Wollastoniella Reuter, 1884

Yasunaga, Tomohide, Yamada, Kazutaka, Soe, Zayar & Naing, Shine Shane, 2016, First records of two flower bug genera from Myanmar (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Anthocoridae: Anthocorinae: Oriini), with description of a new species of Bilia, Zootaxa 4158 (4), pp. 544-556 : 549-550

Genus Wollastoniella Reuter, 1884

Wollastoniella Reuter, 1884: 122 (n. subgen. of Brachysteles Mulsant & Rey, 1852 , elevated to generic rank by China (1938: 28), type species by monotypy: Capsus ? obesulus Wollaston, 1858); Carayon (1958: 159) (diag., placed in tribe Oriini ); Péricart (1996: 127) (cat.); Bu & Zheng (2001: 209) (diag.); Yamada et al. (2010a: 204) (diag.).

Diagnosis. Distinguished from other genera of the tribe Oriini (except for Bilia and Bilianella) by the following combination of characters: body peculiarly ovoid, tumid, generally fuscous, densely covered with setae; head declivous, short, widened; pronotum widened, with lamellate lateral margins ( Figs. 20–23 ); hemelytron laterally rounded, more or less lamellate; cuneus sometimes reduced, narrowed or nearly missing ( Fig. 22 ); paramere of variable shape, generally spiral, twisted, with a distinct conus and a flagellum ( Figs. 28 , 33−34 ) as in Orius ( Fig. 31 ) or Montandoniola ( Fig. 30 ); copulatory tube usually cylindrical, sometimes elongate ( Fig. 33 ), with an apical bulb ( Figs. 33−34 ). Carayon (1958) provided a detailed redescription.

Distribution. Widely distributed in the tropical, subtropical and warm temperate zones of the Ethiopian, Oriental and southeastern Palearctic Regions.

Discussion. Wollastoniella is evidently the sister group of Bilia and it can be distinguished from the latter genus only by the different shape of the genitalia ( Figs. 28 , 33−34 ). Males of Bilia have a J- or C-shaped, slender paramere accompanied by a medial slender hook (flagellum) ( Figs. 24−25, 27 ) and membranous copulatory tube being vaguely subdivided into a broad basal section with folded wall and a narrow apical section with smooth wall in the female ( Fig. 26 ). Carayon (1958) also stated that Bilianella Calvalho, 1951 is one of the closest relatives of Wollastoniella . Members of Bilianella have a rather elongate, straight copulatory tube; however, no other character is significantly different from those possessed by Wollastoniella species. Bilianella in all likelihood appears to be synonymous with Wollastoniella , but we herein refrain from a definitive treatment, since no male are currently available for study.

Two species, W. parvicuneis and W. rotunda , are known to prey on thrips and mites ( Hirose et al. 1993, Yasunaga & Miyamoto 1993, Yasunaga 1995 etc.).

Figures

FIGURES 20 − 23. Habitus images of Wollastoniella rotunda (20 − 21) and W. parvicuneis (22 − 23). 20, Male (Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand). 21, Female (Ayeyawady, Myanmar). 22, Female (Siem Reap, Cambodia). 23, Female (Nakhon Nayok, Thailand).

FIGURES 24 − 28. Male (24 − 25, 27 − 28) and female (26) genitalia of Bilia castanea (24), B. burma n. sp. (25 − 26), B. pilosa Yasunaga (from Japan) (27), and Wollastoniella rotunda (28), named on the figures.

FIGURE 29 − 35. Schematic lineages shown with male parameres and female copulatory tube (29, 31 – 34) of five representative genera. 29, Kitocoris hahajima Yasunaga (redrawn from Yasunaga 2000). 30, Montandoniola pictipennis (Esaki) (from Ya mada et al., 2010 b). 31, Orius minutus (L.) (from Yasunaga 1997 b). 32, Bilia burma n. sp. 33, Wollastoniella parvicuneis Yasunaga (from Yasunaga 1995). 34, W. rotunda Miyamoto & Yasunaga (from Miyamoto & Yasunaga 1993). 35, Hypothesized intermediate condition between Bilia and Wollastoniella. Scale bars 0.05 mm.