Trioza myresae, Burckhardt and Halbert, new species

(Fig. 201–219)

LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: EFFB67EB-38D4-4F30-8CF4-D8D0AE0D33BB

Materials examined. Holotype ♂: USA: Florida: Miami-Dade Co., Miami, Chapman Field, 26.iii.2007, Ficus aurea (S. Halbert) (FSCA # E2007-1849) (FSCA, dry mounted) . – Paratypes. USA: Florida: Miami-Dade County:

1 ♂, Miami-Dade Co., Miami, 4.iii.2003, Ficus aurea (G. Myres) (FSCA # E2003-677) (FSCA, slide mounted) ; 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Miami, 13601 Old Cutler Rd., 4.iii.2003, Ficus aurea (G. Myres) (FSCA # E2003-766) (NHMB, dry mounted) ; 1 ♀, Miami-Dade Co., Miami, Fairchild Botanical Garden, 20.v.2003, Ficus aurea (S. Halbert, G. Hodges and G. Myres) (FSCA # E2003-2148) (FSCA, slide mounted) ; 1 immature, Miami-Dade Co., North Miami, 24.ix.2003, Ficus aurea (C. Pelegrin) (FSCA # E2003-4641) (FSCA, slide mounted). 3 ♂, 5 ♀, Miami-Dade Co., Miami, 13601 Old Cutler Road, 23.iii.2004, Ficus aurea (S. Halbert) (FSCA # E2004-2082) (FSCA, preserved in 70% ethanol) ; 15 ♂, 9 ♀, 3 immatures, Miami-Dade Co., Miami, Subtropical Research Station USDA, Chapman Field, 13601 Old Cutler Road, 23.iii.2004, Ficus aurea (D. Burckhardt) #1(1) (NHMB, dry and slide mounted) ; 1 ♂, Miami- Dade Co., Miami, 2.iv.2004 (G. Myres) suction trap (FSCA # E2004-2395) (FSCA, slide mounted) ; 1 immature, same but 12.v.2005 (S. Halbert and D. Ziesk) (FSCA # E2005-2470) (FSCA, slide mounted); 1 ♂, 2 ♀, same data as holotype; 1 ♀, same but 23.ii.2007, suction trap (G. Myres) (FSCA # E2007-1152) (FSCA, dry mounted); 1 ♀, Miami-Dade Co., Miami, DPI station Old Cutler Rd, 4.iv.2008, suction trap (C. Padron) (FSCA # E2008-1963) (FSCA, dry mounted) .

Description. Adult (Fig. 201). Coloration. General body color dark maroon to almost black. Some specimens are dark. Vertex slightly lighter than thorax and abdomen, fore margin and each two lateral and submedian dots on either side ochreous; tips of genal processes yellowish. Antennal segments 1 and 2 greyish brown, 3–8 whitish, 9 and 10 (Fig. 203) dark brown or almost black. Mesoscutum with a median and each a lateral white longitudinal stripe; mesoprescutum in younger specimens with each a submedian and sublateral white longitudinal strip on either side; thorax laterally, in front of articulation of forewing with a white longitudinal stripe on either side. Legs white, pro- and mesofemora dark at base, metacoxae laterally ochreous, metafemur except for tip dark brown. Forewing (Fig. 204) membrane transparent, colorless; veins greyish yellow at base, becoming brown towards apex, vein A 1 with dark spot in basal third. Hindwing membrane colorless, posterior margin at base dark. Younger specimens lighter with more expanded light elements. – Structure. Head hardly inclined from longitudinal body axis, about as wide as mesoscutum in dorsal view. Vertex (Fig. 202) subrectangular, 1.4 times as wide as long along mid line; disk with short microscopical pubescence and scale-like microsulpture; genal processes 0.3 times as long as vertex along mid-line, conical, subacute apically. Antenna 1.2–1.4 times as long as head width, with a single subapical rhinarium on each of segments 4, 6, 8 and 9; relative length of flagellar segments as 1.0: 0.5: 0.3: 0.4: 0.3: 0.3: 0.2: 0.3; relative length of antennal segment 10 and terminal setae as 1.0: 0.7: 0.3 (Fig. 203). Rostrum 0.4–0.5 times as long as head width. Metatibia 1.2–1.3 times as long as head width, slender. Forewing (Fig. 204) 4.1–4.6 times as long as head width, 2.9 times as long as wide, irregularly lanceolate, widest in the middle, apex subacute, lying in cell m 1; vein Rs short, curved towards fore margin; bifurcation of vein M distal to line connecting apices of veins Rs and Cu 1a; surface spinules absent except for small area at base of cell cu 2. Hindwing with grouped costal setae and trifurcating vein R+M+Cu. Male terminalia (Fig. 206–208) with proctiger 0.3–0.4 times as long as head width, beset with long hairs in apical half; tubular, in profile, with weakly curved posterior margin. Male subgenital plate subglobular, bearing a few medium long setae laterally and apically. Paramere shorter than proctiger; in profile, broad at base, irregularly narrowing to apex which is slightly curved cephalad; outer and inner face beset with long setae. Distal segment of aedeagus (Fig. 208) as long as or slightly longer than proctiger; apical inflation approximately hook-shaped, shaft straight; sclerotized end tube of ductus ejaculatorius short, almost straight. Female terminalia (Fig. 205, 209–210) with proctiger 0.6 times as long as head width, sparsely covered in moderately long setae mostly apically; dorsal margin of proctiger distal to circumanal ring, in lateral view, almost straight in the middle, narrowly rounded apically. Circumanal ring oval, 0.5 times as long as proctiger; consisting of two unequal rows of pores. Subgenital plate 1.4 times as long as proctiger, angular ventrally. Dorsal valvulae triangular, ventral valvulae almost straight bearing four tooth-like tubercles. – Measurements (in mm; 2 ♂, 1 ♀). Head width 0.42–0.46; antenna length 0.54–0.58; forewing length 1.72–2.12; length of male proctiger 0.14–0.16; paramere length 0.12; length of distal segment of aedeagus 0.14; length of female proctiger 0.26.

Fifth instar immature (Fig. 211, 218). Coloration. In life, orange with a yellow or green longitudinal stripe in the middle. Tips of antennae and rostrum dark. – Structure. Body strongly dorso-ventrally flattened, oval, 1.6 times as long as wide; dorsally flat. Dorsal sclerites covered in granular microsculpture and sparse microscopical peg setae, lacking sectasetae. Marginal sectasetae truncate, present in following numbers (one side only): head (Fig. 212) 28; forewing pad (Fig. 213) 72–77; hindwing pad (Fig. 214) 8–10; caudal plate (Fig. 215) 55–70. Each half of head broadly rounded anteriorly; bearing a lobe at the base of eye. Antenna 0.2 times as long as forewing pad; inserted on ventral body side, indistinctly 8-segmented, with one rhinarium each on segments 3 and 5 and two rhinaria on segment 7. Humeral lobe reaching well beyond anterior eye margin, narrowly rounded. Tarsal arolium (Fig. 217) almost circular, with short unguitractor, lacking petiole; claws completely reduced. Outer circumanal ring (Fig. 216) medium sized, transversely oval; on ventral body side; distance from hind margin to hind margin of caudal plate 5.4 times as long as distance from fore to hind margin of outer circumanal ring (measured in the middle); consisting of a single row of oval pores. – Measurements (in mm; 2 immatures). Body length 1.50–1.52; antenna length 0.16–0.18.

Distribution. USA: Florida (Collier, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Polk counties).

Additional Florida distribution information. This species was recognized for the first time in Florida on Ficus aurea at Chapman Field, Miami (Miami-Dade County) Florida on 18.ii. 2003 by DPI inspector Gwen Myres, DPI entomologist Susan Halbert, and DPI botanist Mark Garland (FSCA# E2003-567). More specimens were collected in the Miami area on 4.iii.2003 (FSCA# E2003-766), 18.iii.2003 (FSCA# E2003-975), 20.v.2003 (FSCA# E2003-2148), 20.v.2003 (FSCA# E2003-2149), 25.v.2003 (FSCA# E2003-2765), 24.ix.2003 (FSCA# E2003-4641), 22.i.2004 (FSCA# E2004-489), 30.i.2004 (FSCA# E2004-681), and 4.ii.2004 (FSCA# E2004-738). The species is known from suction trap samples in Polk Co., Winter Haven, 21.v.2004 (P. Sieburth) (FSCA# E2004-4114) and Collier Co., Immokalee, 6.iv.2006 (P. Stansly) (FSCA# E2006-1923). There is a collection from F. aurea in Palm Beach Co., Jupiter, 29.i.2008 (J. Brambila) (FSCA# E2008-454). There is also an old collection of immatures from F. aurea in Ft. Lauderdale collected 22.ii.1982 by DPI inspector Dennis Clinton, which may be this species. If so, it is the oldest record.

Host plant. Ficus aurea Nutt. (Moraceae) . The immatures induce shallow pits on either leaf surface (Fig. 218, 219).

Derivation of name. Named after inspector Gwen Myres, DPI, who first collected the species in 2003.

Comments. Trioza myresae is a member of the Trioza russellae group defined by Brown and Hodkinson (1988) as follows: genal processes small, compound eyes large, metatibiae with 1+2 sclerotized apical spurs, forewing with short evenly curved vein Rs and small cell m 1. Four Neotropical species are included in the group: Trioza russellae Tuthill on Brosimum alicastrum (Moraceae), as well as T. arribensis Brown and Hodkinson, 1988, T. inequalis Brown and Hodkinson, 1988, and T. novalata Brown and Hodkinson, 1988, without host information. Trioza myresae differs from the last two species in the strict trifurcation of vein R+M+Cu of the forewing (rather than bifurcation into veins R+M and Cu), the slightly longer genal processes, the paramere which is distinctly shorter than the male proctiger (rather than longer) and the shorter female terminalia. From the first two species, T. myresae differs in the apically slender, forward pointing paramere and the slender, hook-shaped distal segment of the aedeagus. From T. russellae it differs in the host plant and general body shape of the immature, oval and flattened in T. myresae, and very narrow and elongate in T. russellae .