Ulonemia Drake and Poor 1937a

Shofner, Ryan & Cassis, Gerasimos, 2024, Phylogenetics and taxonomy of the Indo-Australian genus Ulonemia sensu Drake (Hemiptera: Tingidae), with the recognition of new genera and species collected from Proteaceae in Australia, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 200 (2), pp. 360-425 : 415-420

Ulonemia Drake and Poor 1937a

( Figs 23–26 )

Drake and Poor (1936) [taxonomy; unavailable name]; Drake and Poor (1937a: 3) [original description]; Drake and Poor (1937b: 401) [taxonomy]; Drake and Poor (1939: 204) [taxonomy]; Takeya (1951: 18) [checklist].

Ulonemia : Drake (1942b: 359) [taxonomy; raised to genus rank]; Drake and Poor (1943: 193) [taxonomy]; Drake and Hurd (1945: 288) [taxonomy]; Monte (1947: 21) [catalogue]; Drake (1960: 351, fig. 8) [taxonomy]; Drake and Ruhoff (1960a: 29) [taxonomy]; Drake and Ruhoff (1960b: 87) [catalogue]; Drake (1961: 112) [checklist]; Drake and Ruhoff (1961: 138, fig. 12) [taxonomy]; Takeya (1962: 57) [checklist]; Drake and Ruhoff (1965a: 419) [world catalogue]; Drake and Ruhoff (1965b: 256, figs 11, 12) [taxonomy]; Jing (1981: 289) [Chinese catalogue]; Péricart (1992: 83) [taxonomy]; Cassis and Gross (1995: 437) [Australian catalogue]; Péricart (1996: 44) [taxonomy]; Péricart and Golub (1996: 77) [catalogue]; Tomokuni (2007: 64, fig. 8) [checklist]; Dang et al. (2014: 50 , figs 1–22) [taxonomy].

Type species: Perissonemia (Ulonemia) dignata Drake and Poor 1937a , by original designation.

Diagnosis: Ulonemia is recognized by the following combination of characters: body elongate, oblong to parallel-sided, hemelytra exceeding abdomen; five cephalic spines; bucculae narrow, areolate; antennae long, slender, AI–AIII with short setae, AIV with aciculate setae; AI and AII short, AIII long, length subequal to exceeding distance between humeral angles, AIV weakly clavate; collum flattened anteriorly, anterior margin straight or slightly curved posteriorly, hood absent, collum inflated slightly posteriorly at juncture of medial carina; pronotum convex, tricarinate, with numerous punctures, these with six to eight triangular tuberculate processes distributed evenly around internal rim; paranota areolate across collum with deeply impressed calli, areolae reduced posteriorly, appearing carina-like across disc but with areolae still present; costal area uniseriate, subcostal area biseriate; peritreme of metathoracic gland large, loop-like.

Male: Macropterous, 3.0– 3.2 mm ( Table 3 ). COLORATION. Ground colour straw-coloured, brown, golden-brown, dark brown; calli brown, dark brown, or black; head brown, reddish brown, dark brown, or black; thoracic sternites usually same colour as head; abdomen similar to ground colour but usually darker. VESTITURE. Head: setae in bands from antenniferous tubercles to frontal spines, and from frontal spines along either side of medial spine to back of head, and from antenniferous tubercles along dorsal margin of eye; bucculae with arcuate or aciculate setae and ciliate punctures; waxy deposits often encircling eye and from frons to antenniferous tubercles to apex. Antennae: AI–AIII with white to straw-coloured decumbent setae, AIV with straw-coloured semi-erect to erect aciculate setae; distal ends of AII and AIII with dense ring of microtrichia. Pronotum: disc with sparse distribution of minute scale-like setae; waxy exudate deposited in calli. Thoracic pleura and sterna: proepisternum with anterior minute setae and numerous punctures, these with six to eight triangular tuberculate processes distributed evenly around internal rim, lacking these punctures posteriorly; proepimeron and supracoxal lobes with minute setae and tuberculate punctures; mesepisternum with minute setae; mesepimeron and supracoxal lobes with minute setae and tuberculate punctures posteriorly; metepisternum with minute setae and tuberculate punctures. Legs: sparse distribution of minute setae on femora and tibiae; distal ends of tibiae with slightly longer setae and denser distribution. Hemelytra: glabrous, except R + M and cubitus veins with sparse distribution of minute setae. Abdominal venter: sparse to moderate distribution of minute setae, usually pruinose. STRUCTURE. Head: five cephalic spines present, unbranched; frontal spines parallel or convergent. Antennae: AI and AII short, AII one-half to subequal length of AI; AIII usually longer than distance between humeral angles; AIV weakly clavate, length roughly equal to AI + AII. Labium: moderate length, extending to anterior or posterior end of metasternum. Pronotum: strongly convex, collum flattened, slightly raised, or greatly inflated and globose; dorsal surface of disc with numerous punctures, these with six to eight triangular tuberculate processes distributed evenly around internal rim; tricarinate, these extending from posterior margin of collum to posterior projection of pronotum; medial and lateral carinae equal thickness; lateral carinae slightly to moderately divaricating anteriorly; paranota extending from anterior margin of collum to posterior edge of disc, curved, following shape of disc; paranota areolate across collum, carina-like to areolate across disc. Thoracic pleura and sterna: peritreme of the metathoracic gland loop-like, often with dorsal extension reaching margin of hemelytra. Sternal carinae elevated, uniseriate, areolae rectangular to slightly rounded; prosternal carinae straight, parallel; mesosternal carinae straight to slightly divaricating anteriorly and slightly converging posteriorly; metasternal carinae vary from straight and parallel, width between metasternal carinae equal to width between mesosternal carinae, to divaricating, width between metasternal carinae wider than width between mesosternal carinae. Hemelytra: areolae small, irregular, nearly uniform in size in discoidal and subcostal areas; sutural area areolae anteriorly similar in size to discoidal areolae, increasing in size posteriorly; subcostal area biseriate with regular arrangement of areolae; costal area uniseriate, biseriate, or biseriate anteriorly to uniseriate posteriorly. Male genitalia: pygophore boxlike, with lateral margins only slightly curved, sometimes with pair of basal spurs near posterior margin of genital margin; parameres C-shaped with apophysis strongly tapered distally; aedeagus with Y-shaped dorsal plate; endosomal membrane lacking spinules; pair of sclerotized, endosomal lobal sclerites present but highly reduced in form.

Female: Macropterous. Body 3.3–3.5 mm, usually slightly larger and wider than male ( Table 3 ). COLORATION. As in male. VESTITURE. As in male. STRUCTURE. As in male.

Distribution: Australia, Borneo, China, India, Malaysia, New Guinea, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam ( Drake and Ruhoff 1965a; Cassis and Gross 1995, Péricart and Golub 1996, Dang et al. 2014).

Remarks: The male genitalia are based on those of U. leai , as they are not known for any other species of the genus.

Ulonemia is a difficult genus to diagnose. The original description of the genus by Drake and Poor (1937a) distinguishes it from Perissonemia by the presence of long lateral carinae, and ‘differently formed paranota and collar’, features that can be found in a plethora of genera that are otherwise similar to Perissonemia . The description of Ulonemia also states that the hood is either present or absent, and the paranota are either areolate or carina-like, which is a wide range of variability seen in many tingid taxa and does little to aid identification of the genus. Comparison to the type species U. dignata offers some insight to the diagnosis of the genus, though the holotype is badly damaged. The collum of U. dignata is raised and produced posteriorly, forming a weak hood, the paranota are reduced across the pronotal disc, appearing carina-like but remaining unicarinate, and the costal area is uniseriate for the entire length. As we demonstrated earlier, these characters are relatively uniform within genetic clusters, and Ulonemia as currently defined has wide variety in these characters between species, indicating that the genus likely needs to be split. Such a revision is beyond the scope of this paper. Similarly, a key to the species of Ulonemia is not provided, as most species are extralimital to Australia, with U. leai as the sole representative of the genus on the continent.

Checklist of Ulonemia

• U. angusta Dang et al. 2014 .................................................................................................................................................................. China

• U. aota Drake and Ruhoff 1965b ............................................................................................................................................ New Guinea

• U. aptata Drake 1960 ................................................................................................................................................................ New Guinea

• U. assamensis ( Distant 1903a) ................................................................................................Borneo, China, India, Taiwan, Vietnam

• U. dignata ( Drake and Poor 1937a) ......................................................................................................................................... Philippines

• U. electa ( Drake and Poor 1937a) ............................................................................................................................................ Philippines

• U. ermaea Drake and Ruhoff 1965b ....................................................................................................................................... New Guinea

• U. jingae Dang et al. 2014 ..................................................................................................................................................................... China

• U. leai Drake 1942a ............................................................................................................................................... Australia [Queensland]

• U. magna Dang et al. 2014 .................................................................................................................................................................... China

• U. malaccae ( Drake 1942a) ............................................................................................................................................................. Malaysia

Figures

Figure 23. Habitus photos of Ulonemia species: U. leai male dorsal (A), female dorsal (B); U. concava incertae sedis male dorsal (C), female dorsal (D); U. leai male lateral (E), female lateral (F). Scale bar = 1 mm.

Figure 24. Male genitalia of Ulonemia leai: pygophore, dorsal view (A); pygophore, ventral view (B); left paramere, dorsal view (C); right paramere, lateral view (D); right paramere, dorsal view (E); aedeagus, dorsal view (F); aedeagus, ventral view (G); aedeagus, right lateral view (H). See Methods for abbreviations.Scale bars = 0.1 mm.

Figure 25. Distribution map for Ulonemia leai and U. concava incertae sedis. Locality information taken from the PBI database.

Figure 26. Male genitalia of Ulonemia concava incertae sedis: pygophore, dorsal view (A); pygophore, ventral view (B); left paramere, dorsal view (C); right paramere, lateral view (D); right paramere, dorsal view (E); aedeagus, dorsal view (F); aedeagus, ventral view (G); aedeagus, right lateral view (H). See Methods for abbreviations. Scale bars = 0.1 mm.