Neuroctenus pacificus, Usinger, 1946

Usinger, Robert L., 1946, Hemiptera Heteroptera of Guam, Insects of Guam II, Honolulu, Hawaii: Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Bulletin 189, pp. 11-103 : 36-37

31. Neuroctenus pacificus , new species ( fig. 4 , a, b).

Elongate-oval, widest across abdomen but not strongly so, surface dull, granular. Color ferrugineous with some black granules, white base of membrane, and black apex of membrane. Antennae less than half again as long as head, the first segment not reaching apex of head, second segment slightly shorter than third and third a little shorter than fourth.

Head about as long, including neck region, as width across eyes, the anterior process narrowest just beyond base, widened apically and emarginate at tip, exceeding apex of first antenna! segment by one third the length of first segment visible from above. Antenniferous tubercles reaching about to middle of first antenna! segment, their outer margins slightly divergent and their apices subacute. Postocular tubercles reaching just about to outer margins of eyes, acute. Rostral groove about half as wide at middle as long, 9:20, abruptly tapering anteriorly and only feebly narrowed posteriorly. Antennae about one fourth longer than head, 48: 39, all the segments, including the third, thin at base and enlarged apically, the first thickest, second only slightly thinner, third still thinner, fourth elongate-pyriform; proportion of segments 11: 11:12: 14.

Pronptum a little shorter than head on median line, 15: 18, over twice as broad as long, 32: 15, distinctly narrowed anteriorly, the sides narrowly carinate, sinuate at middle and rounded at anterior angles. Corium longer than scutellum, apical margin sinuate, the apical angle blunt.

Abdomen about one sixth broader than width of pronotum, 39: 32. Male genital capsule relatively strongly convex above and beneath, rounded and extending beyond level of apices of sixth visible abdominal segment by slightly less than half its length, 4: 9; its surface rather evenly granular. Lobes of first genital segment very short, narrow, blunt at apices, reaching scarcely half the distance from level of apices of sixth abdominal segment to apex of second genital segment. Female abdomen abruptly truncate, the hind margin of sixth segment straight, the genital lobes scarcely longer than median process, projecting about one fourth the length of sixth tergite, the lobes subtriangular, rounded apically, the median process with short, parallel sides and broad, subtruncate, slightly concave apex.

Color almost entirely fusco-ferrugineous with numerous black granules. Membrane white on basal fourth, black apically. Tarsi brown.

Size: male, length 5.1 mm., width (abdomen) 1.95 mm.; female, length 5.6 mm., width (abdomen) 2.15 mm.

Holotype male, allotype female, and 17 paratypes, Barrigada, July 6, under bark of lntsia bijuga, Swezey ; five nymphs, same data; four paratypes, Mt. Alifan , May 26, in rotten log, Usinger; one paratype, same data as holotype but July 22; one paratype, Yona, May 12, Swezey; one specimen, Dededo, Nov. 8, on taro, Swezey. The smallest male paratype is 4.75 mm. and the largest female is 5.8 mm.

Related to the Oriental ( Philippines and Java)) medius Bergroth but distinguished from that species by the long apical antenna! segment. I have a closely related species from Larat (Muir) which agrees with pacificus in size and color but which has a more cylindrical third antenna! segment, a narrower rostral groove, and slightly longer, broader, and more rounded lateral female genital lobes. This is the first species of Neuroctenus to be recorded from a Micronesian or Polynesian oceanic island.

Figures

FIGURE 4.-Neuroctenus pacifirns: a, dorsal view of female; b,posterior abdominal segments of male.