Isometopus quadrivittatus, Akingbohungbe, 2003

Akingbohungbe, A. E., 2003, New species of Isometopinae (Hemiptera: Miridae) from the Ivory Coast and Yemen, Journal of Natural History 37 (23), pp. 2849-2862 : 2854-2857

Isometopus quadrivittatus sp. nov.

Female. Length 2.24 (2.04; 2.40). Maximum width across hemelytra 1.24 (1.12; 1.36). Head width across vertex 0.44; dorsal length 0.18 (0.16; 0.20); facial width 0.62 (0.60; 0.64); facial length 0.52 (0.51; 0.54). Anterior interocular space 0.14; posterior space 0.50 (0.48; 0.52). Dorsal width of eye 0.14; maximum width 0.25 (0.24; 0.26); height 0.30 (0.28; 0.32). Height of gena 0.14 (0.12; 0.16). Ocellus width 0.03; inter-ocellar space 0.07. Maximum width of pronotum 1.09 (1.00; 1.18); median length 0.30 (0.28; 0.32). Scutellum length 0.60 (0.58; 0.62); width 0.54 (0.50; 0.58). Cuneus length 0.41 (0.36; 0.46); width 0.36 (0.30; 0.38). Rostrum 1.32. Antennae I 0.10; II 0.52 (0.50; 0.54); III 0.37 (0.36; 0.38); IV 0.18.

Ovate macropterous to elongate oval strongly macropterous. Head from above about 2.2–2.75× as broad as long, somewhat semi-lunar in outline; in front more or less quadrangular (figure 6), about 1.18× as broad as high. Occiput, postgena, lateral margin of gena ivory white; disk otherwise mostly reddish to dark reddish brown; vertex, subapical band on frons somewhat paler; genae and apical half of tylus dark red to black. Frons confluent with tylus; disk strongly tumid, rather shagreened, dense with shallow punctures; together with vertex obscurely pubescent with short semi-erect to erect pale yellow hairs; apex with two large adjacent quadrangular impressions producing weakly marginate effects at about level of ventral eye margin and immediately above juga. Genae subexcavated, about 0.43–0.50× as high as eyes. Eyes dark reddish, obscurely microhairy, emarginate behind ocelli. Latter colourless with some dark pattern inset, about 2.33× width of each apart. Antennal segment I glabrous, dark red, cylindrical with broad median indentation; about half as thick as long. II in strongly macropterous specimen dark reddish brown with apex and broad lateral stripes whitish; similarly coloured in macropterous specimen but with only apex and rather narrow obscure stripe on basal half whitish; clavate with whitish apex as thick as I and four-fifths its thickness at base; pubescent with semi-reclining finely punctigerous hairs shorter than segment thickness. III dark reddish brown but with apical third in strongly macropterous specimen pale yellow; subfusiform, pubescent with semi-reclining and semi-erect finely punctigerous hairs about as long as or slightly longer than segment thickness. IV pale yellow with slight reddish tinge, fusiform.

Pronotum subcampanulate, about 3.57–3.69× as broad as long; disk dark red to black, strongly convex, more tumidly so anteriorly; lateral margins finely explanate and whitish hyaline, posterior bisinuate.

Dorsum shining, generally rugose; dark reddish brown with four broad strongly contrasting ivory-white vittae as follows: one on each clavus, and one on disk of each corium between radial vein and claval suture. Scutellum similarly with broad lateral vittae conjoined apically, and broad triangular band covering most of disk of cuneus ivory-white. Embolium, cuneus impunctate; remainder of dorsum punctate, more coarsely and transversely rugose on pronotal disk; distinctly pubescent (specimens apparently rubbed) with short reclining golden yellow and reddish brown hairs arising from fine aciculate punctures. Membrane dark reddish brown, glabrous, biareolate.

Venter generally dark reddish brown to black, metasternum and epimera pale yellow. Propleura rugose punctate. Fore coxae dark reddish brown with broad whitish vitta along ventral margin; mid and hind coxae mostly pale with somewhat irregular darkening. Femora in macropterous specimen pale yellow suffused with reddish shading to distinct darkening on fore and hind legs; generally dark reddish brown in strongly macropterous specimen. Fore and mid tibiae largely whitish with some reddish tinge shading to distinct dark apical band on mid tibiae of strongly macropterous specimen; hind tibiae largely dark reddish brown with base and apex whitish. Tarsi mostly pale yellow with reddish tinge shading to distinct darkening in strongly macropterous specimen. Rostrum dark reddish brown to black, bright red dorsally on segment I; sparsely obscurely pubescent, reaching as far back as eighth abdominal sternite.

Dorsal habitus illustrated in figure 5.

Male. Unknown.

Comments

This new species represents an extension of the known distribution of members of the subgenus Jehania Distant into the Middle East. Previously, only members of the nominotypic subgenus Isometopus Fieber had been recorded from the region and these included I. intrusus (Herrich-Schaeffer) , I. taeniaticeps Puton , I. diversiceps Linnavuori , I. nigritulus Akingbohungbe , I. frontalis Akingbohungbe and I. peregrinus Akingbohungbe. The affinities of the new species are with I. puncticollis Akingbohungbe from Uganda, I. lineatifrons Akingbohungbe from Nigeria and I. peltatus McAtee and Malloch from Togo. It is, however, relatively smaller-sized than any of these species and can be readily separated from them using the key provided in Akingbohungbe (1996). In that key, the new species will come to couplet 44 as I. peltatus . It can, however, be readily separated from the latter by the presence of a single oblique ivory-white vitta on the disk of corium rather than two with one towards base near claval suture and the other towards apex near membrane. The gena in the new species is also not as high, being about half or less as high as the eye compared to 0.65× in peltatus . The head in the latter is also more strongly appressed, being about 3.2× as broad as long compared to distinctly less than 3× in the new species. Besides, the second antennal segment is at least half as long as the pronotum is broad in the new species whereas it is distinctly less than half as long in peltatus .

The new species will most likely show considerable variation in nature judging from the amount of variation observed in the two specimens now available for study. One specimen has the wings extending to the end of the abdomen (macropterous) while the other has the wings extending much beyond the tip of the abdomen (strongly macropterous). Between these, there are variations in size and coloration which I have tried as much as possible to reflect in the description.

H: female, Yemen: Mahwit Wadi Sara S of AL Mahwit, 17 March 1992, on Cissus quadrangularis climbing on Acacia in hilly habitat, R. Linnavuori (LC).

P: female, same data (LC).