Pterocomma italica Barbagallo & Stroyan, 1978

Murányi, Dávid, 2018, First records of four aphids (Hemiptera: Aphidoidea) from Macedonia, Ecologica Montenegrina 17, pp. 20-25 : 23-24

Pterocomma italica Barbagallo & Stroyan, 1978

( Figs 8–14 )

Material examined: Macedonia: Eastern region, Vinica municipality, Plačkovica Mts, valley of the Lumen (Lomija) Stream beneath Mt. Lisec , on small branches of Salix sp. , loc.2017/8, 1170 m, N41°45.858’ E22°30.995’, 5.x.2017, leg. Péter Juhász, Tibor Kovács, Dávid Murányi: viviparous aptera females and larvae (AP 36, 2 viviparous apterae on slide) .

Diagnosis: Brown and dark brown colored Pterocomma ; siphunculi pale and relatively small, bears distinct flange, imbricated with spicules but lack hairs, swollen around midlength to less than 1.3 × basal width and twice longer than maximum width; ANT II with 9–12 hairs; antennal PT half as wide as BASE, PT with 1–4 hairs as long as its width while BASE with more than 10 hairs longer than its width, PT/BASE 1.4–1.7; R IV+V 0.95–1.05 × HT II; antennal secondary rhinaria on antennal segments: III 0, IV 0, V 1.

Distribution and ecology: Known only from Italy and Switzerland, the present record is the first report from the Balkans and the first species of the genus found in Macedonia.

Life cycle unknown, the species was described from Salix purpurea L. The small colony in Macedonia was found on twigs of a broad-leaved Salix sp. , attended by ants and consisting of only viviparous apterae and a few medium-growth larvae.

Remarks: As it was mentioned both in the original description and in the Aphids on the World’s Plant ( Barbagallo & Stroyan 1978, Blackman & Eastop 2018), the species is very close to P. jacksoni Theobald, 1929 , a rare European species that is also unknown from the Balkans. The Macedonian specimens are having some characters intermediate between the two species, but the shape, length and sculpture of the siphunculi, especially the presence of spicules shall refer on their identity as P. italica .

Lachninae Herrich-Schaeffer in Koch 1854

Figures

Figures 8–14. Viviparous aptera of Pterocomma italica Barbagallo & Stroyan, 1978 from Macedonia: 8 – colony on Salix sp.; 9 – ventral habitus on slide; 10 – siphunculi; 11 – antennal segment VI; 12 – hind tarsus; 13 – antennal segment II; 14 – combined rostral segments IV+V. Scale bars 1 mm for Fig. 9, 0.1 mm for Figs. 10–14, Fig. 8 not to scale.