Sphaerocysta inflata ( Stål, 1858 )

Guilbert, Éric & Montemayor, Sara I., 2010, Tingidae (Insecta, Heteroptera) from the Argentinan Yungas: new records and descriptions of selected fifth instars, Zoosystema 32 (4), pp. 549-565 : 560-561

Sphaerocysta inflata ( Stål, 1858)

Tingis inflata Stål, 1858: 64 .

Sphaerocysta inflata – Stål 1873: 128.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Argentina. Province of Jujuy, Calilegua, 4. VI.2007, Guilbert & Montemayor coll., 1 Š, 3 şş ( MNHN). — Province of Jujuy, Calilegua, 10. VI.2007, Guilbert & Montemayor coll., 1 Š, 4 şş ( MLP). — Province of Salta, Urundel, 7. VI.2007, Guilbert & Montemayor coll., 1 Š, 1 instar V, 1 instar III ( MNHN). — Province of Salta, Urundel, 8. VI.2007, Guilbert & Montemayor coll., 3 ŠŠ, 3 şş ( MNHN), 4 ŠŠ, 2 şş ( MLP).

DISTRIBUTION. — Argentina: Chaco (Puerto Tirol), Misiones, (El Dorado, San Ignacio), Salta (Pocitos, Urundel). Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay.

This is the first record of this species for Jujuy.All specimens were collected by beating the understory.

HOST PLANTS. — Unrecorded.

DESCRIPTION OF LARVA ( FIG. 7 )

Body uniformly dark brown, shiny, glabrous, with long, slender, simple, erect tubercles, with several setae along and one at the apex; length, 0.25 to 0.31 mm.Body length (without tubercles), 2.25 mm; width, 0.95 mm ( Fig. 7A, B ). Dorsum sparsely covered with slender, straight, whitish tubercles ( Fig. 7C ).

Head armed with five tubercles, a frontal pair, a median tubercle, and an occipital pair.

Pronotum as wide as long, wider than head, with two tumid elevations on median plane, a large one near anterior margin and a smaller one near posterior margin, both joined by a longitudinal keel; armed with two submedian pairs of short tubercles, one on the anterior elevation, one just in front of posterior elevation, tubercles half the length of the cephalic ones; lateral margins armed with a short tubercle on the posterior part of the margin, and five to eight other very short, spiny protuberances bearing a seta at apex anterior to the short tubercle.

Wing pads as wide as pronotum, armed with a submedian pair of tubercles, slightly longer than the one on pronotum; lateral margins with a tubercle on posterior part, tubercle as long as the one on pronotal margins, with five to eight other tiny protuberances as on pronotal margins.

Abdominal tergites with central part swollen and margins flat and expended laterally, as wide as wing pads; first tergite with a submedian pair of short tubercles; second, fifth, sixth and eighth tergites with a median tubercle, longer than the one on first tergite; fifth to ninth tergites with a long, erect tubercle posteriorly on each margin.

REMARKS

Instar III has the same number of tubercles on the dorsum as instar V, but are smaller (about 0.19 mm). The pronotum lacks tumid elevations on both anterior and posterior margins. The occipital tubercles, the submedian tubercles on second, fifth, sixth and eighth abdominal tergites are bifid at the apex and end with two setae. The wing pads are not developed.

It is usually difficult or even impossible in many cases to distinguish species of Sphaerocysta based on larvae. However, the fifth instars of the two species described here are quite different. Sphaerocysta inflata is shiny while S. angulata is flat, and lacks the posterior tumid elevation on pronotum. The submedian pair of tubercles on first abdominal tergite are separated at the basis in S. inflata whereas they are basally joined in S. angulata .

Figures

FIG. 7. — Instar V of Sphaerocysta inflata Monte, 1941: A, habitus; B, cephalic tubercles; C, abdominal protuberence. Scale bars: A, 1 mm; B, 100 μm; C, 10 μm.