Metoisops kerzhneri Popov & Herczek, 1992

Herczek, Aleksander & Popov, Yuri A., 2014, Revision of the genus Metoisops (Hemiptera: Heteroptera, Miridae, Isometopinae) from late Eocene European amber, Zootaxa 3887 (3), pp. 401-421 : 405

Metoisops kerzhneri Popov & Herczek, 1992

( Figs. 1–3 )

Diagnosis. This species is recognized by the strongly transversal head, narrow vertex that is half the width of eye, short claval commissure (slightly longer than mesoscutum and scutellum taken together), and the posterior margin of the pronotum being at least twice as long as the anterior margin.

Redescription. Holotype. About 3 mm; body elongate, 3.1x as long as wide. General coloration uniform dark brown, antennae, rostrum and legs pale brown; scutellum pale yellow, cuneal apex dark. Dorsal surface of body smooth, with some weak punctuation; pronotum, hemelytra and scutellum with short, dense, pressed hairs, head, pronotal confluent calli, scutellum and cuneus with scattered hairs. Head, scutellum, cuneus inpunctate (Figs. 1,2). Head strongly transverse, 2.61x as wide as long, wider than anterior margin of pronotum; eyes globular, some flattened from above. Vertex 2x narrower than dorsal width of eye; combined antennal length of 3rd and 4th segments equal length of 2nd ( Figs. 3 ); 4th rostral segment longest of others. Pronotum trapezoidal, moderately transversal, 2.1x as wide as long; ratio length of posterior and anterior margins 1.98; calli weakly developed, intercallian pit weakly expressed; posterior margin weakly convex. Visible portion of mesoscutum narrow exposed, 4.5x shorter than length of scutellum. Claval commissure relatively short, almost equal in length to mesoscutum and scutellum combined ( Table 1 ). Cuneus 5x shorter than corium length and 2.35as long as wide; large cell of hemelytral membrane 4x as long as wide. Hind femora not flattened and thickened, more than 7.5x longest than width and 1.12x longer than tibia; tibia 3.75x longer than tarsus; 1st tarsal segment of hind leg 1.53x shorter than 2nd one.

Dimensions. Length of body 3.3, width 1.1; length of head 0.18, width 0.47, dorsal width of eye 0.21, width of vertex 0.10; antennal segments I:II:III:IV= 0.26:0.83:0.4:0.44; rostral segments I:II:III:IV= 0.26:0.39:0.?:0.63; length of pronotum 0.45, width 0.47 (ant.) and 93 (post.); length of mesoscutum 0.08; length of scutellum 0.36; claval commissure 0.47; length of corium 1.56, length of cuneus 0.31; length of hind femur 1.2, width 0.16; length of tibia 1.35; length of tarsus 0.36 (I+II = 0.15+0.23).

Specimens examined. Holotype, ♂, Nr. 14646; light reddish and small-sized piece of almost rectangular shape amber (15 x 9 mm). Western Hills, near Gdańsk (leg. T.Giecewicz, 1977). The holotype is deposited in the Museum of the Earth PAN.

Remarks. This species has the strongly transversal head (2.6 x as wide as long), narrow vertex that is half the width of eye, and short claval commissure (slightly longer than mesoscutum and scutellum taken together), which distinctly separates them from other species. However M. kerzhneri has the same configuration of the pronotum (ratio length posterior/anterior margin = ca.2.0) as M. punctatus .

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 3. Metoisops kerzhneri— dorsal vievs, antennal segments.