Jalysus spinosus (Say, 1824)

Ghahari, Hassan & Moulet, Pierre, 2012, An Annotated Catalog of the Iranian Berytidae and Piesmatidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomomorpha: Lygaeoidea), Zootaxa 3547, pp. 35-45 : 40

Jalysus spinosus (Say, 1824)

Berytus spinosus Say, 1824: 28 ; Neides spinosus auct.

Distribution in Iran. Golestan ( Abd-Rabou & Ghahari 2006).

General distribution. Nearctic; introduced to some regions of the Palearctic.

Comment. This species was identified upon only a single specimen caught in semi-desertic conditions on Abutilon theophrasti (Malvaceae) ( Abd-Rabou & Ghahari 2006). J. spinosus has a more restricted area in USA and feeds mainly on panic grasses ( Panicum spp., Poaceae ) ( Wheeler & Henry 1981). Another species, J. wickhami Van Duzee 1906, is a polyphagous bug, widely distributed in America and Mexico and more probably in some regions of the Palearctic. Additionally, the metacanthine berytids, including Jalysus species, develop mainly on well-glanded, pubescent hosts, feeding preferentially on glandular hairs or on arthropods entrapped by plant secretions ( Wheeler & Schaefer 1982; Wheeler 1994). Many stilt bugs have greatly developed ostiolar processes that may extend upward and well above the hemelytra. The ostiolar process in the metacanthine genus Jalysus ends in a sharp spine, whereas these processes in Metacanthus and Pneustocerus extend outward, then curve posteriorly before ending in a rounded apex ( Schaefer 1972; Henry 1997a).