Henry and Wheeler, 1988: 455 (catalog); Schuh, 1995: 219 (catalog); Schuh, 2002 – 2013 (online catalog). TYPE SPECIES: Cyrtopeltocoris albofasciatus Reuter. Fixation by monotypy.

Phoradendrepulus Polhemus and Polhemus, 1985: 26 (new genus); Henry and Wheeler, 1988: 442 (catalog); Schuh, 1995: 233 (catalog), Schuh, 2002 − 2013 (online catalog). New synonym. TYPE SPECIES: Phoradendrepulus myrmecomorphus Polhemus and Polhemus, 1985 . Fixation by monotypy.

DIAGNOSIS: Male: Recognized among North American Miridae by the following combination of characters: flattened pronotal collar; usually macropterous (but see description of brachypterous C. ajo ), hemelytra more or less parallel sided, complete or nearly complete white or pale transverse fascia at level of apex of scutellum or slightly posterior (figs. 1–3), stridulitrum on costal margin of hemelytron and plectrum on the inner or posterior side of the hind femur (see also: Schuh, 1984: figs. 374, 375; Henry, 2015, fig. 111; Yasunaga et al., 2019: figs. 45–55, 89, 90, 96, 97, etc.), setiform parempodia, and minute pulvilli; endosoma long, filamentous, apex variously ornamented apicad of secondary gonopore (figs. 4–5).

Brachypterous male: Most of abdomen exposed beyond truncate apex of hemelytra (fig. 1); stridulitrum and plectrum present as in macropters; strongly antlike as in female. See descriptions under C. ajo .

Female: Always strongly brachypterous, most of abdomen exposed beyond truncate apex of hemelytra (fig. 1); stridulitrum and plectrum present as in males; strongly antlike.

Among New World Phylinae , similar to Neocyrtopeltocoris , new genus, but the former with the transverse hemelytral fascia always more or less parallel sided (figs. 1–3), the fascia in the latter formed by two triangles with their apices pointed toward the midline (fig. 7). Appearance superficially similar to S ericophanes Reuter among New World orthotyline genera, but easily distinguished by the structure of male and female genitalia and the setiform parempodia.

Brachypterous males and females are recognized by the triangular head; quadrate pronotum with round anterior angles and more quadrate posterior angles, and the narrow flattened collar; scutellum broadly exposed with a conical tubercle; hemelytron abbreviated, extending to about abdominal tergum III, deeply concave through middle and rounded apically (and cupped ventrally), cuneus and membrane absent, costal margin with a distinct stridulitrum on distal two-thirds; abdomen broadly rounded, narrowing posteriorly; legs relatively slender, hind femur with a plectrum formed as a single ridge on inner basal half; tibiae with pro- nounced spines, middle tibia of female with a comb of long erect setae on distal half; tarsomere III two-thirds length of tarsomeres I and II combined; parempodia setiform.

Other North American Phylinae with a flattened pronotal collar all belong to the Cremnorrhinina ( Menard et al., 2014; Schuh and Menard, 2013) and have large pulvilli, either adnate to entire ventral surface of claw ( Orectoderus Uhler , Teleorhinus Uhler ) or attached only at base and extending over length of claw ( Coquillettia Uhler ); endosoma moderately ( Coquillettia ) to strongly robust ( Orectoderus , Teleorhinus ) and heavily sclerotized.

REDESCRIPTION: Male: Total length 3.34–5.13. Coloration (figs. 1–3): Ranging from castaneous, including appendages, to reddish with nearly pale appendages; hemelytron with a more or less parallel sided, complete or nearly complete, white or pale contrasting transverse fascia on hemelytra at level of apex of scutellum. Surface and vestiture (figs. 1–3): Vestiture varying from short recumbent to long erect setae; setae always simple. Structure (figs. 1–3): Moderately to strongly elongate, more or less parallel sided; head varying from short in dorsal view to distinctly projecting anterior to eyes, with prominent clypeus; eyes varying from large and occupying nearly entire side of head to relatively small and weakly pedunculate in dorsal view; pronotum varying from straight sided to campanulate; anterior margin in the form of a flattened collar; posterior lobe ranging from nearly flat to greatly inflated and elevated; scutellum varying from nearly flat to strongly elevated and in the form of a conical spine; corium declivent laterally, costal margin of hemelytron varying from nearly straight to markedly sinuate, with a stridulitrum consisting of closely spaced vertical ridges for most of length and a plectrum consisting of irregular patches of tiny spicules on inner margin of hind femur; labium long and slender. Claws long, slender, gently curving; parempodia setiform; pulvilli minute. genitalia (figs. 4–5): Endosoma long, filamentous, secondary gonopore preapical; phallotheca large, right angled, with an elongate apical portion (fig. 4); left paramere (fig. 4) in all species strongly elevated toward apex and of a form similar to that seen in apparently closely related Hallodapini from the Old World; right paramere short, laterally rounded, and apically acuminate (fig. 4).

Female: Coloration of body and appendages similar to male (fig. 1); eyes relatively smaller than in male (fig. 1); pronotum campanulate, collar not so broad and flat as in male; scutellum more strongly elevated than in male in known species; hemelytra truncate, angled from midline to costal margin, covering anterior one third of abdomen (figs. 1); stridulitrum on costal margin of abbreviated hemelytron and plectrum on inner side of hind femur similar to those found on brachypterous males of C. ajo . GENITALIA: Sclerotized rings heavily sclerotized; posterior wall simple; vestibular sclerites small.

DISCUSSION/DISTRIBUTIONAL PATTERNS: Like many genera of North American Phylinae , Cyrtopeltocoris is most speciose in the West/Southwest, in this case including substantial representation in Baja California, Mexico, with more limited diversity in the eastern United States (fig. 6). Two aspects of the distribution are novel, however. First, one species in the group is known from Cuba, a landmass which shows primarily Neotropical connections. For example, one recently documented example in the pachynomid genus Aphelonotus Uhler showed an apparent sister-species pair occurring in Cuba and Costa Rica ( Schuh et al., 2015). Second, 10 species of Cyrtopeltocoris are known from Mexico, with four restricted to Baja California lying west of the San Andreas Fault, and only two are known from the eastern United States (fig. 6), possibly suggesting northward movement over evolutionary time and offering a potentially more southern geographic origin for the group than it possesses today.

We might also compare distributions seen in Cyrtopeltocoris and Neocyrtopeltocoris spp. with patterns seen in the analyses of Weirauch et al. (2017) for North American Miridae and plants. Miridae pattern 41 of those authors encompasses the distributions of C. gracilentis , C. illini , and Neocyrtopeltocoris froeschneri , an area comprising the southeastern quadrant of the United States. The remaining species of Cyrtopeltocoris (excepting C. cubanus ) and Neocyrtopeltocoris triangularis occupy an area most strongly coterminous with area 5 of Weirauch et al. (2017), ranging broadly over the American Southwest and most of Mexico. Only the distribution of N. triangularis falls outside this zone, ranging further north in the western plains almost to the Canadian border. No species are known to occur in both eastern and western North America.