Cardiastethus minutus Poppius 1909
Creators: name: Yamada, Kazutaka
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Anthocoridae
Cardiastethus
Cardiastethus minutus

description: Caridiastethus minutus Poppius, 1909
(Figs. 7–9)
Cardiastethus minutus Poppius, 1909: 20. Holotype: sex unknown, New Guinea, Ighibirei (MCSN).
Cardiatethus minutus: Gross (1955: 409, 417) (in key, redescription, distribution), Ford (1979: 52) (listed), Postle & Woodward (1988: 118, 120, 122–123) (records, figures, morphology of internal reproductive systems and digestive organ), Cassis & Gross (1995: 31) (catalog, distribution, habitat).
Type material examined. Holotype: sex unknown, ‘N. Guinea \ Ighibirei \ Loria. VII VIII. 90’ [with black frame], ‘Museo Civ. \ Genova’ [red square], ‘ Cardiastethus \ minutus n. sp. \ B. Poppius det.’ [handwritten + printed], ‘ Buchananiella \ sodalis (Buch. White) \ J. Carayon det. 1960’ [Carayon’s handwritten], ‘ HOLOTYPUS \ Cardiastethus \ minutus \ Poppius, 1909 ’ [light red square, printed + handwritten]; mounted on square card, segments III–IV of left antenna, segments IV of right antenna, left proleg, right meso- and metalegs removed (but segments III–IV of left antenna and left proleg excluding coxa and trochanter glued on card), and abdominal segments VII–IX lacking (at least segment VII damaged); deposited in MCSN (Figs. 7–9).
Remarks. The holotype examined in this study is attached with an identification label of Jacques Carayon (1916–1997), indicating that the specimen pertains to Buchananiella sodalis (B. White, 1878), but neither he nor any other subsequent author has published this synonymy. The species in concern was transferred to the genus Alofa Herring, 1976 by Herring (1976). An examination on the holotype of Cardiastethus minutus concluded that it agrees with the diagnostic characters for A. sodalis, including the general coloration of the body, the labium not reaching the procoxae, the trapezoidal pronotum being provided with a well-developed callus, the ostiolar peritreme being strongly curved posteriorly and joined to a fine carina reaching to the anterior margin of metapleuron, and the subparallel-sided hemelytra. Accordingly the synonymy recognized by Carayon is agreed and formally proposed here, recognizing C. minutus as a new subjective synonym of Alofa sodalis.
Unfortunately, in addition to the lack of abdominal segments VII–IX, the specimen body was completely glued to the card, therefore its ventral surface could not be observed sufficiently and the sex of the specimen remains undetermined. The species was described based on a single specimen from New Guinea, the sex of which was given as doubtfully male (indicated with a question mark) (Poppius 1909). The holotype may have originally been lacking abdominal terminalia.
Current status. New subjective synonym of Alofa sodalis (B. White, 1878)
description: Published as part of Yamada, Kazutaka, 2024, Taxonomic corrections on Oriental Anthocoridae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) described by Bertil Poppius, pp. 127-135 in Zootaxa 5424 (1) on pages 130-131, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5424.1.7, http://zenodo.org/record/10808123