Solenoxyphus salsolae Konstantinov, 2008

Konstantinov, Fedor V., 2016, New synonymies in the plant bug family Miridae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from Northern China, Zootaxa 4205 (5), pp. 496-500 : 498

Solenoxyphus salsolae Konstantinov, 2008 ( Figures 5–6 )

Solenoxyphus salsolae Konstantinov, 2008: 39 .

Camptotylidea linzensis Li & Liu, 2014a: 41 . New synonymy.

Li and Liu (2014a) provided a review of the phyline plant bug genus Camptotylidea from China and described Camptotylidea linzensis as a new species. Description of this taxon was based on six males and three females sampled in Linze, Gansu Province . The authors did not argue the placement of C. linzensis in Camptotylidea , and provided no workable diagnosis for this genus. Examination of the original description allows me to conclude that the holotype and male paratypes of this species clearly belong to the genus Solenoxyphus (refer to Konstantinov & Korzeev 2014) and are conspecific with S. salsolae Konstantinov, 2008 . Both species are identical in the details of color pattern, ratios, measurements, and structure of the male genitalia with characteristically dentate apical blade of the vesica and subapically expanded apical process of the left paramere ( Figs. 5–6 , also compare Figs. 18–22 in Li & Liu, 2014a and Figs. 34–39 in Konstantinov, 2008). Similarly to S. salsolae , C. linenzis was described from Gobi desert at a distance of less than 450 km from the known records of the former species in South Mongolia. Based on the foregoing discussion I synonymize Camptotylidea linzensis Li & Liu, 2014 with Solenoxyphus salsolae Konstantinov, 2008 .

Female specimens from the type series of C. linzensis appear to be not conspecific with the holotype male. The color pattern, especially small round spots on membrane similar to those on corium, swollen hind femora, and somewhat shortened membrane of hemelytron, show that these females definitely belong to the genus Psallopsis and can be tentatively attributed to P. caspia Konstantinov, 1997 . Psallopsis clearly differs from both Camptotylidea and Solenoxyphus by the above mentioned characters of external morphology ( Konstantinov 1997) and by the structure of the female genitalia.

Indication of Tamarix sp. ( Tamaricaceae ) as a host for C. linzensis ( Li and Liu 2014a) is doubtful as Camptotylidea , Solenoxyphus , Psallopsis and their closest relatives never feed on Tamaricaceae ( Konstantinov 1997, 1999, 2008). Both Solenoxyphus salsolae and Psallopsis caspia are known to utilize Salsola spp. ( Amaranthaceae ), a frequently encountered shrub in semi deserts of Northwestern China and Mongolia.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 11. Vesica: 1 — Anonychiella brevicornis (Reuter, 1879) (AMNH _ PBI 00337486); 2 — Glaucopterum putshkovi Kerzhner, 1984 (AMNH _ PBI 00159143); 3 – 4 — Psallus amoenus Josifov, 1983 (AMNH _ PBI 00240707); 5 – 6 — Solenoxyphus salsolae Konstantinov, 2008 (AMNH _ PBI 00141377); 7 – 8 — Tuponia kiritshenkoi Drapolyuk, 1982 (AMNH _ PBI 00249728); 9 — Tuponia prasina (Fieber, 1864) (AMNH _ PBI 00337899); 10 – 11 — Tuponia jaxartensis Drapolyuk, 1980 (AMNH _ PBI 00340905).