Sadoletus Distant, 1903

Gao, Cuiqing & Rédei, Dávid, 2017, The identity of Equatobursa, with proposal of new genus and species level synonymies (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Heterogastridae), Zootaxa 4237 (2), pp. 300-306 : 301

Sadoletus Distant, 1903

Sadoletus Distant, 1903: 35 , 37. Type species by original designation: Sadoletus validus Distant, 1903 .

Equatobursa Zou, 1985: 93 , 96. Type species by original designation: Equatobursa nigra Zou, 1985 . New subjective synonym.

Sadoletus: Distant (1908: 128) (fauna of Malaysia), Bergroth (1918: 112) (diagnostic characters, distribution), Scudder (1962: 120) (in key), Slater (1964: 776) (catalogue), Zheng & Zou (1981: 108, 114) (in key, diagnosis, fauna of China), Zou (1985: 93, 96) (comparison with Equatobursa ), Péricart (2001: 105) (catalogue, Palaearctic), Ishikawa & Tomokuni (2012: 316) (fauna of Japan), Ban & Ishikawa (2013: 196) (diagnosis, fauna of Japan) .

Equatobursa: Slater & O’Donnell (1995: 83) (catalogue), Péricart (2001: 102) (catalogue, Palaearctic), Kondorosy & Kóbor (2016: 72) (listed).

Diagnosis. The genus is recognized within Heterogastridae by a combination of the following characters: body less than 6 mm in length, elongate oval, with short pilosity, lacking bands of dense silvery pubescence; pronotum constricted at middle, with lateral margins weakly sinuate and carinate, at most with a faint median carina; clavus with 3 longitudinal rows of punctures, innermost row complete or incomplete; cuplike sclerite of genital capsule greatly enlarged, extending behind parameres in posterior view.

Remarks. Sadoletus is morphologically diverse, therefore some of the characters utilized in the generic level identification key of Scudder (1962) to separate the genus from other genera of Heterogastridae , most importantly the shape of ovipositor and ventrite V (couplet 1), the shape of pronotum (couplet 12), and the punctation of the clavus (couplet 14), have limited value (see Discussion).

Diversity and distribution. The genus is distributed all over the Indomalaya and currently comprises eleven described species ( Slater 1964, Ban & Ishikawa 2013) but it is in need of taxonomic revision.