Paramiridius Miyamoto & Yasunaga

Oh, Minsuk, Yasunaga, Tomohide & Lee, Seunghwan, 2015, First record of the plant bug genus Paramiridius Miyamoto & Yasunaga (Heteroptera, Miridae, Mirinae) from Indochina, with descriptions of two new species from Laos, ZooKeys 546, pp. 51-59 : 51-52

Taxon classification Animalia Hemiptera Miridae

Genus Paramiridius Miyamoto & Yasunaga

Paramiridius Miyamoto & Yasunaga, 1992: 93 (gen. n.), type species: Paramiridius tigrinus Miyamoto & Yasunaga, 1992: 94, original designation; Schuh 1995: 861 (cat.); Kerzhner and Josifov 1999: 136 (cat.).

Diagnosis.

Paramiridius can be distinguished from other known mirine genera by the following combination of characters: moderate to rather large size; sparsely distributed vestiture; weakly shining, matte dorsum with noticeable dark pattern (yellow with dark stripes and maculae as in Fig. 1); generally slender antenna; six or eight dark stripes on pronotum; always wholly darkened mesoscutum; endosoma with a spicule, two (lateral and median) lobal sclerites; apically situated secondary gonopore; posterior wall of bursae with distinct interramal lobe and rather narrowed interramal sclerite; and thick-rimmed sclerotized ring with a developed dorsal labiate plate. For further diagnostic characters, see Miyamoto and Yasunaga (1992).

Distribution.

Indochina (Laos), Taiwan.

Biology.

Unknown; almost all available specimens were collected using UV light traps. Two females of Paramiridius laomontanus were found on Castanea sp. ( Fagaceae ).

Discussion.

The original authors ( Miyamoto and Yasunaga 1992) mentioned Paramiridius is similar in some external characters to two western Palearctic genera, Miris Fabricus and Miridius Fieber. Nonetheless, the relationships with these genera are now considered only superficial, on the basis of completely different structures exhibited in the male genitalia.

The present work suggests Paramiridius is more probably related to Lygocoris Reuter, based on sharing the following characters: apically tuberculate phallotheca; presence of a single spicule and apically situated secondary gonopore on endosoma; and similar shape of female sclerotized rings and posterior wall. However, Paramiridius is readily distinguished from Lygocoris by the unique dark pattern on the dorsum which is nearly matte and glabrous, the different shape of the parameres, and the posterior wall of bursae lacking a lateral lobe (for principal diagnostic characters of Lygocoris , see Yasunaga 1991).

There are quite a few mirines superficially similar to Paramiridius . To demonstrate more reliable systematic position of the genus, further comprehensive revision is required, including the acquisition of DNA sequence data for representatives of all related genera, a long-run task far beyond the scope of this study.

Key to Paramiridius species