Dunnius laticeps (Zheng & Liu, 1987) Salini & Gracy & Akoijam & Rabbani & David & Roca-Cusachs, 2023

Salini, Santhamma, Gracy, R. G., Akoijam, Romila, Rabbani, Mehaboob K., David, K. Jacob & Roca-Cusachs, Marcos, 2023, Revision of Acesines Stal and Dunnius Distant, resurrection of Mycterizon Breddin (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Pentatomidae, Pentatominae), and description of a new species from India, ZooKeys 1148, pp. 79-117 : 79

Dunnius laticeps (Zheng & Liu, 1987) comb. nov.

Acesines laticeps Zheng & Liu, 1987: 187-188, 191, figs 25-29 (original description). Holotype: ♂, Yunnan (Mengla), China (Nankai University), 17.IX.1979, Zou Huan-guang leg.

Acesines laticeps : Zhang and Lin (1990): 2 (distribution); Rider et al. (2002): 135 (Chinese distribution); Rider (2006): 259 (catalogue).

Type material.

Not examined. The description was based on a single male specimen (holotype) from Yunnan, China and is deposited in Nankai University as per the original description.

Note.

This species was originally described in the genus Acesines Stål, but the illustration of dorsal habitus and the male genitalia which were provided in the original description by Zheng and Liu (1987) indicate that it is not congeneric with members of Acesines , but rather closely resembles members of Dunnius , especially D. barpetensis sp. nov. described in this paper. Fan (2011) transferred A. laticeps with the other two species, A. tridentatus and A. trifasciatus , from Acesines to Dunnius based on length of labium and mesosternal ridge thickness, and redescribed and illustrated the male and female genitalia of D. laticeps . Another important diagnostic for differentiating the members of Acesines from Dunnius is the notch at the posterior apex of metasternum, which is designed to accommodate the apex of short basal abdominal tubercle, and this is evident in the holotype image of the type species, A. breviceps (the photographs were provided by courtesy of Gunvi Lindberg). This was mentioned by Distant (1902) as a genus diagnostic for Acesines as “… abdomen with a distinct basal tubercle or spine which touches the metasternum ...", but in the case of Dunnius , the metasternum forming a central cruciform process and not notched posteriorly and the basal abdominal tubercle rather short, approximately reaching metasternal process (indicates that it is not in contact with metasternum). Although the original description of D. laticeps did not mention these diagnostics, the ventral habitus image provided by Fan (2011: 573, fig. 215) indicates that the apex of basal abdominal tubercle of D. laticeps neither accommodated by or nor in contact with metasternum. Moreover, the similarity of male genitalia like the shape of paramere, genital capsule (shape of caudolateral lobes, ventral and dorsal rim) and shape of phallus with Dunnius barpetensis sp. nov. Based on the above evidence, this species is transferred from Acesines to Dunnius in this work.