Poppiolygus, Yasunaga & Schwartz & Chérot, 2018

Yasunaga, Tomohide, Schwartz, Michael D. & Chérot, Frédéric, 2018, Review of the plant bug genus Prolygus and related mirine taxa from eastern Asia (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (Acta. Ent. Mus. Natl. Pragae) 58 (2), pp. 357-388 : 383

Poppiolygus gen. nov.

Type species. Lygus bengalicus Reuter, 1885 , here designated.

Diagnosis. This new genus can be distinguished from other related genera of the Lygus -complex by the following combination of characters: Body flat, ovoid, not elongate; pronotum weakly carinate or keeled laterally; hemelytron not strongly declivous at cuneal fracture; pygophore lacking spine at base of left paramere; left paramere roundly developed basally; right paramere bulbous apically, not significantly shorter than left one; endosoma with clearly sclerotized primary and secondary lobes; female bursa copulatrix rather simple, largely membranous, with elongate ovoid sclerotized rings that are separated from each other mesially; and posterior wall with thin-rimmed narrow interramal lobe and small, ovoid dorsal structure, lacking dorsal structure.

Description. Male. Body oval, rather flat. COLOURATION: Clavus and cuneus not darkened. Tibia uniformly pale, without dark spots at bases of spines; spines pale reddish brown. SURFACE AND VESTITURE: Dorsal surface shiny, with uniformly distributed, simple, silky, short, semierect setae. Hemelytron shiny, densely, shallowly and irregularly punctate. STURCTURE: Head somewhat oblique, short; base of vertex with a confluent, narrow, transverse carina about half as thick as pronotal collar; frons weakly striolate.Antenna relatively long, slender. Labium slender, reaching middle of metacoxa. Pronotum weakly carinate laterally; calli indistinct; collar about as thick as base of antennal segment II; scutellum flat. Legs relatively long. GENITALIA ( Figs 164–167 ): Pygophore somewhat triangularly projected at apex, without spine at base of left paramere. Left paramere horse-head-shaped, with sensory lobe roundly developed basally; hypophysis with median projection generally elongate and tapered towards apex and with a weak process at distal margin ( Fig. 165 ); right paramere not significantly shorter than left one, bulbous apically, with a small, truncate hypophysis ( Fig. 166 ). Endosoma composed of three lobes; primary lobal-sclerite (PL) narrow but distinct, associated to secondary gonopore and distal seminal duct; secondary lobal-sclerite (SL) developed, almost straight, tapered towards apex; endosomal lobal-sclerites not much elongate, shorter than primary membranous lobe; secondary gonopore thick-rimmed, with small, rounded aperture; seminal duct roundly expanded apically behind secondary gonopore ( Fig. 167 ).

Female. GENITALIA ( Figs 168–169 ): Bursa copulatrix ( Fig. 168 ) weakly sclerotized, largely membranous including ventral labiate plate (VLP); sclerotized rings elongate-ovoid, thin-rimmed, separated from each other mesally. Posterior wall ( Fig. 169 ) with small, rounded dorsal structure (DOS), lacking lateral lobe; interramal lobe (IRL) narrow, somewhat roundly produced at middle; interramal sclerite narrow.

Etymology. Named after the Finnish heteropterist Bertil R. Poppius (1876–1916), in honor of his great efforts to describe numerous mirine taxa; masculine.

Distribution. Known from the Oriental Region, and subtropical and warm temperate zones of eastern Palearctic Region.

Discussion. The genitalia of the present new genus are similar to those of ‘broadly conceived’ Dagbertus which was originally established by DISTANT (1904a) to accommodate Lygus darwini Butler, 1877 ( Fig. 64 ) and two additional species endemic to Galapagos Islands. Dagbertus had been poorly defined, without any effective diagnostic features, until KELTON (1955) for the first time indicated several significant characters in the male and female genitalia, based on examinations of four species (e.g., D. olivaceus Reuter, 1907 , Fig. 65 ) from the continental New World, in addition to D. quadrinotatus (Walker, 1873) from Galapagos. Subsequently, CARVALHO (1968) also redescribed the type species, D. darwini , with figures of the male genitalia.

The external appearance of the type specimen of D. darwini ( Fig. 64 , the elongate body with clear dorsal stripes reminiscent of Australian Ommatodema Poppius, 1911 or Ethiopian Taylorilygus Leston, 1952 ) suggests that this taxon evidently differs from those accommodated in Dagbertus in the regions other than the New World including Galapagos Archipelago. Therefore, current definition and concept of the genus Dagbertus in Oceania may be provisional, and no true Dagbertus species is presumed to occur in the Oriental Region. The following characters could redefine typical Dagbertus: Body elongate-ovoid, moderate in size (around 4.0 mm); dorsum polished, with clear, dark stripes on pronotum, scutellum and hemelytron; pronotum margined laterally; pronotal collar raised, about as thick as basal transverse carina of vertex; scutellum somewhat arched; hemelytron subhyaline; pygophore lacking spine at base of left paramere; left paramere tumid, with horse-head-shaped hypophysis that has one elongate projection and the other shorter process at its dorsal-apical margin; right paramere ovoid, less than half as long as left one, with tiny triangular hypophysis; and endosoma with elongate, ctenoid, medially broadened primary lobalsclerite and membranous secondary lobe.

The combination of characters mentioned in the above diagnosis allows us to distinguish the new genus Poppiolygus from other superficially similar congeners, such as Dagbertus , Micromimetus or Prolygus . In addition, a single representative of our new genus, Poppiolygus bengalicus , is now revealed to be associated only with the Persicarieae weeds ( Polygonaceae , Figs 92–93 ) grown predominantly at open water margins (marsh, stream or paddy field) ( YASUNAGA 2001, ZHENG et al. 2004). Its specialized host and habitat preferences would support establishment of the new genus.

Figures

Figs 159–169. Male (159–161, 164–167) and female (162–163, 168–169) genitalia of Miyamotolygus rufilori (Lu & Zheng, 1998) (159–163) and Poppiolygus bengalicus (Reuter, 1885) (164–169). 159 – apex of pygophore with parameres, ventral view; 160, 165 – left paramere; 166 – right paramere; 161, 167 – aedeagus; 162, 168 – bursa copulatrix, dorsal view; 163, 169 – posterior wall, anterior view; 164 – apex of pygophore with parameres, dorsal view. Scale bars 0.2 mm.

Figs 54–65. Habitus images of species of the Lygus complex. 54–55 – Anthophilolygus alaneylesi sp. nov. (Nakhon Nayok, Thailand): 54 – ♀, ventral view, 54 –♁; 56–57 – A. bakeri (Poppius, 1915): 56 –♁ (Nagasaki, Japan), 57 –♀ (Okinawa, Japan); 58 – Lygus dybasi Carvalho, 1956,♁ (KUEC) with incorrect paratype label and determination (as Lygus yapensis n. sp.); 59 – Micromimetus rubrotinctus (Carvalho, 1956), allotype♀; 60–61 – M. sunweni sp. nov.: 60 – holotype,♁, 61 – same, left lateral view; 62–63 – Miyamotolygus rufilorum (Lu & Zheng, 1998) (Kathmandu, Nepal): 62 –♁, ventral view, 63 – ♀; 64 – Dagbertus darwini (Butler, 1904), holotype (Galapagos, BMNH); 65 – D. olivaceus (Reuter, 1907), ♁ (Florida, USA). Scale bars 2 mm.

Figs 83–93. Habitus images of Asian species of the Lygus complex. 83–84 – Apolygopsis nigra sp. nov. (Poppius, 1915): 83 – ♁ (Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand), 84 – ♀ (Kathmandu, Nepal). 85 – Apolygopsis nigritula (Linnavuori, 1961), ♀ (Nagasaki, Japan). 86 – Apolygopsis furvocarinata Yasunaga, Schwartz & Chérot, 2002, adults aggregated on Fraxinus griffitii (Iriomote Island, Japan). 87–89 – Miyamotolygus rufilorum (Lu & Zheng, 1998) (Kathmandu, Nepal): 87–88 – ♁, 89 – ♀. 90–93 – Poppiolygus bengalicus (Reuter, 1885): 90 –♀ (Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand), 91 – ♀ (Ayeyawady, Myanmar), 92 – ♁ (Kaski, Nepal), 93 – final instar nymph (Kasuki).