Tuponia (Tuponia) arcufera Reuter, 1879

Carapezza, Attilio & Rădac, Ioan Alexandru, 2021, The genus Tuponia Reuter, 1875 in Romania, with two new synonymies (Heteroptera: Miridae), Zootaxa 5023 (1), pp. 59-76 : 65-66

Tuponia (Tuponia) arcufera Reuter, 1879

( Figs. 4A , 5 A–G , 9 )

Material examined: ROMANIA: Buzău County: Policiori , 45.341594°N 26.665040°E, 20.vi.2017, 1 ♂ 6 ♀♀, on Tamarix sp .; Vrancea County: Focșani , 45.744303°N 27.201451°E, 22.vii.2019, 1 ♂, on Tamarix sp .

Diagnosis. Tuponia arcufera is recognized by the following combination of characters: dorsally ( Fig. 4A ) whitish-yellow with more or less intense orange areas in mesoscutum, anterior part of scutellum, and sometimes with a large transverse band across apices of clavus and corium; body length 2.8–3.8 mm in males, 3.5–4.0 mm in females; body elongate ovate in both sexes; ocular index 1.4–1.6 in males, 1.7–1.9 in females; male genitalia ( Figs. 5A–G ): right paramere ( Fig. 5A ) elongate, narrow, apically truncate; left paramere ( Figs. 5B–C ) broad, with very small sensory lobe and pointed apical process; phallotheca ( Figs. 5D–E ) with subapical blunt tooth and two preapical vaguely semicircular lamellate keels; vesica ( Figs. 5F–G ) with subapical secondary gonopore located at the bifurcation of the two apical processes, the lower one strongly sclerotized, lanceolate, shorter than the upper one, the latter mostly membranous, equipped with a basal hump clothed with minute spinules and dorsally serrate.

Due to the variability in dorsal color pattern of T. arcufera , specimens with weakly contrasting colors (as in Fig. 4A ) are very similar to T. montandoni from which they can be distinguished only by characters of male genitalia, in particular the elongate and apically truncate right paramere, phallotheca with two preapical keels and differently shaped apical part of vesica (this can be appreciated comparing figs. 5F–G and 8F–G).

Distribution and biology. Euro-Central Asian element known from Spain, southern France, northern Italy, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Moldavia, Ukraine, south of European Russia, Turkey, Transcaucasia, Iran, Central Asia, Mongolia, north-western and north-eastern China ( Kerzhner & Josifov 1999; Konstantinov 2016; Aukema 2018– 2021). The species lives on Myricaria germanica , and various species of Tamarix ( Wagner 1975; Tamanini 1982; Drapolyuk 1980; Linnavuori 2010).

Comment. This is the first record for Romania. Distribution in Romania is shown in Fig. 9 .

Figures

FIGURE 4. Habitus of Tuponia (Tuponia) spp.: A: T. (T.) arcufera Reuter, 1879: female from Armenia (3.4 mm) male from Iran (3.6 mm), ACPI; B T. (T.) elegans (Jakovlev, 1867): male from Armenia (3.2 mm), ACPI. (Photos by A. Carapezza)

FIGURE 5. Male genitalia of Tuponia (Tuponia) spp.: A–M: T. (T.) arcufera Reuter, 1879: A right paramere, B–C left paramere in different views, D phallotheca in dorsal view, E phallotheca in ventral view, F vesica in lateral view, G apex of vesica; H–M: T. (T.) elegans (Jakovlev, 1867): H right paramere, I–J left paramere in different views, K phallotheca in ventral view, L vesica in lateral view, M apex of vesica. Scale bar: 0.1 mm for Figs. A–F and H–K, 0.05 mm for Figs. G and M. (Original)

FIGURE 9. Distribution of Tuponia (Tuponia) arcufera Reuter, 1879, T. (T.) elegans (Jakovlev, 1867) and Tuponia (T.) montandoni Reuter, 1899 in Romania.