Chilocoris capensis, Lis, Jerzy A., Lis, Barbara & Compton, Stephen G., 2016

Lis, Jerzy A., Lis, Barbara & Compton, Stephen G., 2016, Chilocoris capensis n. sp., the first species of the genus Chilocoris Mayr, 1865 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Cydnidae) recorded in the Republic of South Africa with an annotated checklist of South African burrower bugs, Zootaxa 4147 (5), pp. 564-574 : 564-567

Chilocoris capensis new species

( Figs. 1 A–C, E, G)

Etymology. The species name has three significant associations. Firstly, the type locality is in the Eastern Cape. Secondly, the Cape fig is another well-known name for Ficus sur (after the broom cluster fig), on which the new species was feeding. Thirdly, the widely known synonym for Ficus sur is Ficus capensis Thunberg, 1917 .

Diagnosis. The new species is morphologically similar to the Afrotropical cydnid species Ch. laevicollis , but differs because it has a less punctured and more polished dorsal side of the body and more translucent hemelytra. Moreover, this new species has an almost impunctate pronotum (the pronotum in Ch. laevicollis is punctured with scattered and easily visible punctures, cf. Lis & Lis 2016a) and a mesocorium with small punctures distinctly darker than the corial disc ( Fig. 1 G) (punctures on the mesocorium of Ch. laevicollis are larger than those in Ch. capensis , cf. Lis & Lis 2016a).

Because this new species is only known from a limited number of specimens, the species' morphological variability cannot at present be characterized. Therefore, as usual for many closely allied species in the family Cydnidae , the most reliable characters separating Ch. capensis from Ch. laevicollis are those relating to male genital structures. These two species differ based on the shape of the opening of the genital capsule ( Ch. capensis — Fig. 1 E, Ch. laevicollis — Fig. 1 F; dorsal view), and the shape of the paramere (the inner margin of the stem, which is almost straight in Ch. capensis — Fig. 1 C but recurved in Ch. laevicollis — Fig. 1 D; the hypophysis is also almost straight in Ch. capensis — Fig. 1 C, but apically somewhat recurved in Ch. laevicollis — Fig. 1 D).

Description. Body. Dorsal side polished and bicolorous ( Fig. 1 A); head, pronotum, scutellum and abdomen range from dark brown to dark castaneous, corium yellowish brown or pale brown ( Fig. 1 G), sometimes the mesocorium is translucent, with a hemelytral membrane colorless or only slightly embrowned, entirely translucent; the ventral side slightly polished, dark brown to dark castaneous, with lateral parts of propleura brown or yellowish brown; antennae pale brown to brown, with apices of segments more yellowish in shade; rostrum yellowish brown to brown; legs yellowish brown to brown with tarsi yellowish brown or pale brown; tibial spines distinctly darker than tibiae, dark brown to dark castaneous.

Head ( Fig. 1 B). Dorsally impunctate, sometimes with tiny, almost invisible punctures, and with more or less developed transverse striae; clypeus basally and apically narrowed, broadest in its midlength, as long as paraclypei; clypeal submargin with a pair of blackish brown, apically more or less sharpened pegs ( Fig. 1 B); paraclypei each with a submarginal row of six more or less sharply ended pegs; eyes large, dark brown or reddish brown, sometimes with a silver tinge, ocular index 1.9–2.3; ocelli reddish brown, ocellar index 3.6–4.5, interocellar distance about seven to nine times greater than the distance between the ocellus and the eye; antennae with second segment minute, about three to four times shorter than the third, the fifth segment longest; rostrum almost reaching the midcoxae.

Prothorax. Pronotum ( Fig. 1 A) slightly narrowing anterad; pronotal disc with an anterior submarginal line and a transverse line behind the callal areas well visible, the latter accompanied by a row of small punctures; an anterior lobe entirely impunctate, except for setigerous punctures and a few punctures laterally; posterior lobe with several irregularly scattered punctures; pronotal umbones distinctly swollen and impunctate; lateral margins each with three setigerous punctures bearing long hair-like setae, and one additional seta present on the lateral part of the anterior submarginal line, on each side. Propleuron alutaceous; anterior and posterior convexities impunctate, and a median depression with several coarse punctures close to the coxae.

Mesothorax. Scutellum ( Fig. 1 A) with basal and lateral rows of darker punctures, the lateral ones each accompanied by an impressed darker line, a scutellar disc irregularly punctured, punctures darker and a little larger than those on the pronotum and corium. Clavus ( Fig. 1 G) with two incomplete rows of dark punctures (one very short, the second reaching half the length of the clavo-corial suture; mesocorium ( Fig. 1 G) with two rows of punctures paralleling the clavo-corial suture (one complete and well visible, the second well visible in its basal half); mesocorial disc with small irregularly scattered punctures, especially clearly visible in the posterior third ( Fig. 1 G); exocorium impunctate, except for rows of darker punctures along the R+M vein and along the exomesocorium suture. Costal margins without setigerous punctures; membrane translucent and colorless, sometimes slightly embrowned, surpassing the tip of the abdomen. Mesopleuron with an evaporatorium typical of the genus.

Abdomen. Sterna alutaceous, impunctate, except for scattered tiny punctures bearing short, shiny hair-like bristles in their lateral parts, and rows of small punctures accompanying sternal sutures. The opening of the male genital capsule broad ( Fig. 1 E); paramere stem with inner margin almost straight ( Fig. 1 C), the hypophysis recurves apically ( Fig. 1 C).

Measurements (in mm, males and female, respectively): body length 2.95–3.34, 3.59; body width 1.63–1.86, 2.02; head length 0.49–0.59, 0.57; head width 0.68–0.79, 0.84; pronotum length 0.83–1.10, 1.18; pronotum width 1.51–1.79, 1.93; scutellum length 0.80–0.93, 1.01; scutellum width 0.94–1.08, 1.33; antennal segments: (1st) 0.14– 0.15, 0.13; (2nd) 0.06–0.08, 0.06; (3rd) 0.24–0.25, 0.26; (4th) 0.26–0.27, 0.32; (5th) 0.32–0.39, 0.39.

Type material. Holotype male: South Africa , Eastern Cape, Grahamstown , December 2013, in soil with decomposing fallen figs below Ficus sur , leg. S.G. Compton; in the first author’s (JAL) collection at the Department of Biosystematics , Opole University , Opole, Poland .

Paratypes, four males and one female: the same data as for the holotype; four paratype (three males and a female) in the first author’s (JAL) collection at the Department of Biosystematics, Opole University, Opole, Poland ; a paratype male deposited in the entomology collection of the Natural History Collections Division at the Iziko African Museum, Cape Town, Republic of South Africa .

Notes on the biology of Afrotropical Chilocoris species. The biology of Afrotropical species representing the genus Chilocoris is still unsatisfactorily known. Specimens are usually collected at light or in different kinds of pitfall traps, but sometimes have also been sieved from the litter of different types of forests ( Linnavuori 1977, 1989, 1993). A few species are known to inhabit the domiciles of ants, birds' nests, as well as soil and debris in caves ( Jeannel 1913; Britton 1940; Linnavuori 1993; Lis & Lis 2016a).

However, only a single Afrotropical species of this genus was hitherto reported feeding on figs, namely Ch. somalicus , which originated from Senegal and was then reared under laboratory conditions and fed on Ficus seeds ( Carayon 1974; Bertini 1978, on seeds of Ficus carica L.; Pluot-Sigwalt 2008, on seeds of Ficus sp.). Ch. capensis is the second Afrotropical species of the genus known to feed on figs, but it is the first species reported during field studies. As was already mentioned, specimens of this newly described species have been collected in soil below Ficus sur planted in a suburban setting (the Rhodes University campus in Grahamstown), and some were also observed on ripe and rotten fallen figs. There exists only one other report concerning species of the genus Chilocoris collected from the falling fruits of Ficus sp. ( Froeschner 1967), but it concerns the Oriental species Ch. incomptus Froeschner, 1967 , which was sampled in the Philippines.

All other reports on burrower bugs feeding on Ficus are concerned exclusively with New World burrower bug species including Amnestus Dallas , Cyrtomenus Amyot & Serville , Dallasiellus Berg , Melanaethus Uhler , Pangaeus Stål and Tominotus Mulsant & Rey ( Mayorga & Cervantes 2001; Mayorga-Martínez & Cervantes- Peredo 2006; Marrero et al. 2012).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Chilocoris capensis (A – C, E, G) and Ch. laevicollis (D, F, H): (A) body dorsal view; (B) head, dorsal view; (C – D) paramere, dorsal view; (E – F) male pygophore opening, dorsal view; (G – H) corium, dorsal view.