Pariaconus hiiaka 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 : 50-52

Pariaconus hiiaka Percy sp. n. Figures 22, 48 A–L

Adult colour.

General body colour red-brown or brown. Fore wing membrane clear.

Adult structure.

Fore wing apex rounded; surface spinules with limited distribution, few or none in cells r1, r2, m2; long setae on margins and veins (Fig. 22A). Antennae long (av. length 1.08; ratio AL:HW av. 1.71); genal processes length short-medium, converging, and bluntly acute (ratio VL:GP av. 2.03); medium to long setae on vertex and thorax; distal proboscis segment short (av. length 0.10); hind tibia thick, longer than or subequal to head width (ratio HW:HT av. 0.91) (Fig. 22 B–C, J–K). Male terminalia (Fig. 22 D–I): paramere length subequal to proctiger (ratio MP:PL av. 0.96), paramere broad, more or less parallel-sided, apex almost flat-topped in profile with slight anteriorly directed hook; distal aedeagus segment marginally shorter than paramere (ratio PL:AEL av. 1.03) with base angular and slightly inflated, and a large hooked apex (ratio AEL:AELH av. 2.01). Female terminalia (Fig. 22 L–M): proctiger dorsal surface slightly medial depressed, apex bluntly acute, anal ring short (ratio FP:RL av. 4.33); subgenital plate with slight medial bulge ventrally and apex blunt and slightly truncate (ratio FP:FSP av. 1.16); ovipositor apex with distinct serrations (3 above, 3-4 below), valvulae dorsalis moderately convex dorsally.

Egg.

Light brown, smooth, apparently without microsculpturing but with a granular appearance, short pedicel 1/4 length from base, tail lacking (Fig. 22 N–O).

Immature.

Colour and structure: Smaller instars orange, larger becoming yellow or blue-green with grey thorax and head. 5th instar ovoid in outline with wing buds protruding and nondistinct humeral lobes (Fig. 48A, C). Tarsi with large claws (Fig. 48B). Circumanal ring small, u-shape with a single row of often interrupted cells (Fig. 48D). Younger instars are ovate (egg-shaped) with broad head and narrowing abdomen (Fig. 48E). Chaetotaxy: 1st-5th instars: Head, thorax and abdomen with scattered short to long simple setae. 1st instar (Fig. 48E): anterior margin of the head with simple setae, a single pair of short simple setae post ocular, a single pair of short simple setae on the apices of each wing bud, and the margin of the abdomen apparently lacking setae.

Host plant notes.

Collected predominantly from glabrous and semi-pubescent morphotypes.

Distribution.

Kauai.

Distribution notes.

Collected in two locations in Kokee State Park.

Biology.

This species forms enclosed galls on leaves that resemble flat leaf galls in the ohialoha group, but are typically more domed (Fig. 48 F–H), and in some cases either convex or concave in the centre (e.g. resembling Pariaconus pele form kohalensis , see Fig. 52Z). The galls open by a hinged circular door (Fig. 48 I–K) in similar fashion to Pariaconus pyramidalis on Hawaii (see Fig. 52 W–X). Gall density can severely deform leaves, and cause whole leaf necrosis (Fig. 48F, L). In one location an immature dissected from a stem gall also DNA barcoded to this species (see discussion on galling lability). This species frequently co-occurs with other galling taxa (Fig. 48M).

Etymology.

Named after Hiiaka in Hawaiian mythology, the favoured sister of Pele, who dwelled in a sacred Lehua grove and journeyed to Kauai (noun in the nominative singular standing in apposition to the generic name).

Comments.

Some variation in paramere shape, particularly in development of anterior shoulder, is illustrated in Fig. 22H-I.

Type material.

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