Myiophanes (Myiophanes) greeni Distant, 1903

Kulkarni, Siddharth & Ghate, Hemant, 2016, First record of the thread-legged assassin bug Myiophanesgreeni Distant, 1903 (Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae) from India, Biodiversity Data Journal 4, pp. 7949-7949 : 7949

Myiophanes (Myiophanes) greeni Distant, 1903

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: Insects ; recordedBy: Siddharth Kulkarni; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Myiophanesgreeni; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; family: Reduviidae; genus: Myiophanes; subgenus: Myiophanes; taxonRank: species; scientificNameAuthorship: Distant; Location: country: India; stateProvince: Maharashtra; municipality: Satara; locality: Cave near Sajjangad road ; decimalLatitude: 17.618; decimalLongitude: 73.881; Identification: identifiedBy: Hemant Ghate; dateIdentified: 2015; Event: samplingProtocol: visual searching; eventDate: 10/18/2015; Record Level: language: en; institutionID: Zoology Department, Modern College, Shivajinagar, Pune; collectionCode: Insects; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Description

General coloration

With contrasting pattern of dark to pale brown patches and with creamy white areas. Femoro-tibial junction of mid and hind legs, base and distal part of meso- and meta-coxae and a spot on pterostigma (= distal, thickened portion of Sc+R vein) also creamy white. Most of anterior part of anterior lobe of pronotum creamy white, the white coloration of anterior lobe of pronotum extends backward on posterior lobe as a fine pointed stripe on either side of mid-line. Entire pro-sternum creamy white; mesosternum dark brown on disc, on either side of which is a fuscous band bordered with dark brown line beyond which there is another pale band followed by a brown band; metasternum mostly dark brown (Fig. 1). Entire body and legs pilose.

Morphology

Head: Dark brown; oblong oval; eyes black, large, protuberant, occupying large part of lateral area; anterior and posterior ocular part almost subequal in length; dorsal surface slightly convex with a deep interocular groove which is paler in colour, than adjacent areas; ventral surface flatter than dorsal side, mostly brown except for pale stripe of either side of mid‐line along eye; neck region also with a pale white patch ventrally close to prosternum (Fig. 2). Antennal tubercles projecting anteriorly in front of eyes. Clypeus prominent, projecting in front, medially dark brown, laterally pale creamy. Mandibular plates laterally dark brown, with a thin stripe of pale cream adjacent to clypeus. Labium with three visible segments (first visible segment representing morphological segment II); segment II thickened, pale at base and apex, dark brown dorsally and pale brown ventrally; segment III less thick, also dark brown dorsally and pale brown ventrally, apex creamy white; segment IV somewhat curved, longer than segment III, tip reaching between fore-coxae. Entire head covered with numerous dark brown setae.

Antenna brown, segment IV creamy white; with segment I longest, segment II slightly shorter than I,segment III shortest; segment IV long but shorter than I and II; setose, some setae dark brown, otherstranslucent. Prothorax: Pronotum gradually narrowed and then considerably broadened in dorsal view, this constriction marks boundary between anterior (funnel-shaped) and posterior (sub-triangular) lobes. Posterior lobe sloping, its dorsal outline enclosing an angle of about 140 degrees with that of anterior lobein lateral view; dorsal outline of anterior lobe slightly convex, almost flat on middle part of disc, posteriorlobe also more or less flat on disc, but slightly convex at base in lateral view (Fig. 3b). Humeral angles notprominent. Maximum width of posterior lobe is at base and is slightly more than two times the width atanterior margin. Anterior margin slightly concave behind head. Anterior angles sub-prominent, bluntlytriangular and dark brown. Pronotum extends somewhat downwards laterally to conceal fore coxae whichopen forward but are seen through due to translucent coloration.

Pronotum with most part of anterior lobe creamy white dorsally with two broad lateral stripes and amedian thin stripe in posterior half of anterior lobe brownish; a white stripe on anterior lobe extendsbackward to posterior lobe, one on either side of midline, slightly obliquely and gradually narrowing alonglength ending in a fine tip, just where posterior lobe flattens dorsally. Similarly, a median brown band(with a central thin white line) starting from anterior third of anterior lobe and gradually broadenedanteriorly, meets brown part of posterior lobe. Entire dorsal surface as well as prosternum covered withsparse but very long brown setae. Scutellum triangular, dark brown (Fig. 3).

Hemelytra and wings as described for the genus by Wygodzinsky (1966). Venations as in (Fig. 1). Abdomen slightly narrow at base, then broadened, rest of sides of abdomen parallel but again narrowed near apex,with an alternating pattern of brown and pale white annuli (Fig. 4). Abdominal segments darker ventrallythan dorsally. Boundaries of tergites not clearly marked from dorsal side, first two brownish patches verypale, third, fourth, fifth darker. Connexivum very narrow, raised upward.

Pygophore dorsally colourless (Fig. 5a). Tips of parameres and ventromedian, upwardly directed, posteriorspiniform process of pygophore dark brown (Fig. 5b).

Fore legs long, coxae eight times longer than broad, with two broad dark brown to black annuli, one at baseand one beyond middle. Trochanter creamy white. Fore femur almost twelve times as long as broad,creamy white, with three dark brown annuli (one at base, second in middle and third beyond middle) (Fig. 2a).

Femur with two rows of spines underneath, one external (posteroventral), one internal (anteroventral);with several relatively long spines with broad white basal half and dark black spiny distal half and manysimilar but smaller and thinner spines; internal row of spines starts slightly distally from base (Fig. 6).Tibia long but slightly shorter than femora, creamy white at base and brownish to fuscous at most of itslength, distal tip slightly swollen, underside with many spiniform setae with short broad base and long blackspiny projections. Tarsus pale creamy, its three segments more or less sub‐equal in length. Claws partly pale brown (Fig. 7).

Mid and hind legs mostly pale brown; coxae shining white with lateral and ventral brown patches; femorotibialjunctions creamy white; femora slightly dark brown before their apical white annuli, tibiae slightlydark brown distad to basal white annuli, rest pale brown. Hind legs much longer than mid legs. Tibiaeextremely long. Tarsus very small and pale in all legs. Claws dark brown. All legs longly pilose.Aedeagus as shown in Fig. 8. Parameres symmetrical, curved, sickle-shaped, with sparse, long setae, apex beak-like (Fig. 9).

Distribution

Sri Lanka ( Wygodzinsky 1966; Rédei 2005) and India (present new record)