Lasiacantha leai ( Hacker, 1928 )

Cassis, Gerasimos & Symonds, Celia, 2011, Systematics, biogeography and host plant associations of the lace bug genus Lasiacantha Stål in Australia (Insecta: Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Tingidae) 2818, Zootaxa 2818 (1), pp. 1-63 : 36-37

Lasiacantha leai ( Hacker, 1928)

( Figs 1 , 3b , 6 )

Myrmecotingis leai Hacker, 1928: 182 , pl. xxiii (sp. nov., habitus).

Lasiacantha leai Hacker, 1929: 334 (nov. comb.); Drake and Ruhoff, 1965: 256 (catalogue); Cassis and Gross, 1995: 419 (catalogue).

Holotype. ♂, AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: Swan River , (38766) ( SAMA I18247). Type examined.

Paratypes. 4 specimens ( SAMA) , Paratypes unseen.

Diagnosis. Lasiacantha leai ( Fig. 6 ) is recognised by the following combination of characters: mostly uniform, golden orange brown dorsal colouration; major setiferous tubercles on pronotum and hemelytra moderately elongate, terminal seta equal length or greater than tuberculate base; costal area with setiferous tubercles extending to posterior hemelytral margin; pronotal carinae and carinate margins of discoidal area with major setiferous tubercles; posterior angle of discoidal area without clump of setiferous tubercles; pronotum and hemelytra with moderately elongate hairlike setae only, abdominal venter with straight, pale, short, hairlike setae; cephalic spines elongate, medial spine straight; paranota one cell wide, areolae large; costal area one areolae wide, areolae large, quadrate; areolae in subcostal, discoidal and sutural areas small; area metasternal carinae convex, slightly wider than mesosternal carinae, being straight.

Redescription. Medium size, brachypterous ( Fig. 6 ); male 2.63. COLOURATION. Dorsum mostly uniformly golden, orange brown. Head: dark brown; cephalic spines medium brown; bucculae orange brown; labium orange brown, tip of apex red brown; antennae mostly orange brown, AII slightly paler, yellow brown. Pronotum: disc red brown, diminishing posteriorly to pale brown; paranota yellow to orange brown; collum mostly dark brown apically, yellow brown at base, colours somewhat intermixed; carinae yellow to orange brown, medial carina with a dark brown stripe medially. Thoracic pleura and sterna: red brown; sternal carinae stramineous. Legs: femur orange brown, tibiae slightly paler yellow brown; tarsi mostly orange brown, tip and tarsal claw red brown. Hemelytra: mostly golden orange brown; costal area slightly paler yellow and orange brown; darker red brown at hemelytral base, and spot medially on outer carinate margin and at posterior angle of discoidal area. Abdomen: red brown. VESTITURE. White microtrichiae present sparsely on dorsum and laterally on head. Head: adpressed, creamy gold, woolly setae present, absent in longitudinal rows between medial and occipital spines; antennae with minor setiferous tubercles, pale, AI–AII setiferous tubercles in double row with moderately elongate curved terminal seta, AIII setiferous tubercles with greatly elongate straight terminal seta. Pronotum: paranota margins with moderately elongate major setiferous, terminal seta sub-equal or longer than tuberculate base; pronotal carinae also with major setiferous tubercles, absent from collum; disc with moderately dense distribution of moderately elongate, hairlike setae; collum, paranota and pronotal carinae with also with hairlike setae, sparsely distributed. Thoracic pleura and sterna: pleura with hairlike setae as on dorsum; supracoxal lobes with shorter, scalelike setae. Legs: dense distribution of minor setiferous tubercles; terminal seta pale, elongate, erect, bristlelike. Hemelytra: costal margins with major setiferous tubercles as on paranota, extending to posterior margin of hemelytra; major setiferous tubercles on carinate margins of discoidal area, and cubitus + R+M vein, not clumped (aggregated) at posterior angle of discoidal area; hairlike setae as on pronotum, distributed over entire hemelytra. Abdomen: dense distribution of short, silvery, hairlike setae. STRUCTURE. Head: spines elongate; frontal spines parallel, longer than AI; medial spine straight; occipital spines strongly curved outwards, extending well past outer margin of eye; labium moderate length, extending to anterior margin of metasternum; antennae, AI elongate and at least twice length of AII, AIV with very slightly expanded cylindrical base before clavate apex. Pronotum: disc flat; collum columnar, uniformly broad, projected anteriorly over most of head, much higher than medial carina; carinae moderately elevated, all one areole wide; lateral carinae unthickened; paranota expanded semi-circular, two areolae wide. Thoracic sterna: metasternal carinae concave, slightly wider than straight mesosternal carinae. Hemelytra: areolae small, subequal size over entire hemelytra, excluding costal area; costal area one areolae wide, areolae large, quadrate; subcostal area four areolae wide; discoidal area four areolae wide; sutural area three areolae wide. Male genitalia: not examined. MEASUREMENTS. For 1 ♂ is given in Table 6.

Host plant. Unknown.

Distribution. Lasiacantha leai is known from the type locality in southwest Western Australia, most probably from the Perth environs ( Fig. 3b ).

Remarks. Also see remarks for L. windorah . The holotype is labeled inquiline and Hacker’s original species description states ‘possible inquiline in nests of Iridomyrmex conifer Forel (Formicidae) ’. This is likely to be in error

Figures

FIGURE 1. Implied weights phylogeny for Australian Lasiacantha Stål, 1873, with nodes numbered (refer to Table 3 for character state changes at nodes), bootstrap values are given as branch supports, and biogeographic area and host plant mapped next to the species name. Map of areas of endemism, redrawn from Crisp et al. (1995). Abbreviations for biogeographic areas as follows: ED = Eastern Desert; EQ = Eastern Queensland; MM = Macleay-McPherson; P = Pilbara; SE = Southeast New South Wales; SW = Southwest Western Australia; TAS = Tasmania; and, WD = Western Desert.

FIGURE 3. Distribution map of Lasiacantha species. (a) Clade 3 spp. and (b) Clade 1 and 2 spp.

FIGURE 6. Photographs of Australian Lasiacantha species: L. graminicola sp. nov. (habitus and lateral), L. gingera sp. nov, L. kosciuszko sp. nov., L. leai sp. nov, L. windorah sp. nov., L. discordis sp. nov. (habitus and lateral), L. vittata sp. nov. and L. serraseta sp. nov.. Scale = 1mm. Plate 2 of 2.