Ptilomera (P.) agriodes Schmidt, 1926

Jehamalar, E. Eyarin, Chandra, Kailash, Basu, Srimoyee & Selvakumar, C., 2018, Review of Ptilomera (Ptilomera) (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Gerridae) from India, with description of a new species, Zootaxa 4370 (5), pp. 501-518 : 502-504

Ptilomera (P.) agriodes Schmidt, 1926

(Figs. 1A–J)

Ptilomera agriodes Schmidt, 1926 . Ent. Mitt., 15(1): 63 (type locality: apterous male from Tiruchirappalli, formerly known as Trichinopoli and apterous female from Tharangambadi, formerly known as Tranquebar, Tamil Nadu). For synonymies see Hungerford and Matsuda (1965).

FIGURES 1A–J. Ptilomera agriodes Schmidt (A, C, D, G, I, J: apterous male; B, E, F, H: apterous female): A, B, habitus, dorsal view; C & E, abdominal apex, dorsal view; D & F, same, ventral view; H, same, lateral view; G, mid femur, ventrolateral view; I, proctiger, dorsal view; J, paramere, lateral view.

Material examined. INDIA, JHARKHAND, West Singhbhum District , 10 apt. ♂, 4 apt. ♀, Old Anqua, 15.xi.1955, Coll. A.P. Kapur ; Latehar District , 1 apt. ♂, 2 apt. ♀, 1 mac-da (macropterous form with membrane loss) ♀, Netarhat, 24.i.1954, Coll. A.P. Kapur ; Pashchimi Singhbhum District , 5 apt. ♀, 1 mac-da ♀, Chiria mines, 23.ii.1954, Coll. A.P. Kapur . KARNATAKA, Kodagu District, 1 apt. ♂, Madikeri, Hanigunda Village , 2.iii.1966, Coll. G. Ramakrishna . KERALA, Kottayam District , 7 apt. ♂, 7 apt. ♀, 7 nymphs, Kuttikkanam, 28.xii.1970, Coll. A.M.T. Joseph . MADHYA PRADESH, Hoshangabad District , 1 mac-da ♂, Pachmarhi, Satpura Hills, no date, but before 1921, Coll. F.H. Gravely ; 1 ♂, Apsara Bihar, 8 km away from Pachmarhi, 5.iv.1979, Coll. P.D. Rane & Party, Reg. No. A /13426 ; 2 ♂, 3 ♀, Pachmarhi, Gupt Maha Deo, 5.vi.1999, Coll. K. Chandra & Party, Reg. No. A/13425; 1 ♀, Pachmarhi, Dhain, near Manas Gwari Nala, 9.iii.2000, Coll. R.K. Singh & Party, Reg. No. A/13427. MAHARASHTRA, Satara District , 3 apt. ♂, 1 apt. ♀, Khandala, 31.x.1965, Coll. T.G. Vazirani ; 3 apt. ♂, 2 apt. ♀, Mulla near Khandala, 22.i.1966, Coll. M.S. Mani; ODISHA, Ganjam District , 1 apt. ♂, 5 nymphs, Taptapani, PWD Inspection Bungalow, 13.iii.1974, Coll. R.K. Kacker & Party ; 1 apt. ♂, 3 apt. ♀, Taptapani, 29.ii.1976, Coll. R.L. Chowdhury & Party; Mayurbhanj District, 2 apt. ♂, Lulang , 11.ii.1975., 1 apt. ♂, 1 apt. ♀, 19.ii.1975, Coll. R.L. Chowdhury & Party ; Nayagarh District , 1 mac. ♀, Champagarh, 9.xi.1972, Coll. J.K. Sen & Party . RAJASTHAN, Udaipur District , 1 apt. ♂, 1 apt. ♀, Chittorgarh, Raj, Fatch, Talao, 4.xii.1961, Coll. A.K. Datta . TAMIL NADU, Madurai district , 9 apt. ♂, 1 mac. ♂, 6 apt. ♀, 5 nymphs, Oothu, 8.ii.1975, Coll. S.K. Gupta.

Repository. The materials bearing Register numbers A/13425 to A/13427 are deposited in Central Zone Regional Centre ( CZRC), Zoological Survey of India, Jabalpur , Madhya Pradesh and all the other materials examined (Reg. No. 5726/H15 to Reg. No. 5742/H15) are deposited in the National Zoological Collection, Hemiptera Section , ZSI, Kolkata , West Bengal, India .

Diagnosis. Body length of apterous male 12.30–14.26, apterous female 11.92–12.79. Males of this species can easily be distinguished from all the other known species of Ptilomera from India by the spine-like lateral process of the pygophore extended well beyond the lateral process of the proctiger (Figs. 1A, C, D); the posteromedian margin of the proctiger is bisinuate (Fig. 1I); the intertwined swimming setae on the flexor region of the mid femur is restricted to the distal <½ and continues proximally with short thin setae to the sub-basal region (Fig. 1G). Females can be distinguished by the lateral process of the seventh abdominal sternum and connexival process short and slightly surpassing the abdominal apex (Figs. 1E, F, H).

Distribution. India: Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand *, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan * and Tamil Nadu ( Thirumalai 2002, Thirumalai et al. 2007, Jehamalar and Chandra 2013a, Basu et al. 2015) (*first record), see Fig. 6A .

Remarks. All the Ptilomera specimens recorded as Ptilomera laticaudata (Hardwicke, 1823) from peninsular India by Distant (1903), Paiva (1919a) and Tonapi (1959) belong to Ptilomera agriodes Schmidt, 1926 . In the Fauna of British India, Distant (1903) considered all the species of Ptilomera from British India as a single species, P. laticaudata , and the same classification was followed by Paiva (1919a) and Tonapi (1959). Ptilomera laticaudata is a member of the Himalayan fauna, so it is not distributed in peninsular India (see Fig. 7A ). Thirumalai (1986, 1994, 2004, 2009), Thirumalai & Radhakrishnan (1999), Thirumalai & Krishnan (2000), Thirumalai and Sharma (2012), Jehamalar and Chandra (2013a) and Basu et al. (2015) erroneously mentioned Ptilomera agroides Schmidt instead of Ptilomera agriodes Schmidt.

Figures

FIGURES 6A–B. Distribution in India of: A, P.agriodes Schmidt; B, P.assamensis Hungerford & Matsuda (Yellow triangles denote locality details from literature; red squares denote locality details of materials examined in the present study).

FIGURES 7A–B. Distribution in India of: A, P. laticaudata (Hardwicke); B, P. occidentalis Zettel (Yellow triangles denote locality details from literature; red squares denotelocality details of materials examined in the present study).