Malipatilius szentivanyi Kondorosy & Schmidt, 2024

Kondorosy, Előd, Kovács, Szilvia & Schmidt, Péter, 2024, A review of Malipatilius (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Rhyparochromidae), with a checklist of Lygaeoidea occurring in the Papuan Subregion, Zootaxa 5477 (2), pp. 147-170 : 165-166

Malipatilius szentivanyi Kondorosy & Schmidt , sp. nov.

( Figs. 8 , 17 )

Type material. Holotype: New Guinea / Bussu riv. Lae / 13.IV.1965 // Nr. 31 / Coll. Balogh et Szent-Ivány (♀, HNHM).

Description. Colour: Antenna pale except subbasal brown ring of scape and base of pedicel and basiflagellum (distiflagellum lost), middle of corium with brown transverse band only obscurely connected on vein R with brown apical part, apical half of membrane fully dark brown, femora yellowish, not darker than other parts of legs ( Fig. 8 ).

Surface and vestiture: Body dull, only head fully and hemelytra a little shiny. Punctuation well visible on anterior half of pronotum as well. Pubescence dorsally long and erect (about as long as diameter of tibiae at base); antenna with fine decumbent setae intermixed with several long semidecumbent ones; legs with very short decumbent pubescence, much shorter than diameter of tibia.

Measurements: Total body length: 2.45; head: length 0.49, width 0.58, interocular distance 0.33, eye length 0.18, length of antenniferous tubercle 0.09; length of antennomeres: I 0.23, II 0.35, III 0.35, IV missing, diameter of basiflagellum 0.10; pronotum: length 0.50, maximum width 0.86, width at transversal furrow 0.64, width at anterior margin 0.44; scutellum: length 0.48, width 0.50; length of claval commissure 0.24.

Diagnosis. M. szentivanyi sp. nov. is much smaller and stouter than other Malipatilius species except M. minutus sp. nov.; these two species are only 2.8 times as long as width of the pronotum, while M. forticornis is 3.0–3.2 times as long as wide, and the other species are at least 3.2 times as long as wide. The long pilosity of the body also differentiates it from most of its congeners except M. pilosus sp. nov. Furthermore, M. szentivanyi has the shortest pronotum in the genus: its width is more than 1.7 times larger than its length, while in other species this ratio is less than 1.5.

Etymology. The species is named after the excellent Hungarian entomologist and collector, Szent-Ivány József Gyula Hubertus (1910–1988), published as Joseph Julius Hubert Szent-Ivany, author of many papers and monographs about Papuan insects (mainly on butterflies and agricultural pests), who established an entomological research station in Konedobu, a suburb of Port Moresby.

Distribution. M. szentivanyi sp. nov. is known from coastal areas of the northeastern part of New Guinea only ( Fig. 17 ).

Figures

FIGURE 17. Distribution of Malipatilius species in New Guinea.

FIGURES 5–8. Dorsal view of Malipatilius spp. 5 M. macrops Kondorosy & Schmidt, sp. nov.; 6 M. pilosus Kondorosy & Schmidt, sp. nov.; 7 M. minutus Kondorosy & Schmidt, sp. nov.; 8 M. szentivanyi Kondorosy & Schmidt, sp. nov.