Triplatyx dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1931

Kment, Petr, 2008, A revision of the endemic Madagascan genus Triplatyx (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 48 (2), pp. 543-582 : 554-559

Triplatyx dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1931

( Figs. 2 , 9-11 , 16, 20 , 28 , 30-31 , 41-43 , 48 , 52 a-c, 57, 60-66, 72, 76-78, 86)

Triplatyx dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1931: 222 . Description. Triplatyx dubius: CACHAN (1952) : 374 -375, pl. XI. Redescription, key, figures. Triplatyx dubius: WEIDNER (1972) : 124. List of types.

Type locality. Madagascar.

Type material examined. HOLOTYPE: ♀, ‘ Type [p, pink label] // Madagaskar. / F. Sikora // vend. 20.III.1896. [p, white label] // ♀ / Type / Coll. J = Hrp. [p, white label] // Triplatyx / dubius J. Hrp. / Det. [hw] Jensen-Haarup [p, white label] // A.C.Jensen-Haarup / determ. 1928 [p, white label]’ ( ZMUH). The holotype ( Figs. 77-78 ) is pinned, poorly sclerotized and shrunken (especially scutellum, hemelytra and abdomen), pale brown.

Additional material examined. MADAGASCAR: Madag [ascar], 1 J ( NMPC) ; Madagascar , 1900, 1♀, Fairmaire lgt.( MNHN) ; Madagascar ,1930, 1♀, coll. Sicard, P.Cachan det. as Triplatyx quadraticeps (MNHN) ; (C) : Tananarive [= Antananarivo], 1 ♀, Clermont Vend. [?lgt.], W. E. China 1929 det. as Triplatyx quadraticeps (ZMAS) ; ( NW) : dct. Majunga [= Mahajanga province], [Ampijoroa National Park], forêt [= forest] Ankarafantsika , 120 m a.s.l., xii.1959, 1 J, Raharizonina [?lgt.], Institute Scientifique Madagascar ( MNHN) ; Ankarafantsika prot[ected] area, 10.xii.2001, 1 J, Dolin lgt. ( EHIA) ; Mahajanga province, Mahajamba river, Ampatika env., 10.-12.xii.1996, 1 ♀, I. Jeniš lgt. ( ZJPC); (S) : Anjahantelo près [= near] Amboasary , iii.1963, 3♀♀, Vadon & Peyrieras lgt. ( MNHN, NMPC) ; Androy region, Ambovombe , ii.-iii.1901, 1 spec. (abdomen lost), J. Decorse lgt., P. Cachan det. as Triplatyx dubius (MNHN) ; Pays [= region of] Androy, Ambovombé , xi.1901, 1 ♀, Ch. Alluaud lgt. ( MNHN) ; Ivahona env., 23 km SE of Betroka, 850 m a.s.l., 1.i.1999, 1♀, P. Bulirsch lgt. ( ZJPC); ( SW) : Sakaraha [env.], Lambomakandro , 2♀♀, P. Griveaud lgt., Institute Scientifique Madagascar ( BMNH, MNHN) ; réserve spéciale du Zombitsy [= Zombitsy National Park], est de [= E of] Sakaraha , matsabory [= marsh], 640 m a.s.l., 7.-10.xi.1974, 1 ♀, P. Viette & Peyrieras A. lgt. ( MNHN) ; Lambomakandro, Tuléar [= Toliara province], 1935, 2 J 1 ♀, R. Cataia [lgt.] ( MNHN) ; 55 km de Tuléar [= Toleara], Rte vers Tananarive [= road to Antananarivo], iii.[19]57, 1 J 1 ♀, R. J. E. [?lgt.], Institute Scientifique Madagascar ( BMNH, MNHN); (W) : dct. Antsalova, Andobo, forêt [= forest] Autsiasy , [Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve], xi.[19]57, 1 ♀, P. Griv [eaud] lgt., G. M. Day 1964 det. as Triplatyx dubius (MNHN) ; Morondava, forêt sud du [= forest south of] Befasy , i.[19]56, 1 J 3 ♀♀, R. P. [?lgt.], Institute Scientifique Madagascar, G. M. Day 1964 det. as Triplatyx dubius (partim) ( BMNH, MNHN) .

Redescription. Adult ( Figs. 72 , 76-78 ). Colouration. Body dorsally pale to dark brown, pronotum and scutellum with more or less distinct (often completely absent) pale, callose longitudinal midline. Antennae entirely pale brown, or basal half of antennomere 1, apical half of antennomere 4 and apical two-thirds of antennomere 5 all brown to dark brown. Eyes pale to dark brown, usually with silver or gold luster. Laterotergites each medially with small, narrow pale spot at margin. Ventrum of body dark to blackish brown; abdomen medially with large yellowish callosities. Rostrum brownish, apically dark brown. Legs pale brown with irregular brown spots; claws in apical halves black. Abdominal spiracles black.

Sculpture. Body dorsally densely to very densely punctate. Interspaces among punctures narrower than or as wide as their diameters; if wider, than forming irregular, pale, convex callosities; punctures concolorous to black, usually dark brown. Callosities on dorsum very variable: in some specimens absent; in others, sparse, scattered, small and irregular (especially on connexiva) or forming more or less complete simple or double longitudinal midline on pronotum and scutellum. Basal angles of scutellum with small, raised, globular, ivory to beige callose grain. Venter of body very densely punctate, punctures on thorax distinctly larger than those on head and abdomen, abdomen medially with much sparser punctation than on sides; sides of thorax and abdomen with few to many small or larger irregular beige callosities ( Fig. 16 ). Legs without distinct punctures.

Structure. Head strongly declivous, nearly trapezoid in outline ( Fig. 2 ). Lateral margins in front of eyes with triangular anteocular spine, more anteriorly slightly but distinctly incised; paraclypei foliaceous, flattened, long and wide, widening laterad in front of lateral incision and rounded mesad anteriorly, more or less regularly arcuate; anterior margin of head nearly straight to slightly convex; paraclypei meeting in front of clypeus, forming only small incision; paraclypei slightly depressed medially or flat, with anterior margin both dorsally and ventrally lacking setae. Clypeus and frons slightly convex to nearly flat. Antennomeres ordered from shortest to longest as 3 ≤ 1 ≤ 2 ≤ 4 <5. Bucculae regularly narrowing anteriad and evanescent in front, slightly narrowing posteriad and apically rounded, with lower margin slightly insinuated medially. Apex of rostrum reaching anterior margins of metacoxae or lying between them.

Pronotum ( Figs. 9-11 , 78 ). Anterolateral angles truncated, wide, weakly protruding anteriorly, laterally with distinct spine. Anterolateral margins nearly merging with humeral angles and very variable in shape: concave to nearly straight, carinate, inerme or bearing one minute to large triangular spine medially or one large and one minute spine. Humeral angles very wide, slightly to distinctly produced anteriad, slightly declivous, widely rounded, anteriorly and laterally bearing 4-6 well developed to hardly distinct triangular or lobe-like projections; the most anterior projection usually best developed, the most posterior one sometimes protruding of arcuate outline; in some specimens, projections poorly developed and humeral angles laterally only weakly sinuate. Margins of pronotum behind humeral angles regularly rounded, narrowing towards scutellum; posterior margin slightly concave. Pronotal disc anteriorly and medially slightly convex, strongly declivous towards head, without distinct median elevation; dorsal surface of humeral angles continuous with rest of pronotum, only slightly concave basally; posterior part of pronotum distinctly convex sublaterally, slightly convex medially, confluent with anterior surface of scutellum.

Scutellum. Basal angles shallowly depressed; disc slightly and regularly elevated, not forming a hump ( Figs. 64 , 72 ), to distinctly elevated, forming low to moderately high, round hump ( Figs. 65-66 ), convex in anterior two-thirds of scutellum and continous with surface of pronotum; lateral surfaces flattened in midlength of scutellum; posterior surface narrowly rounded, regularly declining towards apex, lacking any elevation; scutellar apex nearly flat.

Hemelytra. Clavus with 3-4 irregular rows of punctures in widest place; apex of membrane almost reaching apex of abdomen.

Thorax ventrally flattened; sternum between coxae shallowly furrowed. Ostiole situated on small tubercle, round, directed obliquely ventrolaterad ( Figs. 16, 20 ) and accompanied with small auricle ( Fig. 19 ); auricle less than twice longer than ostiole wide; metapleuron around ostiole hardly depressed. Evaporatorium small, developed both on meso- and metapleuron; on mesopleuron forming only narrow strip along posterior margin and widened in its depressed posterolateral angle ( Fig. 16 ); evaporatorium on metapleuron narrowly surrounding tubercle bearing ostiole and projecting as narrow strip mesad between meso- and metacoxae, and laterad on anterior margin of metapleuron along thoracic spiracle and further laterad; ‘outlet channel’ well developed ( Fig. 16 ); gyrification poorly developed.

Legs. Protibiae hardly widening towards apex, their outer surface distinctly flattened, lateral margins carinated.

Abdomen slightly narrower to slightly wider than pronotum across humeral angles; sternite III not depressed anteromedially. Laterotergites fully exposed dorsally, mediotergites completely covered with hemelytra; laterotergite III laterally distinctly bisinuate, with more or less protruding projection medially; laterotergites IV-VI laterally slightly bisinuate to nearly straight, laterotergites VII-VIII laterally nearly straight ( Figs. 30-31 ); dorsal surface of laterotergites nearly flat, sometimes with shallow depressions medially.

Male genitalia. Pygophore ( Figs. 41-43 ) relatively small (pygophore width 0.70-0.78 mm, ratio pygophore width to body length 0.13-0.14; n = 4); ventral wall gibbose; ventral rim medially not developed, laterally indicated by shallow ridges on posterolateral angles; ventral wall continually merging into ventral rim infolding, neither of them deeply depressed subapically at base of posterolateral angles; ventral rim infolding bent dorsally, shallowly concave medially, lateral projection obtusangulate ( Fig. 42 ); posterolateral angles narrowly rounded laterally, lateral rim of posterolateral angles wider; lateral rim infolding dorsally with semi-circular projection ( Fig. 42 , red arrow); paramere sockets distinct; apices of parameres visible, directed obliquely dorsolaterally. Paramere simple, laterally flattened, apical portion slightly longer than basal portion, medially curved, apically widelly rounded ( Fig. 48 ); apex of paramere in dorsal view neither widened, nor flattened. Phallotheca of aedeagus slightly oval, sclerotized apical processes of median penal plates narrow, well developed ( Fig. 52 ).

Female genitalia ( Fig. 57). Gonocoxites 8 with posterior margin slightly concave and sutural margin slightly convex, both gonocoxites 8 almost in contact medially; gonapophyses 9 visible; posterior margin of laterotergites 9 narrowly rounded. For description of internal female genitalia ( Figs. 60-63) see generic redescription.

Measurements. See Table 1. JENSEN- HAARUP (1931) indicated the body length of the holotype as 4.5 mm. Females are larger than males: JJ 5.0-5.4 mm, ♀♀ 5.4-6.0 mm.

Variation. Extremely variable in external characters, especially in the colouration of body, the density and colouration of punctures, the presence and distribution of callosities (e.g., the presence of the pale median callose line on pronotum and scutellum), the shape of head, pronotum ( Figs. 9-11 ), scutellum (a hump developed or not; Figs. 64-66 , 72 ), and connexivum ( Figs. 30-31 ). The holotype has no hump on scutellum and pronotum evenly rounded laterally ( Figs. 77-78 ), humeral angles not much produced anteriad, not reaching the line of anteocular spines. Apical receptacle of spermatheca with bunch of very variably shaped processes ( Figs. 61-63).

Differential diagnosis. Triplatyx dubius is habitually very similar to T. quadraticeps and T. kerzhneri sp. nov. All three species share the following characters: head trapezoid in outline; humeral angles of pronotum more or less rounded; thorax ventrally flattened; auricle of metathoracic scent gland very small, directed obliquely ventrolaterad; metapleuron around ostiole hardly depressed; evaporatoria small with well developed ‘outlet channel’; protibiae not widening towards apex; legs without distinct punctures; outer margin of laterotergites only slightly bisinuate to nearly straight. The three species can be distinguished with certainty only according to genitalic characters. Triplatyx dubius is characterized by the posterolateral angles of pygophore laterally rounded ( Figs. 41-42 ); the ventral wall of pygophore continually merging into ventral rim infolding, neither of them being deeply depressed subapically at base of posterolateral angles; the lateral rim of posterolateral angles wide; the lateral rim infolding dorsally with semi-circular projection ( Fig. 42 , red arrow); the paramere as in Fig. 48 . Moreover, T. dubius usually lacks the scutellar hump, has a slightly larger auricle (less than twice longer than ostiole wide) ( Fig. 20 ), the pale median callose line on pronotum and scutellum is usually absent, and the humeral angles of pronotum are less prominent. However, specimens with developed hump and/or large humeral angles may be difficult to identify.

Collecting notes. According to the locality labels, T. dubius was collected at least three-times in forests (Ankarafantsika, Autsiasy, Befasy); one label quotes the word ‘matsabory’, meaning marsh in Malagasy. The localities with known altitude are situated between 120 and 850 m a.s.l. All the specimens examined were collected during the summer period from November to March. In Ambovombe, T. dubius was collected sympatrically with T. bilobatus .

Distribution. Widely distributed in north-western, western, central, and southern Madagascar (Fig. 86). All localities (except those on southern coast) are situated in drainage areas of rivers flowing westwards to the Mozambique Channel; T. dubius has not been collected on the east side of the island characterized by humid forests.

Figures

Figs. 1-7. Head (1-4, 6-7 – dorsal view, 5 – lateral view). 1 – Triplatyx bilobatus Cachan, 1952 (J, Isalo NP); 2 – T. dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1931 (J, Ankarafantsika forest); 3 – T. kerzhneri sp. nov. (J, holotype, Maromandia); 4-6 – T. quadraticeps Horváth, 1904 (4-5 – J, lectotype, Antongil Bay; 6 – larva, Périnet); 7 – T. stysi sp. nov. (J, holotype, Ranomafana NP). Scale bar = 1 mm.

Figs. 8-14. Pronotum. 8 – Triplatyx bilobatus Cachan, 1952 (J, Isalo NP); 9-11 – T. dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1931 (9 – ♀, Anjahantelo; 10 – J, Ankarafantsika forest; 11 – J, ‘Madag’); 12 – T. kerzhneri sp. nov. (J, holotype, Maromandia); 13 – T. quadraticeps Horváth, 1904 (J, lectotype, Antongil Bay); 14 – T. stysi sp. nov. (J, holotype, Ranomafana NP). Scale bar = 1 mm.

Figs. 15-23. 15-18 – meso- and metapleuron (magnfication 63×); 19-23 – metathoracic scent gland auricle (90×). 15, 19 – Triplatyx bilobatus Cachan, 1952 (J, Isalo NP); 16, 20 – T. dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1931 (J, Lambomakandro); 21 – T. kerzhneri sp. nov. (J, holotype, Maromandia); 17, 22 – T. quadraticeps Horváth, 1904 (J, lectotype, Antongil Bay); 18, 23 – T. stysi sp. nov. (♀, paratype, Moramanga). Photo: P. Kment.

Figs. 24-28.24-27 – meso- and metapleuron. 24 – Triplatyx quadraticeps Horváth, 1904 (J, lectotype,Antongil Bay); 25 – T. stysi sp. nov. (♀, paratype, Moramanga); 26 – Anoano pronotalis Cachan, 1952 (J, syntype, Ambovombe, MNHN); 27 – Tricompastes gigas Cachan, 1952 (♀, no locality, MNHN). 28 – abdominal dorsum of T. dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1931 (♀, Madagascar, Fairmaire). Scale bars = 1 mm; evaporatorium grey.

Figs. 29-34. Connexivum. 29 – Triplatyx bilobatus Cachan, 1952 (J, Isalo NP); 30-31 – T. dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1931 (30 – ♀, Anjahantelo; 31 – J, Ankarafantsika forest); 32 – T. quadraticeps Horváth, 1904 (J, lectotype, Antongil Bay); 33-34 – T. stysi sp. nov. (33 – J, holotype, Ranomafana NP; 34 – ♀, paratype, Moramanga). Scale bar = 1 mm.

Figs. 41-46. Pygophore (41-42, 44-45 – posterodorsal view, ventral rim above; 42, 45 – dissected; 43, 46 – ventral view). 41-43 – T. dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1931 (‘Madag’; width 0.78 mm); 44-46 – T. quadraticeps Horváth, 1904 (paralectotype, Antongil Bay; width 0.88 mm). Photo: J. Macek (41, 43-44, 46) & P. Kment (42, 45).

Figs.47-51. Paramere, lateral view. 47 – Triplatyx bilobatus Cachan, 1952 (Isalo NP); 48 – T.dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1931 (‘Madag’); 49 – T. kerzhneri sp. nov. (J, holotype, Maromandia); 50a-b – T. quadraticeps Horváth, 1904 (two different views – paralectotype, Antongil Bay); 51 – T. stysi sp. nov. (paratype, Ambodinifody env.). Scale bar = 0.5 mm.

Figs. 52-56. Phallus. 52a-c – Triplatyx dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1931 (a – dorsal view, b – lateral view, c – ventral view; a,c – ‘Madag’, b – Lambomakandro); 53a-b – T. bilobatus Cachan, 1952 (a – dorsal view, b – ventral view; Isalo NP); 54 – T. kerzhneri sp. nov. (dorsal view; holotype, Maromandia); 55 – T. quadraticeps Horváth, 1904 (dorsal view; paralectotype, Antongil Bay); 56 – T. stysi sp. nov. (dorsal view; paratype, Ambodinifody env.). Scale bar = 0.5 mm; abbreviations: aa – articulatory apparatus, apr – apical process of median plate, cj – conjunctiva, dsp – ductus seminalis proximalis, er – ejaculatory reservoir, pht – phallotheca, sg – secondary gonopore, ve – vesica.

Figs. 76-79. Habitus of Triplatyx species. 76-78 – Triplatyx dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1931: 76 – ♀, Zombitsy NP; 77- 78 – ♀, holotype, Madagascar, coll. Sicora. 79 – T. kerzhneri sp. nov.: J, holotype, Maromandia. Photo: J. Macek (76, 79) & P. Kment (77-78).

Figs. 71-75. Habitus of Triplatyx species, lateral view. 71 – Triplatyx bilobatus Cachan, 1952 (J, Isalo NP); 72 – T. dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1931 (♀, Zombitsy NP); 73 – T. kerzhneri sp. nov. (J, holotype, Maromandia); 74 – T. quadraticeps Horváth, 1904 (J, lectotype, Antongil Bay); 75 – T. stysi sp. nov. (J, holotype, Ranomafana NP). Photo: J. Macek.

Figs. 64-66. Habitus of Triplatyx dubius Jensen-Haarup, 1931, lateral view. 64 – ♀, Anjahantelo; 65 – J, Ankarafantsika forest; 66 – J, ‘Madag’. Scale bar = 1 mm.