Inoma Hacker, 1927

Cassis, Gerasimos & Symonds, Celia, 2008, Systematics, biogeography and host associations of the lace bug genus Inoma (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Tingidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 48 (2), pp. 433-484 : 437-440

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.5341505
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5444136
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03C387BA-DC31-FF92-BC5B-FE866AF6FE3A
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Inoma Hacker, 1927
status

Treatment

Inoma Hacker, 1927 View in CoL

Inoma Hacker, 1927: 25 View in CoL (gen. nov.).

Inoma: DRAKE & RUHOFF (1960) View in CoL : 62 (list); DRAKE & RUHOFF (1965): 249 (catalogue); CASSIS & GROSS (1995): 417 (catalogue).

Type species. Inoma multispinosa Hacker, 1927 View in CoL , by monotypy.

Diagnosis. Inoma is recognised by the following combination of characters: small to medium size, males (BL 1.81-2.96), females (BL 1.9-2.94); brachypterous and macropterous morphs; ovoid body; mottled or variegated colouration; with or without woolly or scale-like, pale setae, often densely distributed; all species with setiferous tubercles on anterior margin and crest of collum, pronotal carinae, margins of paranota and hemelytra, and carinate margins of discoidal area; antennae slender, elongate, AI subequal to AII; head with five elongate, porrect spines, paired frontal and occipital spines, medial spine sometimes forked; pronotum tricarinate, carinae uniseriate, subequal in height and not highly elevated; pronotal collum small to moderately enlarged, subtriangular, dorsally keeled; paranota and costal areas well developed, uniseriate or biseriate; legs slender, elongate; and, male aedeagus with a well developed, heavily sclerotised, distal U-shaped endosomal sclerite.

Redescription. COLOURATION. Varying from cream, yellow brown, to orange and red brown, to dark brown ( Figs. 1 View Fig , 2 View Fig ). Often with mottled or patterned colour pattern on dorsum, more so on hemelytra. Head and callar region of pronotum predominantly darkened, with posterior lobe of pronotum lighter. AIV and tarsi dark brown, almost black. Venter generally darker and more uniform in colouration than dorsum.

VESTITURE. Most species with covering of silvery to golden, woolly or scale-like setae, intermixed either with elongate, curly, woolly setae, or short, flattened, lanceolate, scale-like setae; sometimes with setiferous tubercles only. All species with setiferous tubercles in single or multiple (alternating or opposing) rows, mutiple rows most often along lateral paranotal and costal margins; either major (e.g., Fig. 5 View Fig a-e), or minor setiferous tubercles (e.g., Fig. 4 View Fig a-e). Head: setae when present, woolly or scale-like, dense and adpressed (e.g., Fig. 4 View Fig a-c); minor setiferous tubercles present around base or on cephalic spines (e.g., Figs. 4a View Fig , 5a View Fig ). Antennae: AI and AII glabrous or with setae as on head and in a single ring around segment (e.g., Figs. 4a View Fig , 5a View Fig ); AIII glabrous or with minor setiferous tubercles (with an elongate, erect terminal seta – straight or recurved), and short, bristle-like setae (e.g., Fig. 7b View Fig ); AIV always with both short and elongate bristle-like simple setae. Pronotum: setae when present, woolly or scale-like, most dense on pronotal callar region, less dense on collum, paranota, pronotal longitudinal carinae and posterior lobe (e.g., Fig. 4d View Fig ); minor or major setiferous tubercles always present along lateral margins of paranota, margins of carinae, anterior margin and dorsal keel of collum (e.g., Fig 5d View Fig ), also present along ventral margin of paranota (e.g., Fig. 5c View Fig ). Thoracic pleura and sterna: setae when present, woolly or scale-like, generally denser on pleura, sparser on supracoxal lobes and sterna; posteroventral margin of proepimeron with a few minor or major setiferous tubercles (e.g., Fig. 6c View Fig ); sternal carinae with one or two rows of setae, type variable, rarely with minor setiferous tubercles. Legs: femora and tibiae with minor setiferous tubercles, setae when present, elongate and bristle-like with very small tuberculate base (as in antennae) (e.g., Figs. 7b View Fig , 8b View Fig , 9h View Fig ). Hemelytra: (e.g., Figs. 4 View Fig e-f, 5e) setae when present, woolly, less dense than on pronotal callar region, moderately distributed over discoidal and subcostal areas, very sparse on costal area; minor or major setiferous tubercles present along margin of costal area, on carinate R+M and cubitus veins bounding discoidal and sutural areas, on veins tubercles often recurved, terminal setae generally more elongate than on costal margins and paranota. Abdomen: setae when present, with either scale-like setae (e.g. Figs. 4h View Fig , 5h View Fig ) or hair-like setae (e.g., Figs. 7f View Fig , 9h View Fig ), short or elongate, densely distributed.

STRUCTURE. Macropterous and brachypterous forms. Head: five spines present, spines mostly as long and often longer than AI (e.g., Fig. 5a View Fig ), rarely shorter than AI (e.g., Fig. 4a View Fig ), semi-erect to erect; frontal spines inserted behind antennal bases, either slightly divergent, parallel or slightly convergent, not contiguous or crossing; medial spine straight or apex forked; occipital spines strongly arcuate laterally, or sometimes straight and slightly divergent apically; bucculae prominent, extending slightly beyond head, closed in front, broadly rounded anteriorly laterally ( Fig. 4b View Fig ). Labium: usually extending to mesocoxae; sometimes extending onto abdomen. Antennae: elongate; AI cylindrical, short, of greater diameter than other segments; AII equal to or at least 2/3 length of AI; AIII elongate; AIV short but longer than AI+AII, clavate, base sometimes elongate. Pronotum: (e.g., Figs. 4d View Fig , 5d View Fig ) broad, lateral margins rounded, callar region flattened or convex (lateral views in Figs. 1 View Fig & 2 View Fig ), closely punctate, posterior lobe subequal to anterior portion, pointed and reticulated; collum weakly to moderately elevated and sub-triangular in shape, strongly keeled medially, truncate anteriorly, covering half of head; pronotum tricarinate, carinae elevated, but not highly so, uniseriate, areolae subquadrate and small or large, straight over most of length but lateral carinae slightly convergent at posterior end and terminating anteriorly at calli, median carina percurrent to collum, lateral carinae of equal height to median carina; paranota narrow and linear, obliquely extended or upright, uniseriate or biseriate, areolae subquadrate and small or large. Thoracic sterna: prosternal carinae barely visible, meso and metasternal carinae strongly elevated, parallel (or very slightly rounded) and of equal width. Metathoracic gland: orifice obsolete. Legs: slender, elongate, tibiae longer than femora. Hemelytra: macropters (e.g., Fig. 5e View Fig , 8f View Fig ), brachypters (e.g., Fig. 4 View Fig e-f, 8e); cubitus and R+M veins carinate; costal area uniseriate or biseriate, areolae large and subquadrate; subcostal area wide, at least half width of discoidal area, extending to just before forewing apex; discoidal area large, lanceolate in shape, junction of cubitus and R+M veins medially located on hemelytra; sutural area small, areole size generally large, areolae small in brachypters; hypocosta as wide as costal area or narrow. Male genitalia: pygophore subquadrate, ventral margin of opening expanded posteriorly with a concave or sinuous margin (e.g., Fig. 4g View Fig ); parameres simple, sickle-shaped (e.g., Fig. 10 View Fig ab, d-e, h-i), with short bristle-like setae on entire inner margin and sometimes also on outer margin of apophysis, mostly with a few more elongate setae on sensory lobe, sometimes also with minute setae on dorsal surface ( Fig. 10 View Fig h-i), sensory lobe rounded ( Fig. 10 View Fig d-e, h-i) or sometimes slightly angular ( Fig. 10 View Fig a-b), apophysis elongate and acuminate with a rounded apex, tubular in cross section with rounded margins; aedeagus with a large, curved, inverted U-shaped sclerite in apical tubular portion of endosoma ( Fig. 10c,f,g View Fig ), heavily sclerotised, some subtle variation in size and shape of cleft and length of the basal branches of sclerite; sometimes also with small, paired endosomal sclerites positioned basally near dorsal plate (e.g., Fig. 10c,f View Fig ), small with shape varying from elongate-ovate ( Fig. 10f,k View Fig ), sub-triangular ( Fig. 10c,m View Fig ) and semi-circular ( Fig. 10j,l View Fig ); medial portion of phallotheca mostly entire dorsally, rarely divided ( Fig. 10g View Fig ); dorsal plate of aedeagus simple, broadly U-shaped with rounded distal margin (e.g., Fig. 10c,f View Fig ).

Females: minor sexual dimorphism; differing from males as follows: eyes smaller; AIII less pilose with only elongate minor setiferous tubercles, lacking short simple setae; hemelytra slightly shorter and broader (both brachypters and macropters); sometimes slight colour variation. Female genitalia: membraneous, with paired pseudospermathecae, basally derived at junction of lateral oviducts, each with short duct and distal capitate seminal sac (Fig. 11).

Biology and host plant relationships. Inoma is found mostly on plant species of the angiosperm order Asterales , often belonging to the families Myoporaceae and Lamiaceae .

Distribution. Inoma is comprised of nine species, and is largely found in arid Australia, except for I. multispinosa which is known from temperate Australia, in the southeastern corner.

Remarks. Inoma has been redefined, with a detailed definition of characters, for inclusion of new species described herein. Characters which are now more broadly defined and show infrageneric variation include: 1) condition of setiferous tubercles (formerly referred to as spines by HACKER (1927)); 2) setal characters of pilose species; 3) paranota and costal areas, now either biseriate or uniseriate; 4) body colouration, including variation in patterning; 5) orientation of frontal cephalic spines, which may be weakly divergent, parallel or slightly converging; 6) elevation of collum, which although consistently keeled is not always sharply elevated, as indicated in the original description, with some species having only a weakly elevated collum; and, 7) elevation of pronotal callar region, which is not always convex, but sometimes almost flat or very slightly raised.

Inoma is aligned with the speciose genus Tingis , and putatively closely related to and possibly synonymous to Lasiacantha , the latter a diverse taxon, with species in Europe, Africa, India, southeast Asia and Australia. Morphological similarities between Inoma and Lasiacantha include: 1) shape and form of hemelytra; 2) elongate cephalic spines with laterally arcuate occipital spines; 3) sometimes bifurcate medial spine; 4) outline of head and bucculae; 6) mostly elevated pronotal collum; 7) marginal setiferous tubercles; 8) often dense vestiture; and, 9) slender legs and antennae.

Nonetheless, we have found a number of characters of Inoma which distinguish it from Lasiacantha , with the most critical being: 1) strongly keeled pronotal collum, subtriangular in shape, more moderately elevated; 2) setiferous tubercles along medial keel and anterior margin of the collum; 3) pronotal carinae distinctly elevated, but not greatly enlarged, 4) medial pronotal carina always same height as lateral carinae; 5) linear, narrow paranota, equal width throughout and at most two areolae wide; and, 6) costal area at most two areolae rows wide; and, 7) lack of very fine, hook-like setae on dorsum, as found in Lasiacantha .

HACKER (1927) noted an affinity of Inoma with Urentius Distant, 1903 , but apart from superficial similarities, with the marginal setiferous tubercles and general body shape, this genus is possibly more distantly related.

Inoma angusta Drake, 1942 , is considered here as species incertae sedis, because it lacks the aforementioned diagnostic characters, including the dorsally rounded collum, dorsal crest and setiferous tubercles on anterior margin and dorsal surface. In addition, I. angusta has incomplete and very narrow paranota, and has a rather elongate linear, narrow form rather than being either elongate-ovoid to ovoid. We have refrained from treating this species any further in this work, pending a more thorough examination of genus-group boundaries in Australian lace bugs, but here remove it from Inoma .