Moissonia kalopani, Duwal & Lee, 2011

Duwal, Ram Keshari & Lee, Seunghwan, 2011, A new genus, three new species, and new records of plant bugs from Korea (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae: Phylinae: Phylini), Zootaxa 3049, pp. 47-58 : 50-52

Moissonia kalopani sp. nov.

Figures: 1, 3A–E

Diagnosis. Recognized by small, oval, pale body; yellowish dorsum with few scattered spots on pronotum; pale entire legs, except apex of metafemora brownish ( Fig. 1A); short and stout apical process of endosoma ( Fig. 3A); winding outer margin of right paramere subapically ( Fig. 3C); structure of left paramere ( Fig. 3B); and quadrate, thick rimmed, sclerotized rings of bursa copulatrix ( Fig. 3E).

Description. Male. Body small, oval. COLORATION ( Fig. 1): Dorsum generally greenish yellow, shiny; mesoscutum and scutellum brown or dark brown with yellow lateral margins and middle of first one; head, pronotum, mesoscutum and scutellum provided with moderately scattered dark brown spots; hemelytron hyaline, apices of clavus and exocorium, inner mesial margin of cuneus with distinct dark brown spots, inner base and apex of cuneus with obscure spots, membrane pale and shagreen. Ventral side of body generally pale (or in some specimens somewhat tinged with orange) and abdomen green. Antenna blackish brown, segment I yellowish brown, with brown rings on base and apex ventrally, segment II yellowish brown except base and apical 1/3 dark brown, and extreme base and apex pale, and segment III and IV dark brown except extreme base and apex of the segment III pale. Labium pale with dark apex. All legs pale, except metafemora gradually brownish towards apex (or in few specimens apical half completely brown); all tibia with black spots. SURFACE AND VESTITURE: Dorsum furnished with uniformly distributed simple black, sub erect setae and sericeous setae; ventrally covered with shining pale pubescences. STRUCTURE: Head projecting ventrally; labium short, reaching apex of mesocoxae. Pronotum convex, lateral margins curved. Labium as long as metafemora. GENITALIA ( Figs. 3A–D): Endosoma U-shaped, apical process short and stout, 4–5 notches subtending secondary gonopore ( Fig. 3A). Phallotheca attenuated and slender on apical half region ( Fig. 3D). Left paramere as in figure 3B. Right paramere with winding outer margin sub-apically ( Fig. 3C).

Female. Not significantly different from male in color and vestiture, except slightly wider abdomen. GENITA- LIA ( Fig. 3E): Sclerotized rings thick rimmed and nearly quadrate; and dorsal labiate plate with semi-sclerotized, inverted U-shaped structure in middle embedded with transparent membrane.

Measurements. (♂ / ♀). (5/ 3): Body length 3.08–3.33/ 3.03–3.11; head width across eyes 0.74–0.78/ 0.79– 0.83; vertex width 0.36–0.40/ 0.40–0.42; lengths of antennal segments I–IV: 0.18–0.22, 0.85–0.89, 0.45–0.55, 0.34–0.39/ 0.19–0.22, 0.79–0.83, 0.48–0.51, 0.32–0.37; total length of labium 0.93–1.04/ 0.96–0.99; mesal pronotal length 0.51–0.57/ 0.56–0.61; basal pronotal width 1.15–1.19/ 1.31–1.32; width across hemelytron 1.21–1.41/ 1.44–1.46; and lengths of metafemur, tibia and tarsus: 0.99–1.06, 1.04–1.57, 0.37–0.41/ 1.05–1.06, 1.58–1.66, 0.37–0.42.

Specimens examined. Holotype (♂): South Korea: Gyeonggi-do, Suwon-si, SNU Arboretum, 20.viii.2009, on Kalopanax septemlobus (Thunb. ex Murray) (Araliaceae) , Ram Keshari Duwal and Sunghoon Jung (SNU). Paratypes: Chungcheongnam-do: 1♀, Dangjin-gun, 18.vii.2009, on light trap, same collectors SNU. 8♂, 3♀, same collection data as holotype (SNU); 1♂, Yangpyeong-gun, Mt. Yongmun, 10.viii.2009, on light trap, same collectors (SNU).

Etymology. Named from its host plant Kalopanax septemlobus (Thunb. ex Murray) (Araliaceae) .

Distribution. Korea (South).

Discussion. This new species is similar in general appearance to Moissonia schuhi ( Duwal et al. 2010b) , M. takaii and M. sakaerat ( Yasunaga 2010) , from which it can be distinguished by the pale brownish (or brown in some individual) apex of the metafemora and have very distinct genital structure ( Figs. 3A–E) than all other mentioned species.

Adults were collected from inflorescences of Kalopanax septemlobus (Thunb. ex Murray) (Araliaceae) .