Plagiognathus nokhurensis Putshkov, 1976

SCHUH, RANDALL T., 2001, Revision Of New World Plagiognathus Fieber, With Comments On The Palearctic Fauna And The Description Of A New Genus (Heteroptera: Miridae: Phylinae), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2001 (266), pp. 1-267 : 248

Plagiognathus nokhurensis Putshkov ,

incertae sedis Figure 39

Plagiognathus nokhurensis Putshkov, 1976: 1042 (n. sp.).

I have examined paratypes of this species kindly provided by I. M. Kerzhner; they are from the Kopetdag Mountains of Turkmenistan. The male genitalia, as shown in figure 39, are not of the typical Plagiognathus type, especially the area of the vesica surrounding the secondary gonopore and also the details of the chitinous straps of the vesica. In fact, the vesica of nokhurensis is very similar to that found in two undescribed species from the southwestern United States that feed on species of Arctostaphylos (Ericaceae) , especially in the long, almost filamentous, apical processes. I am treating nokhurensis as incertae sedis, because it does not appear to belong to Plagiognathus under the present conception of that group.

HOST: Lonicera olgae (Caprifoliaceae) (Putshkov, 1976).

Figures

Fig. 39. Male genitalia of Palearctic Plagiognathus spp.