Piezodorus oceanicus (Montrouzier)

Matsunaga, Janis N., Howarth, Francis G. & Kumashiro, Bernarr R., 2019, New State Records and Additions to the Alien Terrestrial Arthropod Fauna in the Hawaiian Islands, Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society 51 (1), pp. 1-71 : 10

Piezodorus oceanicus (Montrouzier)

Piezodorus oceanicus was first recorded as a new state record from Maui by Howarth and Preston (2007) as P. sp. nr. grossi Staddon, 1997 . In a subsequent survey and report, this species was identified and listed by Howarth et al. 2012 as P. hyberni (Gmelin, 1790) .

A separate collection from Oahu in 2009 was independently sent by HDOA to Hemiptera specialist T.J. Henry, who initially identified the Oahu species as Piezodorus hyberni , but after closer examination and dissection confirmed that the Oahu population was in fact P. grossi Staddon and not P. hyberni . The Maui and Oahu populations were compared and verified as the same species. P. grossi Staddon, 1997 was synonymized under P. oceanicus (Montrouzier, 1865) by Cassis and Gross (2002) and therefore P. oceanicus is the correct and revised name for the species established on Oahu and Maui.

Members of Piezodorus feed on legumes and some species are significant agricultural pests. Historically, there was much confusion on the identity of P. oceanicus as it is difficult to separate many of these closely related species ( Bundy et al. 2018).

Collection records: MAUI, Kahului Airport area, three collections in 2006 using fogging of Macroptillium atropurpureum , gas aspirator and sticky trap ( Howarth et al. 2012), vouchers at BPBM. OAHU, Moanalua, 19.I.2009, ex. Alysicarpus vaginalis , coll. D. Tsuda, det. T.J. Henry, 7.X.2009, vouchers at HDOA .