Abdastartus muiri Drake

Guilbert, Eric, 2015, New species and new records of Tingidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from Vietnam, Zootaxa 3956 (4), pp. 531-546 : 533-534

Abdastartus muiri Drake , revised combination

Abdastartus muiri Drake 1927a , p. 307

Material examined. 1M, Fyan, 1200 m, 11.VII–9.VIII.1961, N.R. Spencer coll. ( BPBM); 2 spec, Lao Cai, 5 km, E of town, 200 m, N° 128, 26 /XI/1971, leg. Topal-Matakasi ( HMNH)

Discussion. These specimens are very similar to the type, but have no median cephalic spine (the habitus drawn by Péricart (1990) from specimens from Sri-Lanka also have no median cephalic spine). They do have the same paranota, and the same hemelytral structure, however. The bucculae is broad as in other Abdastratus species. The specimens are similar to A. smetanai Péricart , but there are four areolae across the discoidal area (and not only three as in A. smetanai ), and the frontal spines are shorter. The specimens also differ from A. atrus Motschulsky in having wider paranota not reduced to a ridge. They are also similar to A. sacchari Drake in the size of the paranota. However all of the spines are longer. The genus Abdastartus Distant differs from Aphelotingis Drake by the much shorter bucculae and fourth antennal joint. However, in A. muiri , the bucculae and fourth antennal joint are not much shorter. In addition, the head and pronotum of Aphelotingis smetanai are not elevated anteriorly as in Abdastartus , as indicated by Drake (1948). Also, the habitus of the two Aphelotingis species differ notably from the one Abdastartus species. Further, Aphelotingis is from the African region and Abdastartus is from the Oriental region. Aphelotingis muiri is herein transferred back to Abdastartus .

Distribution. Abdastartus muiri previously was known from Sri Lanka ( Péricart 1990), Java ( Indonesia) and Singapore ( Drake 1927a).