Stephanitis (Norba) decasperni, Guilbert, Eric, 2006

Guilbert, Eric, 2006, New species and new records of Tingidae (Insecta: Heteroptera) of New Guinea, Zootaxa 1117, pp. 37-68 : 50-51

Stephanitis (Norba) decasperni sp. n. ( Figs. 11, 12 )

Material examined: 1M, New Guinea, SW slope Mt. Missim, nr. Bulolo Gorge, 1100m, 5.IX.1971, on Decaspernum paniculatum, W.C. Gagné , BPBM. 1M+2F, New Guinea, NE, Morobe Dist., Wau, 3600', 9.IX.1971, on Decaspernum paniculatum, W.C. Gagné , BPBM; 1F, Morobe pr, Bulolo, 18.V.1988, (St. 038), leg. J. Van Stalle, I.G. n° 27363, coll. RIScNB.

Description: Body small, shiny, and glabrous, yellowish, some veinlets brownish, head and pronotum brown, abdomen dark brown; legs and antennae yellowish. Body length, 4.22; width, 2.65.

Head small, armed with five slender spines; occipital spines long; frontal and median spines short; antennae long, and slender, antennal segments measurements: I, 0.42; II, 0.13; III, 1.65; IV, 0.8; bucculae small, wider posteriorly than anteriorly, closed in front; rostral canal short, and wide, slightly widening posteriorly, almost closed behind; rostrum reaching second abdominal segment.

Pronotum gibbose, unicarinate; median carina high, longer than high, with two rows of long and large areolae, longer than hood and as high as hood; hood large, cyst­like, entirely covering head, produced forward until to apex of first antennal segment, slightly longer than high, eight areolae long and four high; collar small and short, uniseriate; paranota raised, wide, four to five areolae wide; posterior process long, areolate, with apex acute; outer margins of carina and paranota finely serrate.

Hemelytra wide, sharply widened at base, diverging posteriorly; costal area wide and sinuate, six areolae wide at widest part, areolae polygonal and large, separated into three parts by two dark fuscous transverse veinlets, the middle third slightly more tumid compared with basal and distal thirds; subcostal area almost vertical, triseriate along discoidal area, areolae as large as those on costal area, then uniseriate with areolae larger; RM highly raised between subcostal and discoidal area making a tumid zone; discoidal area shorter than half the hemelytra, wide, mostly four areolae wide, areolae as large as on costal area; sutural area triseriate, areolae larger at apex; margins of hemelytra finely serrate.

Etymology: The name refers to the host plant where most of the specimens were collected.

Comments: This species belongs to the Norba Horváth (1912) group owing to its unicarinate pronotum. All the other species of Stephanitis Stål (1873) known from New Guinea have a tricarinate pronotum. This is the first record of a species of the subgenus Norba in New Guinea. All the other Norba species occur in South­East Asia (Borneo, Burma, and Phillipines) and Eastern Palearctic ( China, Japan, and Taiwan). It is similar to the holotype of S. astralis Drake and Poor (1941) (paranota triseriate in description whereas holotype is quadriseriate). It differs also from S. othnius Drake and Ruoff (1965) by the biseriate median carina (triseriate in S. othnius ), and the large costal area.

12

Figures

FIGURES 11 – 12. Stephanitis (Norba) decasperni sp. n., 11 — habitus, 12 — profile. Scale 1 mm.