Dicyphopsis, POPPIUS, 1914

Tatarnic, Nikolai J. & Cassis, Gerasimos, 2012, The Halticini of the world (Insecta: Heteroptera: Miridae: Orthotylinae): generic reclassification, phylogeny, and host plant associations, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 164 (3), pp. 558-658 : 589-592

DICYPHOPSIS POPPIUS ( FIGS 3 , 20–21 )

Dicyphopsis Poppius, 1914: 11 (gen. nov.; type species: Dicyphopsis nigriceps Poppius, 1914 by monotypy); Carvalho, 1952: 72 (cat.); Carvalho, 1955: 58 (key); Carvalho, 1958: 191 (cat.); Cassis, 1986: 164 (discussion of subfamily placement); Kerzhner & Schuh, 1995: 8 (revised subfamily placement, disc.); Schuh, 1995: 47 (world cat.)

Diagnosis: Distinguished from all other Halticini by the following combination of characters: small, gracile body; rounded head with large eyes; semitranslucent hemelytra; aedeagus with extremely narrow, convoluted ductus seminis, endosoma with irregular sclerotized mass apical to secondary gonopore, possibly formed by multiple strand-like spicules.

Redescription: Small and fragile; macropterous. Coloration ( Fig. 3 ): glossy; head, pronotum, and abdomen dark brown, contrasting with mostly pale antennae, hemelytra, and legs. Hemelytra translucent. Surface and vestiture ( Figs 3 , 20A–D, G, H ): body sparsely clothed in long pale or dark simple setae and regions of very short, dense, adpressed setae. Head mostly smooth with a few long setae, clypeus and labrum more densely covered with shorter setae; posterior of gena with dense short setae. Antenna clothed in short, slender spine-like setae; AI with a few thin spines, slightly longer than width of segment. Pronotum with sparse covering of longer simple setae, collar with short dense pilosity, thoracic pleura with dense, short pilosity, Hemelytron sparsely covered with long decumbent setae. Femora clothed in long, reclining, simple to weakly spinose setae; tibiae with semi-erect spine-like setae. Structure: head ( Figs 3 , 20A–D ): rounded, weakly transverse, posterior margin of vertex weakly convex; wider than tall, wider than anterior of pronotum; gena height approximately equal to eye height; eyes rounded, sessile, not touching anterior of pronotum; frons broadly rounded, bulging. Labium ( Fig. 20C, D ): extends to metacoxae. Antennae ( Figs 3 , 20A–D ): insertion in front of ventral margin of eye; long and thin, AI slightly longer than eye height. Thorax ( Figs 3 , 20D, E ): pronotum trapezoidal, steep, collar broad and flat, callosite region faintly medially depressed, humeral angles rounded, posteriorly deeply depressed, lateral and posterior margins concave; mesoscutum visible; scutellum thin and triangular; metathoracic spiracle small, with narrow band of evaporative bodies above; MTG efferent system narrow and angled posteriorly, ostiole a vertical slit, peritreme tongue-shaped, running along ventral margin of tergite, bordered above by narrow band of evaporative bodies. Hemelytra ( Fig. 3 ): semitranslucent, lateral margins parallel, cuneus long and narrow, membrane extends beyond abdomen. Legs ( Figs 3 , 20A, B, F ): long and slender; metafemur slightly incrassate; pretarsi without fleshy pulvilli. Abdomen: narrow, parallel-sided, in males slightly broadened at pygophore. Male genitalia ( Figs 20G, H , 21A–C ): pygophore conical; left paramere L-shaped, sensory lobe broad, apophysis short, tapering, with small subapical keel, apically hooked; right paramere longer than left, straight, spoon-shaped; phallotheca elongate-oval, simple; ductus seminis elongate and constricted, with flexible ribbing; secondary gonopore ill defined, weakly sclerotized; endosoma large, with broad, irregular sclerotized mass near secondary gonopore, possibly made of many long, thin sclerites. Female genitalia ( Fig. 21D–F ): DLP membranous, sclerotized rings transverse, medially subcontiguous, subrectangulate, very weakly sclerotized; VLP simple, with medial margin sclerotized and dentate; posterior wall of bursa copulatrix weakly sclerotized anteriorly, medially with fields of spines, anteriorly with faint bilateral swellings; margins of vestibulum symmetrical with very weak sclerotization.

Diversity and distribution: Dicyphopsis includes only one described species from Tanzania (Kilimanjaro), though undescribed specimens matching the original description and considered congeneric have been collected in Zaire and Ghana ( Kerzhner & Schuh, 1995).

Included species: Dicyphopsis nigriceps Poppius, 1914 Kilimanjaro.

Remarks: The monotypic genus Dicyphopsis was described from a single female specimen of Dic. nigriceps collected in Tanzania ( Poppius, 1914). Unfortunately the holotype was destroyed during shipment to G. Cassis ( Cassis, 1986; Kerzhner & Schuh, 1995), leaving no existing specimens of this species. Kerzhner & Schuh (1995) identified a number of specimens that they considered congeneric (although not conspecific) collected in Zaire by N. A. Weber in 1948, and Ghana by R. T. Schuh and J. A. Slater in 1967. We have only seen the Ghana specimens, and although the habitus is not typical of the Halticini , we agree with their assertion that the genitalia is of the Halticini type, albeit with some minor differences. Most notably, in the aedeagus the ductus seminis is extremely narrow, and the spicule form is unique. In the female however, the margins of the vestibulum are symmetrical, a character consistent throughout the tribe. It is worth noting that what we call Dicyphopsis superficially appears identical to what Linnavuori (1994) identifies as the Orthotylini genus Nycticapsus Poppius (D. Forero, pers. comm.). Both genera were described in Poppius (1914), with neither one illustrated. As we have not seen specimens of Nycticapsus , for the moment we do not know whether Poppius described the same species twice, whether Linnavuori misidentified specimens of Dicyphopsis , or whether these are in fact distinct genera. As the genitalia are clearly of the Halticini rather than the Orthotylini type, we retain Kerzhner & Schuh’s (1995) initial placement of these specimens. Phylogenetic analysis places Dicyphopsis in a clade of primarily African taxa, defined by the presence of paired bilateral pillow-like swellings on the posterior wall (87-1). These taxa also share similar metathoracic scent gland structure, with the peritreme finger-like, angled back and resting along the caudal margin of the metepimeron (25-3), a condition shared only by Piezocranum and Coridromius (could not be determined in Namaquacapsus because of condition of specimen).

Figures

Figure 3. Photographs of Halticini genera: Acratheus–Halticus. Abbreviations: F, female; M, male.

Figure 20. Scanning electron micrograph images of an undescribed species of Dicyphopsis (male). A, head and thorax, dorsal view; B, head, anterior view; C, head, ventral view; D, head and thorax, lateral view; E, external efferent system of the metathoracic scent gland; F, tarsus; G, pygophore, lateral view; H, pygophore, posterior view.

Figure 21. Male and female genitalia of an unidentified species of Dicyphopsis. A, aedeagus; B, left paramere; C, right paramere; D, bursa copulatrix, ventral view; E, posterior wall; F, first gonapophyses, ventral view.