Coridromius tafo, Tatarnic and Gerasimos Cassis & Nsw & Nsw, 2013

Tatarnic, Nikolai J. & Cassis, Gerasimos, 2013, Description of eight new species of the traumatically inseminating plant bug genus Coridromius (Heteroptera: Miridae: Orthotylinae: Coridromini), European Journal of Taxonomy 35, pp. 1-24 : 17-19

Coridromius tafo sp. nov.

Fig. 6 A-C

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Diagnosis

Distinguished by the following combination of characters: pronotum with anterior margin steeply declivent and posterior margin cleft, left paramere evenly curved, gutter of left paramere nearly enclosed its entire length, and ventral apical process of pygophore broad.

Etymology

Named after Tafo, the type locality.

Type material

Holotype

♂, GHANA: Ashanti, Tafo , 6.7333° N – 1.6167° W, 278 m, 1 Oct. 1965, D. Leston ( AMNH_PBI 00192803 ) ( BMNH).

Description

BODY LENGTH. ♂ (holotype): 1.71.

COLOURATION ( Fig. 6 A-B). Mostly orange-brown with yellow-brown markings. Head: Concolourous brown, frons without vittae, medial margin of eyes and posterior margin of head with faint yellow piping, clypeus darker brown ( Fig. 6B ). Antennae: AI brown, apically yellow, AII basal half pale orange-brown, apical club dark brown with narrow while annulation at base, AIII and AIV dark brown, basally pale ( Fig. 6A ). Thorax: mostly orange-brown. Pronotum orange-brown, slightly paler apically, with faint pale midline stripe ( Fig. 6 A-B). Scutellum orange-brown with pale apical fascia ( Fig. 6A ). Thoracic pleura orange brown, apices of proepimeron pale, mesepisternum darker ventrally, metathoracic scent gland peritreme pale. Hemelytra: brown, slightly paler towards costal margin, cream coloured at cuneal fracture ( Fig. 6A ). Cuneus with large, irregular dark brown marking, laterally with faint reddish flecking, apically pale, membrane brown. Abdomen: orange-brown, with small, very faint darker brown markings along dorsolateral margin. Legs: coxae dark brown, apically pale. Pro- and mesofemora brown, somewhat paler apically, metafemur with dark brown banding on lateral surface, fusing dorsally, subapically with pale mark dorsally, subapical bothria pale; tibiae yellow to pale orange brown, with irregular dark brown subbasal annulation.

SURFACE AND VESTITURE ( Fig. 6 A-B). Head with a few irregular punctures medially on vertex. Pronotum, scutellum, and propleuron punctate, hemelytron with punctures basally, becoming smooth on corium

( Fig. 6A ). Body with sparse coating of short, thin, hairlike setae. Head with sparse coating of very short adpressed setae, gena with a few longer semierect setae.Antennae clothed in semi-erect setae interspersed with more erect, thin spinelike setae ( Fig. 6A ). Pronotum with sparse distribution of very short, reclining setae; hemelytra with sparse distribution of short, semi-reclining setae ( Fig. 6A ). Thoracic pleura with a few hairlike setae, abdomen with slightly more dense coating of longer, semi-erect setae. Femora with semi-erect setae, metafemoral apical bothrial setae long. Tibiae with semi-erect setae, metatibia with two rows of thick, caudally directed spines.

HEAD. Approximately 5.8 x as wide as eye ( Fig. 6B ) in anterior view. Frons weakly tumescent; vertex with transverse depressions adjacent to eyes, posterior margin broadly medially rounded, not carinate ( Fig. 6B ). Buccula swollen.

ANTENNAE. AII basally thin, apically clavate.

THORAX. Pronotal collar broad and rounded ( Fig. 6B ). Pronotum broad, broadly tumescent medially, anterior margin steeply declivent, callosite region undifferentiated, posterior of humeral angles distinctly depressed, posterior margin carinate and medially concave ( Fig. 6 A-B). Proepimeron bilobed. Posterior margin of metepimeron truncate. Surface of scutellum flat, apex broadly rounded ( Fig. 6A ).

HEMELYTRA. Costal margin thinly carinate, weakly flared posteriorly ( Fig. 6A ).

ABDOMEN. When viewed laterally, posterior margin of abdominal sternite II not distinctly angular.

MALE GENITALIA. Posterior margin of pygophore with broad, fingerlike ventral apical apophysis, mesal longitudinal suture long ( Fig. 6C ). Left paramere shorter than in many other species (~2 x right paramere length), extremely thin and evenly curved, gutter enclosing aedeagus nearly enclosed its entire length, right paramere broad and subtriangular ( Fig. 6C ).

FEMALE PARAGENITALIA. Unknown.

Host

No host records.

Distribution

Known only from Tafo, Ghana.

Remarks

In 1974, Linnavuori described C. schuhi from a single specimen collected on Mount Tonkoui, Ivory Coast ( Linnavuori 1994). Unfortunately, the sole specimen of this species appears to have been lost ( Tatarnic & Cassis 2008), and its description lacks sufficient detail to determine whether or not it is conspecific with C. tafo sp. nov. Though the described colouration of C. schuhi differs from that of the sole specimen of C. tafo sp. nov. (the former being much darker), other species of Coridromius are highly variable in their colouring (e.g., C. chenopoderis Tatarnic & Cassis, 2008 ; C. zetteli Chérot, Konstantinov & Yasunaga, 2004 : see Tatarnic & Cassis 2010), and without a larger sample size we cannot ascertain the degree of colour variation across these species. We therefore take the conservative approach in designating C. tafo sp. nov. a distinct species.

Figures

Fig. 6. Photographs and scanning electron micrograph of Coridromius tafo sp. nov. A. Dorsal habitus. B. Head and pronotum, anterior view. C. ♂ genitalia. LP = left paramere, MLS = mesal longitudinal suture of pygophore, RP = right paramere, VAP = ventral apical process.