Myotrioza darwinensis Taylor, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Taylor, Gary S.
name: Fagan-Jeffries, Erinn P.
name: Austin, Andy D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Triozidae
Myotrioza
Myotrioza darwinensis

description: Myotrioza darwinensis Taylor, sp. nov.
(Figs 11–18, 37–38, 44; Tables 1–8)
Types. AUSTRALIA, Western Australia: Holotype: 1 ♂ (dried, point), Charles Darwin Reserve, N of Wanarra Rd to Samphire Camp, - 29.55080°S, 116.96463°E, 254 m, 24 Sep 2009, C. Symonds, Eremophila pantonii, WA0909 L46 H100 (WAM). Paratypes: 7 ♂, 18 ♀ (dried, point), 4 ♂, 4 ♀, 4 immatures (slide), 10 ♂, 35 ♀ (ethanol), same data as holotype (WAM, WINC); 6 ♀ (dried, point), Credo Station Reserve, Coolgardie North Rd, 30º25.402'S, 120º48.242'E, G.S. Taylor, 3.ix.2011, Eremophila oppositifolia subsp. angustifolia 2011 148, CR29 (WAM, WINC); 1 ♀ (dried, point), Credo Station, -30º 30' 18.00'', 120º 41' 53.00'', 432m, 5.ix.2011, M. Cheng & C. Symonds, beat Eremophila scoparia, UNSW Host No. HA17 (WINC).
Description. Adult (Figs 11–14). Colouration. Male: [specimens in ethanol] Light yellow brown: vertex with small brown marking in vicinity of fovea; eyes greyish brown; antennal segments 8–10 progressively dark brown; mesopraescutum with a pair of orange brown anterior submedial markings; mesoscutum with a narrow medial and two pairs of orange brown submedial markings; fore and hind wings clear; fore wing veins equally pigmented brown; legs pale yellow-brown; abdominal tergites 1–5 dark brown; sternites brown to dark brown; proctiger, subgenital plate and parameres yellow-brown; anterior face of proctiger with brown infuscation; subgenital plate with a brown marking anteriolaterally; apices of parameres dark brown to black. Female: [specimens pointmounted] as for male except slightly darker; abdominal sternites with brown transverse band with pale submedial marking; proctiger pale yellow-brown, with lateral brown infuscation and apex dark brown; subgenital plate pale yellow-brown, dark brown infuscation anteriorly and apex dark brown.
Structure. Measurements as in Tables 4–8. Body short, compact (Figs 11–14). Head (Figs 15–16); vertex with weak medial suture, moderately sunk in vicinity of fovea; genal processes short, 0.32–0.41 times as long as vertex; antenna very short, 0.66–0.73 times width of head, with a single subapical rhinarium on each of segments 4, 6, 8 and 9; segment 10 with a long bluntly rounded and a shorter bluntly rounded seta. Fore wing (Figs 17–18) 3.53– 4.28 times as long as head width, 2.55–2.81 times as long as wide, short, broad with rounded apex; vein Rs straight, slightly upturned distally, terminating short of wing apex, about same length as vein M, RsM: 0.86–1.03; medial and cubital cells subequal; veins M1+2 and M3+4 short, broadly diverging with corresponding low m1 cell value: 1.25–1.43; veins Cu1a short, arched and Cu1b short, each widely divergent with corresponding low cu1 cell value: 1.08–1.22; metatibia 0.77–0.90 times as long as width of head, longer than metafemur, without sclerotised apical spurs. Male terminalia (Figs 37–38); proctiger conoid, without expanded lateral lobes; subgenital plate broadly rounded; parameres (Fig. 38) short, narrow, blade-like, evenly tapering to incurved sclerotised apices; distal portion of aedeagus moderate in length, with asymmetrical apical expansion (Fig. 37). Female terminalia (Fig. 44): proctiger short, triangular, posterior margin flat from lateral aspect and with blunt apex; subgenital plate, triangular with tapering, sharply pointed apex; proctiger with dense field of subapical sclerotised hooked setae and long pale setae dorsally; subgenital plate with sparse long setae.
Comments. Myotrioza darwinensis sp. nov. can be distinguished by the following unique combination of characters: habitus as in Figs 11–14, antenna with normal arrangement of rhinaria, fore wing broad with rounded apex, Rs about same length as vein M (Figs 17–18), female proctiger with dense field of hooked setae, rounded profile and weak terminal upward inflection, valvula ventralis curved, ventral profile of female subgenital plate flat (Fig. 44), male proctiger conoid, aedeagus thin, elongate, paramere ovate with weakly pointed apex (Figs 37–38). Myotrioza darwinensis sp. nov. is most closely related to M. eremophili sp. nov. (COI sequence divergence 8.1– 8.6%) and M. flindersiana sp. nov. (COI sequence divergence 8.8–9.1%) (Table 1). It is likely that these three species form a clade together with M. gawlerensis sp. nov., M. pantonii sp. nov. and M. telowiensis sp. nov. (latter three species not represented in phylogeny (Fig. 1). On the basis of the structure of the male paramere which is triangular and distinctly pointed, M. flindersiana sp. nov. is likely to be closely related to M. gawlerensis sp. nov. and M. pantonii sp. nov. (cf. Figs 81–82, 83–84, 178–179). The paramere is more broadly rounded in M. darwinensis sp. nov., M. eremophili sp. nov. and M. telowiensis sp. nov.
Myotrioza darwinensis sp. nov. can be separated from M. eremophili sp. nov. by the more dense brush of hooked setae on the female proctiger, the conoid male proctiger, longer antennae (greater AL:HW ratio: cf. Figs 15–16, 51–52; Table 7) and shape of the female subgenital plate (distinctly pointed in M. eremophili sp. nov.) (cf. Figs 14, 50). It differs from M. flindersiana sp. nov. by the profile of the female proctiger (cf. Figs 44, 88), shape of the female subgenital plate (ventral margin flat in former, convex in latter) (cf. Figs 44, 88) and broadly ovate paramere (triangular in latter) (cf. Figs 79–80, 81–82).
Myotrioza darwinensis sp. nov. can be separated from M. gawlerensis sp. nov. which is considerably smaller (Table 4), by the profile of the female proctiger which has a sparse brush of weakly hooked setae and a prominent upturned apical deflection in the latter (cf. Figs 44, 89), and broadly ovate paramere (triangular in latter) (cf. Figs 37–38, 83–84). It differs from M. pantonii sp. nov. by the profile of the female proctiger (cf. Figs 44, 184), shape of male proctiger (conoid in former, distinctly lobed in latter) (cf. Figs 37, 178) and broadly ovate paramere (pyriform in former, triangular in latter) (cf. Figs 37–38, 178–179). It can be separated from M. telowiensis sp. nov. by the profile of the female proctiger (both with dense field of hooked setae) which is more rounded with a weak terminal upturned inflection in the former and a flatter profile without an inflection in the latter (cf. Figs 44, 222), the curved valvula ventralis in the former, which is weakly curved in the latter (cf. figs 44, 222) and the more elongate aedeagus in the former, shorter in the latter (cf. Figs 37, 217).
Etymology. Named after the type locality, Charles Darwin Reserve, Western Australia + ensis.
Host-plant association and distribution. (Tables 2–3). Myotrioza darwinensis sp. nov. is recorded from Eremophila latrobei F.Muell., Eremophila oppositifolia R.Br. (Weeooka) (ssp. angustifolia), Eremophila pantonii F. Muell., and other undetermined species of Eremophila, at widely separated localities at Charles Darwin Reserve and Credo Station in eremean Western Australia. It is one of 11 species of Myotrioza gen. nov. and 17 species of Triozidae recorded for Western Australia. It is considered endemic to that state, although it is likely to occupy a broad distribution given that its hosts are widely distributed in southern Australia. It is the only species of Myotrioza gen. nov. to occur on E. latrobei, one of 4 species, namely M. darwinensis sp. nov., M. eremophili sp. nov., M. oppositifoliae sp. nov. and M. scopariae sp. nov. from E. oppositifolia; and one of 3, namely M. darwinensis sp. nov., M. interioris sp. nov. and M. pantonii sp. nov. from E. pantonii. Eremophila latrobei is a small shrub 0.3–3 m high. It occurs in mulga, mallee or mixed woodlands, on rocky outcrops and gibber or sandy plains red-brown loam gravel or sand, extending from central western Western Australia, central Australia (central South Australia and southern Northern Territory) to central western Queensland and New South Wales (Chinnock 2007). Eremophila oppositifolia ssp. angustifolia is a shrub or small tree to 10 m high that occurs in mulga and eucalypt woodlands frequently along drainage courses in inland WA extending to scattered locations to the Gawler Ranges, SA. A second subspecies, E. oppositifolia ssp. oppositifolia, occurs in dryland communities on a variety of soils from Eyre Peninsula and Gawler Ranges in inland SA, to south-western NSW and north-western Vic (Chinnock 2014). Eremophila pantonii is a broom-like shrub 0.7–3 m high. It occurs in red sand, calcretes and alluvial soils in stony country in central-western WA (Chinnock 2007).
description: Published as part of Taylor, Gary S., Fagan-Jeffries, Erinn P. & Austin, Andy D., 2016, A new genus and twenty new species of Australian jumping plant-lice (Psylloidea: Triozidae) from Eremophila and Myoporum (Scrophulariaceae: Myoporeae), pp. 1-84 in Zootaxa 4073 (1) on pages 20-23, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4073.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/270709