Tuponia (Chlorotuponia) prasina ( Fieber, 1864 )

Carapezza, Attilio & Rădac, Ioan Alexandru, 2021, The genus Tuponia Reuter, 1875 in Romania, with two new synonymies (Heteroptera: Miridae), Zootaxa 5023 (1), pp. 59-76 : 63-65

Tuponia (Chlorotuponia) prasina ( Fieber, 1864)

( Figs. 1B , 2G–K , 3 )

Tuponia (Chlorotuponia) linnavuorii Wagner, 1961 . syn. n.

Type specimen of T. linnavuorii examined. GREECE: Piraeus b. Athenes, 10. viii. 1958, holotype ♂, H. Lindberg leg. ( ZMUH) .

Material examined: ROMANIA: Alba County: Ocoliș , 46.477405°N 23.466689°E, 12.viii.2019, 21 ♂♂ 28 ♀♀, on Myricaria germanica ; Bacău County: Bacău, 46.548967°N 26.895333°E, 22.vii.2019, 10 ♂♂ 11 ♀♀, on Tamarix sp .; Buzău County: Policiori , 45.341594°N 26.665040°E, 20.vi.2017, 7 ♂♂ 7 ♀♀, on Tamarix sp .; Constanța County: Constanța, 44.170797°N 28.662722°E, 20.vi.2017, 4 ♀♀, on Tamarix sp .; Dolj County:

Maglavit, 44.030087°N 23.079309°E, 16.vi.2017, 4 ♀♀, on Tamarix ramosissima ; Giurgiu County: Giurgiu, 43.89991°N 25.967926°E, 15.vii.2018, 4 ♂♂ 3 ♀♀, on Tamarix ramosissima ; Ialomița County: Slobozia , 44.563620°N 27.381955°E, 20.vi.2017, 5 ♂♂ 4 ♀♀, on Tamarix sp .; Maramureș County: Coasta Valley (near Borșa ), 47.619036°N 24.844847°E, 19.vii.2019, 18 ♂♂ 9 ♀♀, on Myricaria germanica ; Satu Mare County: Irina , 47.551534°N 22.401359°E, 15.vii.2019, 1 ♂ 4 ♀♀, on Tamarix sp .; Suceava County: Brodina, 47.803413°N 25.299119°E, 20.vii.2019, 12 ♂♂ 13 ♀♀, on Myricaria germanica ; Fântâna Mare, 47.390834°N 26.315282°E, 21.vii.2019, 9 ♂♂ 7 ♀♀, on Myricaria germanica ; Rădăuți, 47.826441°N 25.905968°E, 20.vii.2019, 28 ♂♂ 27 ♀♀, on Myricaria germanica ; Straja , 47.910203°N 25.505617°E, 20.vii.2019, 3 ♂♂ 9 ♀♀, on Myricaria germanica ; Vicovu de Sus , 47.911749°N 25.708360°E, 20.vii.2019, 14 ♂♂ 13 ♀♀, on Myricaria germanica ; Teleorman County: Zimnicea , 43.653416°N 25.364656°E, 15.vii.2018, 14 ♂♂ 14 ♀♀ ; Vâlcea County: Drăgășani , 44.657973°N 24.270541°E, 15.vii.2018, 1 ♀, on Tamarix ramosissima ; Vrancea County: Focșani , 45.744303°N 27.201451°E, 22.vii.2019, 20 ♂♂ 15 ♀♀, on Tamarix sp .

GREECE: Central Greece: Lamia , 27.vii.1982, 15 ♂♂ 11 ♀♀, on Tamarix sp. , A. Carapezza leg. ( ACPI) ; Peloponnese: Zacharo, Kaiafas , 12.vii.1982, 1 ♂, on Tamarix sp. , A. Carapezza leg. ( ACPI) ; Chalkidiki: Ormos Panagias , 4.vi.1989, 4 ♂♂ 1 ♀, on Tamarix sp. , A. Carapezza leg. ( ACPI) ; Cyclades is.: Tinos is., Ag. Ioannis, 26.viii.1993, 4 ♂♂, on Tamarix sp. , A. Carapezza leg. ( ACPI) ; Naxos is., Amorami , 29.viii.1993, 2 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀, on Tamarix sp. , A. Carapezza leg. ( ACPI) .

Published records for Romania: Transsylvania ( Reuter 1878, as T. affinis ); București ( Reuter 1894, as T. apicalis ); Hațeg ( Horváth 1900); București, Dobra, Dumbrăveni (as Pălinești), Sinaia ( Sienkiewicz 1964), Ocna Sibiului ( Schneider 1973); Rodnei Mountains-Summit Pietrosu ( Kis & Stănescu 1994; Stănescu 2001).

Note: With exception of the records of Reuter (1878, 1894) who described two new species from Romania, both subsequently regarded as synonyms of T. prasina , all the other records should be considered dubious as probably they are partly based on misidentified T. (Ch.) hippophaes specimens (see Discussion on the latter, above).

Diagnosis. Tuponia prasina is recognized by the following combination of characters: coloration similar to T. hippophaes but dorsal green paler ( Fig. 1B ); body length 1.65–2.7 mm in males, 1.65–2.5 mm in females (in Romanian specimens: 1.8–2.7 mm in males, 1.8–2.5 mm in females); body oval-elongate in males, markedly ovate in females; ocular index 2.8–3.4 in males, 3.4–3.6 in females; tibial spines arising from minute dark dots; male genitalia ( Figs. 2G–K ): genital capsule ( Fig. 2G ) apically bending slightly to the left, provided with a conspicuous tuft of short, stiff setae along left margin of genital opening, parameres and phallotheca distinctly surpassing apex of genital capsule; right paramere ( Fig. 2H ) short, ovoid, apical process small, pointed; left paramere ( Fig. 2I ) with equally short sensory lobe and apical process; phallotheca ( Fig. 2J ) apically hooked; vesica ( Fig. 2K ) S-shaped, with undifferentiated secondary gonopore and a membranous apex.

Similar to T. hippophaes ; see diagnosis of the latter for differential characters.

Discussion. Tuponia linnavuorii was described based on 18 ♂♂ and 21 ♀♀ from Piraeus near Athens, in Greece ( Wagner 1961). The holotype and 11 paratypes are preserved in ZMUH; other paratypes are deposited in Rauno Linnavuori’s collections, in AMNH and NMCW. One of us (AC) had the possibility of examining type specimens both in ZMUH and NMCW, ascertaining that the original description is very accurate. According to the description, this species is one of the smallest in the whole genus (1.65–1.85 mm in ♂♂, 1.65–2.05 in ♀♀), is considered close to T. prasina for its faintly dotted tibiae but differing from the latter and other congeners by its distinctive vesica, which in the accompanying illustration ( Wagner 1961, Fig. H) is correctly represented with a membranous apex and without a recognizable secondary gonopore. This figure and the other figures illustrating the male genitalia of T. linnavuori ( Wagner 1961, Figs. E–G and I) agree exactly, down to the smallest detail, with the genitalia of T. prasina , which differs from all other congeners by the distinctive vesica with a membranous apex and undifferentiated secondary gonopore ( Fig. 2K ; Konstantinov 2016 1). Wagner could not appreciate this correspondence because his interpretation of the male genitalia of T. prasina was erroneous. The illustration of the vesica of T. prasina he consistently used in his publications in the course of his long scientific career is a misrepresentation; the drawing, appeared first in Wagner (1964, Fig. 8D ; republished in 1975, Fig. 939a), shows a vesica with a clearly defined preapical secondary gonopore, two small lanceolate apical process and a blade-like apical process with a serrate margin. This kind of vesica is not resembling the one of T. prasina but is found in the species of Tuponia belonging to the longipennis complex ( Linnavuori 1986; Carapezza 1997). Also, Wagner’s 1 In Konstantinov (2016) the figure legends of Tuponia kiritshenkoi Drapolyuk, 1982 and Tuponia prasina ( Fieber, 1864)

were exchanged with each other; they should be corrected as follows: 7– Tuponia prasina ( Fieber, 1864) ; 8-9– Tuponia kiritshenkoi Drapolyuk, 1982 .

evaluation of the much smaller body size of T. linnavuorii compared with T. prasina is erroneous because it is based on the wrong assumption that the body length of T. prasina is 2.33–2.50 mm ( Wagner 1975). More correctly Drapolyuk (1982) indicates it as 1.8–2.5 mm in ♂♂, 1.8–2.2 mm in ♀♀, with the consequence that the size range of T. linnavuorii overlaps with that of T. prasina . As a conclusion, in the absence of specific differences, we propose to consider T. linnavuorii as a junior synonym of T. prasina . The original description of T. linnavuorii refers to small sized populations of T. prasina ; we could ascertain that they are rather frequent in mainland Greece and on Greek islands, located at the south-westernmost limit of the wide distribution range of the species.

Distribution and biology. Tuponia prasina is one of the most widely distributed species of the subgenus Chlorotuponia in the Palearctic region; it is a Euro–Central Asian element extending from the eastern countries of Central and Southern Europe through Asian Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Transcaucasia, and Central Asia to Mongolia and northwestern China ( Kerzhner & Josifov 1999; Konstantinov 2016; Aukema 2018–2021). The species is known to live on Myricaria germanica and various species of Tamarix ( Wagner 1975; Drapolyuk 1982; Linnavuori 2010)

Distribution in Romania is shown in Fig. 3 .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Habitus of Tuponia (Chlorotuponia) spp.: A T. (C.) hippophaes (Fieber, 1861): male from Sicily (2.8 mm), ACPI; B T. (C.) prasina (Fieber, 1864): male from Greece (2.4 mm), ACPI. (Photos by A. Carapezza)

FIGURE 2. Male genitalia of Tuponia (Chlorotuponia) spp.: A–E: T. (C.) hippophaes (Fieber, 1861): A genital capsule, B right paramere, C left paramere, D phallotheca, E vesica in lateral view, F apex of vesica in different view; G–K: T. (C.) prasina (Fieber, 1866): G genital capsule, H right paramere, I left paramere, J phallotheca, K vesica in lateral view. Scale bar: 0.2 mm for Figs. A and G, 0.1 mm for Figs. B–E and H–K. (Original)

FIGURE 3. Distribution of Tuponia (Chlorotuponia) hippophaes (Fieber, 1861) and T. (C.) prasina (Fieber, 1866) in Romania.

FIGURE 8. Male genitalia of Tuponia (Tuponia) montandoni Reuter, 1899: A right paramere, B left paramere in dorsal view, C left paramere in caudal view, D phallotheca in dorsal view, E phallotheca in ventral view, F vesica in lateral view, G apex of vesica. Scale bar: 0.2 mm for Figs. A–F, 0.1 mm for Fig. G. (Original)