Heissiella Péricart, 1984

Souma, Jun & Ishikawa, Tadashi, 2020, Heissiella donguri sp. nov. (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Tingidae) feeding on Quercus gilva (Fagaceae): First representative of the genus from Japan, Zootaxa 4751 (2), pp. 377-385 : 378

Genus Heissiella Péricart, 1984

Heissiella Péricart, 1984: 30 . Type species by original designation: Physatocheila dryadis Drake & Poor, 1936 .

Diagnosis. Recognized among other tingid genera by a combination of the following characters: body elliptical; head shorter than its maximum width across compound eyes, with five spines; antennal segments I close to each other at their bases; bucculae contiguous at anterior ends; pronotum convex in anterior part, tricarinate; pronotal disc covered with minute pubescence as other thoracic parts; hood roof-shaped, lower than pronotal disc at highest part; pronotal carinae ridge-shaped; paranotum reflexed, expanding inward, not bulged upward throughout its length, not forming a cyst, with a longitudinal ridge dividing it into dorsal and ventral parts; outer margin of paranotum resting on pronotal disc throughout its length; anterior margins of hemelytra not parallel to each other in rest; costal area distinct; subcostal area subvertical; discoidal area flat; delimiting veins strongly carinate; hypocostal lamina with 1–2 rows of areolae throughout its length; ostiolar peritreme well-developed, elongated, not widened outward; metasternum wider than mesosternum; metasternal laminae curved outward; abdominal sternites IV to VIII in male and IV to VII in female each with a transverse furrow throughout their width; pygophore elevated at center of venter; ovipositor with well-developed ovivalvula at base; and paratergite IX in female bilobed.

Remarks. The genus Heissiella comprises three species, namely, H. bicaudata Péricart, 1984 from Bhutan, H. dryadis ( Drake & Poor, 1936) from India, and H. sinica Dang & Bu, 2012 from Hainan Island, China, all distributed in tropical and subtropical areas of South and Southeast Asia, which are recognized as parts of the Oriental Region (cf. Drake & Poor 1936; Drake & Ruhoff 1965; Péricart 1984; Dang & Bu 2012). A key to the species of the genus was presented by Dang & Bu (2012).

This genus strongly resembles the genus Trachypeplus Horváth, 1926 in general appearance, but the latter is distinguished from Heissiella by the paranotum lacking longitudinal ridge and the unilobed female paratergite IX ( Péricart 1984). However, in two species of Trachypeplus , namely, T. depressus Dang, Guilbert & Bu, 2013 and T. wapi Guilbert, 2007 , the paranotum is provided with a longitudinal ridge dividing it into dorsal and ventral parts ( Guilbert 2007; Dang et al. 2013). Moreover, T. chinensis Dang, Guilbert & Bu, 2013 has a bilobed female paratergite IX ( Dang et al. 2013). Therefore, the morphological difference between Heissiella and Trachypeplus is quite ambiguous, and the former may correspond to junior synonym of the latter.