[Insect] A new species of Ambunticoris from Sulawesi (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae)

Abstract. Ambunticoris sulawesicus sp. nov. (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae: Bryocorinae: Eccritotarsini) is described from Sulawesi, Indonesia. Diagnosis, digital habitus images, illustrations of male and female genital structures, and scanning micrographs of diagnostic morphological structures are provided for the new species. Diagnosis of the tribe Eccritotarsini and placement of the genus Ambunticoris Carvalho, 1981 within this tribe are briefly discussed.

Keywords: Heteroptera, Miridae, Bryocorinae, Eccritotarsini, taxonomy, genitalia, Indonesia, Oriental Region

Description. Male. Coloration (Figs 1–2). Dorsum sandy brown to dirty yellow. Head uniformly pale yellow, antennal segments II–IV usually somewhat darker; entire clypeus brown; eyes dark brown with reddish tinge; labium whitish yellow with darkened apex of segment IV. Thorax: Pronotum sandy brown; thoracic pleura and sterna uniformly dark brown; scutellum brown to dark brown with distinctly paler apex, ranging from whitish yellow to pale brown; legs pale yellow, apical halves of femora somewhat more intensely colored, dirty yellow; clavus dark brown; entire exocorium whitish; corium whitish with wide transverse brown stripe at level of claval apex; cuneus brown with whitish base; membrane uniformly pale brown, with pale brown veins. Abdomen dark brown, with somewhat paler genital segment.

Surface and vestiture. Dorsum shiny, head smooth, pronotum with dense deep punctures (Figs 15–16), hemelytron weakly rugose. Entire body with long, erect to semierect pale simple setae; femoral trichobothria deeply recessed and tuberculate (Figs 20–21); tibial spines absent; appendages with short, semierect to adpressed pale simple setae.

Structure. Body elongate-oval, macropterous, total length 2.5–2.8 mm, length from apex of clypeus to apex of cuneus 2.4–2.5 mm, body 2.7–3.0× as long as basal width of pronotum.

Head vertical, width across eyes 0.63–0.65 mm, nearly as wide as high, almost triangular below eyes in frontal view; frons convex, epistomal suture distinctly depressed; clypeus prominent, oriented ventro-posteriorly (Fig. 17); mandibular plate broadly triangular; maxillary plate rectangular, twice as long as high; eyes relatively small, less than half height of head in lateral view, with posteriorly expanded dorsolateral area; vertex width 0.35 mm, vertex 2.2–2.5× as wide as dorsal width of one eye; antennal fossa located well above ventral margin of eye; antennal segment I relatively short, length 0.25–0.28 mm, slightly swollen; segment II thin, length 0.68–0.70 mm, 0.7–0.8× as long as basal width of pronotum, 1.1× as long as width of head; segments III and IV filiform; labium thick, apically blunt, reaching hind coxae, segments I and II comparatively long, reaching fore and middle coxae respectively, segments III and IV short and somewhat swollen, as long as broad at base

Thorax. Pronotum trapeziform, length 0.53–0.58 mm, width 0.93–0.95 mm, 1.6–1.8× as wide as long, 1.4–1.5× as wide as head; with flat collar-like expansion, posteriorly separated by shallow depression (Fig. 16); calli not delimited and only slightly raised; metathoracic spiracular opening elongate-oval, without differentiated microsculpture (Fig. 18); peritreme of metathoracic scent gland lanceolate, extended posteriorly along ventral margin of metapleuron, with several setae; evaporative area reduced to narrow falciform area along dorsal margin of peritreme and devoid of characteristic mushroom bodies (Fig. 19); entire mesonotum and usually base of scutellum covered by posterior margin of pronotum. Hemelytron semitransparent, corium with almost straight lateral margin, R+M vein and medial fracture well developed, reaching apex of corium; cuneus relatively long, more than twice as long as wide at base; membrane with single cell almost reaching apex of cuneus (Fig. 1). Legs. All femora cylindrical; tibia straight and rather short; tarsus three-segmented, distinctly swollen apically, with long guard setae; all segments almost equal in length (Fig. 23); unguitractor with three distinct columns of lamellae; claw bent close to apex, with dense claw hairs on outer surface; inner surface of claw with large semicircular pulvilli equipped with pulvillar combs; parempodia asymmetrical, with outer parempodium reduced, distinctly shorter than inner (Fig. 24).

Genitalia. Genital capsule about 25% of abdomen, trapeziform, distinctly wider than long in dorsal view, with reduced dorsal wall and single oriented inward spine-like process above right paramere; genital aperture large, without supragenital bridge and with closed paramere sockets (Figs 10, 13, 22). Parameres. Right paramere somewhat larger than left one, flattened, spoon-shaped, without sensory lobe and apical process (Figs 8, 11); left paramere U-shaped, with somewhat flattened body, undifferentiated sensory lobe and gradually tapering, almost straight apical process (Figs 9, 12). Aedeagus C–shaped (Figs 5–7), with endosoma in repose entirely expanded from phallotheca, slightly sclerotized along entire length, simple, tubeshaped, gradually curved rightward and terminating in poorly ornamented secondary gonopore; phallotheca narrow, with strongly sclerotized apical part, not delimited from endosoma; ductus seminis membranous, with hardly visible walls (Fig. 26).

Female. Coloration, surface, vestiture and structure. As in male, antennal segments I and II somewhat shorter, 0.2 mm and 0.53 mm respectively. Genitalia: Dorsal labiate plate reduced, entirely membranous, without sclerotized rings or any other sclerotizations; posterior wall with rod-shaped sclerites on sides; ventral labiate plate with a pair of heavily sclerotized, large, complex, semicircular and roughly U-shaped symmetric sclerotizations united with proximal parts of sclerites on posterior wall; vulva membranous, without associated sclerites; vestibulum entirely membranous (Figs 27–28).

Differential diagnosis. Unequivocally recognized from congeners by the dark brown clavus, whitish corium with subapical brown transverse stripe, uniformly pale brown membrane (Figs 1–2), spoon-shaped right paramere without apical process (Figs 8, 11), and C-shaped aedeagus with simple tube-like apex (Figs 5–7). Ambunticoris ochraceus Carvalho, 1981 (Fig. 3) is somewhat similar to the new species in the smooth head without punctures but clearly differs in all other respects including larger size (3.8 mm), uniformly whitish ochraceous coloration, and the male genitalia with two apical flagellate appendages of aedeagus and right paramere with distinct apical process (see Figs 57–59 in CARVALHO 1981). Ambunticoris nigroemboliatus Carvalho, 1981 (Fig. 4) resembles A. sulawesicus in the body size but differs from that species in dark brown head, pronotum and scutellum, whitish yellow hemelytron with narrowly darkened base and embolium, broadly arcuate costal margin, and the right paramere with well differentiated, large apical process (see Fig. 63 in CARVALHO 1981).

Etymology. Sulawesicus (-a, -um), adjective. The species is named after its type locality, the island of Sulawesi.

Distribution. The species is known from Dumoga-Bone National Park, Sulawesi-Utara

Province, Indonesia.

Reference: Fedor V. KONSTANTINOV & Aurika N. ZINOVJEVA. A new species of Ambunticoris from Sulawesi (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae). Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae, 56 (1), 2016.