Platycranus jordii Günther, 2011

Knyshov, Alexander & Konstantinov, Fedor V., 2013, A taxonomic revision of the genus Platycranus Fieber, 1870 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae: Orthotylinae), Zootaxa 3637 (3), pp. 201-253 : 235-236

Platycranus jordii Günther, 2011

Fig. 58

Platycranus jordii Günther, 2011: 267 [n.sp.]

Diagnosis. Distinguished by the following combination of characters: head, pronotum except lateral margins, scutellum, and inner margin of hemelytron brown in both sexes; first antennal segment yellow and relatively long, 0.5 × as long as width of head; labium reaching mesocoxae; head and distal part of pronotum with silvery scalelike setae; first antennal segment with three mesial stiff setae; right paramere with a sharp tip. Most similar to P. genistae , P. p i c t u s, and P. wagneri in coloration but differs in having a pale first antennal segment.

Distribution. Almeria prov., Spain ( Günther 2011).

Host associations. Retama sphaerocarpa (L.) Boissier ( Günther 2011).

Discussion. The description of P. jordii was published when the present paper was substantially completed. We have not examined the material and refrain from repeating the highly detailed and perfectly illustrated original description here. Günther (2011) provided a comparison of his new species with P. w a g n e r i only, but it is clear that P. j o rd i i well differs from P. p i c t u s and P. genistae as well. As was mentioned in the generic discussion, a contrastingly dark first antennal segment is the main feature of P. genistae , P. pictus , and P. wagneri , but the segment is pale in P. jo rdi i. However, all other characters, viz. intensity of dark color and absence of sexual dimorphism in color pattern, support the idea of close relationships of these species. Judging by the published pictures of the dorsal habitus of P. j o rd i i ( Günther 2011), simple setae on the hemelytron are dark, although according to the original description all vestiture on the dorsum is pale.