Cheilocapsidea insignis Distant 1909
Creators: name: Chérot, F.
name: Malipatil, M. B.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Miridae
Cheilocapsidea
Cheilocapsidea insignis

description: 5.1. Cheilocapsidea insignis (Distant, 1909)
(Figures 8, 12–14)
Megacoelum insignis Distant, 1909: 444 –445 (as new species); Distant 1910: 235 (copy of original description) [In this work, Distant (op. cit.) classified the species insignis in the genus Megacoelum and not in Creontiades, as erroneously stated by Carvalho (1959: 75)]. Cheilocapsidea insignis: Poppius 1915: 14 (n. comb.). Creontiades insignis: Carvalho 1952: 94 (new generic synonymy, new combination), 1959: 73, 75 (catalog). Cheilocapsidea insignis: Yasunaga & Kerzhner 1998: 88 (resurection of genus); Kerzhner & Josifov 1999: 83 (catalog, quoted as type-species of Cheilocapsidea); Schuh 2002- 2013 (online catalog); Yasunaga 2011: 370 –371 (diagnosis, redescription, picture of habitus).
Material examined. Type specimen: Holotype ♀ by monotypy: INDIA: UTTARAKHAND STATE: Mussoorie (NHM) [the specimen bears old labels with “Distant Coll. 1911-383”, “ United Provinces, Mussorie”, “ Megacoelum insignis type Dist.”, “ Type ” and additional modern labels with the mentions “ Cheilocapsidea insignis (Distant, 1909) Det. T. Yasunaga, 1998 ” and “ holotype Megacoelum insignis Distant, 1909 ”].
Additional material. 1Ƌ: LAOS: NE, HOUA PHAN PROV: Ban Saluei → Phou Pane Mt., 20°12-13.5’N., 103°59.5’- 104°01’E., 1340-1870 m., 15.iv-15.v.2008, Lao leg. (NMPC) (Fc n° 6461).
Diagnosis. Body stramineous, total length 8.5–8.8, head reflective yellow with dark brown stripes on the anterior part of frons and antennal sockets, almost glabrous; eyes gray with dark patches; sulcus of vertex shallow and wide; antennae yellowish white, first segment with an elongated brown stripe on its inner margin and stiff suberect black setae, the second and third segments with two dark brown rings, one median, one apical and short, covered with white, sub-erect setae, fourth segment apically dark brown; pronotal collar yellow with two lateral brown rings; pronotum yellowish with a pair of dark brown stripes on its lateral margins, callosities long, pronotal disk almost glabrous, except some elongate erect white setae on lateral margins; legs yellowish, tibial spines reddish-brown; mesoscutum exposed, translucent; scutellum yellowish; hemelytra yellow, translucent, punctation double, one type very reduced but very dense, the second narrow and shallow but larger and well developed, pilosity white, sub-erect; left paramere sickle-like, its primary apophysis round, apical part elongate (Fig. 12); primary apophysis of right paramere hooked, with a subapical tubercle (Fig. 13); gonoporal sclerite (Fig. 14, GpSc) complex; spiculum (Fig. 14, Sp) wide and elongate, devoid of apical hook; secondary gonopore relatively wide, devoid of hairs or pilose plate.
Discussion. Cheilocapsidea insignis, described from India (Uttarakhand State: Mussoorie), is here recorded for the first time from Laos. According to Yasunaga (2011), C. insignis is close to C. pura, described from Taiwan. It differs from the latter in size (total length 8.44–8.78 in C. insignis, 11.1 in C. pura) and minor color markings: scutellum completely pale yellow and devoid of a median dark stripe (a median stripe is obvious in C. pura), hemelytra with three round spots including one on the apical outer angle of embolium (this latter spot absent in C. pura; the other spots more elongate in C. pura), basal part of costal vein regularly infuscate (a small spots in C. pura). On the basis of these character states, the Laos specimens belong to C. insignis: its scutellum is totally pale, there are three rounded spots on hemelytra, the costal vein is infuscate to the first spot, its total body length in dorsal view is about 9, its width across hemelytra 2.9, its head width including eyes 1.35, its vertex width 0.6, its pronotal length 1.2, its pronotal width 2.3. The specimen is then very close to Yasunaga’s (2011) redescription of Distant’s species. However, these character states could be just individual variability. Thus, the absence of median dark strip on scutellum is “typical” of the non-type male specimen of C. insignis from MZHF (cited as “ZMUH”) studied by Yasunaga (op. cit.), the scutellum of the type being damaged by a pin [the wide black patch on the posterior part of abdomen, on mesoscutum and on scutellum of the female holotype of C. insignis in Yasunaga’s illustration (2011: 367, Fig. 1) is an artifact (shade of pine and oxidation)]. On the other hand the basal part of female holotype costal vein is infuscate basally, but not to the first spot. Finally, with three specimens of both (nominal) species already described belonging to both sexes, variability in size and shape remain very poorly known. Female holotype of C. insignis and Laos specimen are very similar, differing mainly by the darker rings of antennal segment (they are dark brown in Laos specimen, reddish in holotype) and darker vein of the membrane in Laos specimen. The stripe on costal vein is also longer. Male genitalia of Laos specimens are structurally similar but not identical to those of C. pura described by Yasunaga (2005: 455, Fig. 2 A–D). They differ from C. pura genitalia mainly by the shape of the left paramere primary apophysis (less rounded and elongated in C. pura) and the shape of the spiculum (bearing an apical hook in C. pura, absent in C. insignis). On present knowledge, both species differs mainly by the total size and male genitalia.
description: Published as part of Chérot, F. & Malipatil, M. B., 2016, A review of Adelphocoris - Creontiades - Megacoelum complex (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae: Mirini), with descriptions of two new genera and four new species, pp. 151-206 in Zootaxa 4126 (2) on pages 162-163, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4126.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/262772