Tritomegas sexmaculatus (Rambur, 1839)

Ali, Ali Yaseen, 2021, Contribution to Pentatomoidea (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomomorpha) fauna of Tartous with a new record for Syria, Journal of Insect Biodiversity and Systematics 7 (4), pp. 365-374 : 366-367

Tritomegas sexmaculatus (Rambur, 1839) ( Fig. 2)*

Material examined: 1Ƌ, 3♀♀, Syria, Tartous (34°53′46″N, 36°7′52″E, 550 m), 19.V.2020, on Mulberry ( Morus sp. ), leg. J. Ali, Y. Ali .

Distribution: Europe - Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Turkey, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Moldavia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine. Asia - Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, Georgia and Iran ( Protić, 2001; Aukema et al., 2007; Bantock, 2011).

Diagnosis: Tritomegas sexmaculatus is very similar to T. bicolor (Linnaeus, 1758) , can be distinguished by the following characters ( Werner, 2010; Bantock, 2011): White streak along side of pronotum is long and uniformly tapered in T. sexmaculatus ( Fig. 3 A); short in T. bicolor , with narrow black streak separating it from pronotum edge posteriorly. White mark at base of forewing tapers uniformly towards pronotum in T. sexmaculatus , while it is inwardly ′barbed′ at the base in T. bicolor . Wing membrane black in T. sexmaculatus ( Fig. 3 B) brownish in T. bicolor ( Bantock, 2011) .