Engytatus Reuter, 1876

Polhemus, Dan A., 2018, A new species and new records of Engytatus from the Hawaiian Islands (Heteroptera, Miridae), ZooKeys 796, pp. 97-106 : 98-99

Genus Engytatus Reuter, 1876

Discussion.

The Hawaiian species currently held in Engytatus were all originally described in the genus Cyrtopeltis ( Perkins 1912, Carvalho and Usinger 1960, Gagné 1968), within which Engytatus was considered a subgenus by most authors, although Zimmerman (1948) treated it as a full genus and placed the Hawaiian species described at that time within it. Cassis (1986), in his doctoral dissertation, subsequently elevated all subgenera of Cyrtopeltis , including Engytatus , to full genus status, a taxonomic arrangement subsequently followed in the catalog of Schuh (1995), thus validating Zimmerman‘s previous interpretation. Asquith (1992) described yet another Hawaiian Cyrtopeltis species, but gave no subgeneric assignment, and made no comment regarding his decision to use this genus name in preference to Engytatus . In the current work, all Hawaiian species formerly assigned to Cyrtopeltis are considered to fall within the generic limits of Engytatus as it is currently interpreted. In addition to the endemic Hawaiian species, another widespread Engytatus species, E. modestus (Distant), has also been introduced to the Hawaiian Islands, where it is a pest of tomato and other agricultural crops ( Tanada and Holdaway 1954).

Following a modest amount of targeted collecting and taxonomic scrutiny from 1930-1968, Hawaiian Engytatus species have been infrequently collected or discussed in the scientific literature over the past 45 years. However, more recent records for previously described species, listed below, as well as the discovery of a new species, as reported herein, indicate that these insects are still present, even on the heavily developed island of Oahu, in areas of native forest. Overall, Engytatus species seem to be generally overlooked due to their inconspicuous habits and specialized associations with increasingly rare host plants.