Pariaconus mauiensis Percy

Percy, Diana M., 2017, Making the most of your host: the Metrosideros-feeding psyllids (Hemiptera, Psylloidea) of the Hawaiian Islands, ZooKeys 649, pp. 1-163 : 77

Pariaconus mauiensis Percy sp. n. Figure 38

Adult colour.

General body colour yellow-brown to green. Females often appear to have a dark abdomen due to darkly pigmented egg load. Fore wing membrane clear, or slightly fuscous.

Adult structure.

Fore wing apex rounded; spinules distributed in all cells; short setae on margins and veins (Fig. 38 A–B). Antennae long (av. length 1.35; ratio AL:HW av. 2.08); genal processes extremely long, longer than or subequal to vertex length (ratio VL:GP av. 0.93), and acute; long to medium-long setae on vertex and thorax; distal proboscis segment short (av. length 0.10); hind tibia length subequal to head width (ratio HW:HT av. 1.01) (Fig. 38 C–H). Male terminalia (Fig. 38 I–L): paramere longer than proctiger (ratio MP:PL av. 0.9), broad at the base, and medially expanded before tapering evenly to apex with anteriorly directed hook; distal aedeagus segment shorter than paramere (ratio PL:AEL av. 1.25) with base rounded, not or slightly inflated, and a shallow hooked apex (ratio AEL:AELH av. 2.07). Female terminalia (Fig. 38 M–P): proctiger short, dorsal surface more or less straight to convex apically, apex bluntly acute to acute, anal ring short (ratio FP:RL av. 4.65); subgenital plate with slight or no medial bulge ventrally, bluntly acute to acute apically; ovipositor apex lacking serrations, valvulae dorsalis not or moderately convex dorsally.

Egg.

Short, broad, pigmented brown to dark brown (except tip of pedicel and tail), surface with coarse microsculpturing, and either with distinct medium-long pedicel with slightly inflated tip, or pedicel obscured and an unsclerotized patch at the base of the egg, tail medium-short (Fig. 38 Q–R).

Immature.

Unknown.

Host plant notes.

Collected from glabrous morphotypes.

Island.

Maui.

Distribution notes.

Known from east and west Maui; there is some geographical clustering in the molecular data but the east/west divergence of haplotypes is not as distinct as in Pariaconus montgomeri .

Biology.

Unknown; but morphology suggests it may gall stems/buds.

Etymology.

Named for the distribution on the island of Maui (noun in the genitive case).

Comments.

Two forms are recognized (Fig. 38): form mauiensis (based on the type is a smaller form with a shorter, broader paramere, and female terminalia shorter and more apically blunt, known from east Maui), and form kuula (is larger sized, with longer, more slender paramere, and female terminalia longer and apically acute, known from west Maui). There is some variation in the egg type as well; form kuula has an unsclerotized patch at the base of the egg (similar to that found in Pariaconus oahuensis form latus ) that suggests the forms of Pariaconus mauiensis may produce different gall types as in Pariaconus oahuensis (e.g. stem galls and cone leaf galls in Pariaconus oahuensis ).

Type material.

Holotype male (slide mounted, BMNH). See Table 2 for details of type and other material examined for this study.