Carvalhoma malcolmae Slater & Gross 1977
Creators: name: Namyatova, Anna A.
name: Cassis, Gerasimos
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Miridae
Carvalhoma
Carvalhoma malcolmae

description: Carvalhoma malcolmae Slater & Gross, 1977
Figs 1–2, 7, 11
Carvalhoma malcolmae Slater & Gross, 1977: 137.
Carvalhoma malcolmae – Schuh & Schwartz 1984: 48 (discussion, description). — Cassis & Gross 1995: 145 (catalogue). — Schuh 1995: 21 (catalogue).
Diagnosis
Recognised by the following characters: large size, 2.25 in male and 2.3–2.8 in female; elongate body; pronotum ca 1.1× as long as wide in male and ca 1.2–1.3× in female (Fig. 1); head, pronotum and hemelytra shiny, male mostly dark brown to black (Fig. 1); lateral margins of pronotum mostly smooth, with a few rugosities, without dense setae (Fig. 2C); frons produced anteriad of eyes for more than half of eye diameter in dorsal view (Figs 1B, 2B); head ca 2.1× as wide as long in male and 1.7–2.2× in female; antennal segment I relatively long, ca 2.0× as long as vertex width in male and ca 1.8–2.2× in female.
Material examined
AUSTRALIA: New South Wales: 1 ♀, 0.4 km S along Barrington Trail from southern Green Gap turnoff, Stewarts Brook State Forest, 31.93333 ° S, 151.43333 ° E, 1460 m, 4 Feb. 1993 – 9 Apr. 1993, M. Gray and G. Cassis leg. (00043347) (AM); 1 ♀, Badja Fire Trail, Badja State Forest, Site 2, 36.125 ° S, 149.52694 ° E, 13 Mar. 1999, J. Tarnawski and S. Lassau (00043343) (AM); 1 ♀, Bumberry Creek Fire Trail, Wadbilliga National Park, Site 1, 36.54389 ° S, 149.54389 ° E, 13 Mar. 1999, R. Harris and H. Smith (UNSW_ENT 00043342) (AM); 1 sex unknown, Link Rd., Monga State Forest, 35.56778 ° S, 149.90389 ° E, 15 Mar. 1999, R. Harris and H. Smith (00043341) (AM); 1 Ƌ, South Forest Way, Tallaganda State Forest, Site 2, 35.70194 ° S, 149.54194 ° E, 15 Mar. 1999, J. Tarnawski and S. Lassau (00043338) (AM); 1 ♀, Taylor Rd, between Tapley and Oliver Rds, E of Narara, 33.40116 ° S, 151.38466 ° E, 1 Dec. 1999 – 15 Dec. 1999, Gray, Milledge and Smith (00043348) (AM). — Victoria: 1 ♀, [Bell’s clearing Thomson River], 10 Feb. 1977, M. B. Malipatil (00043345) (NTM).
Type locality
AUSTRALIA: Victoria, Dartmouth Dam Survey, Eight Mile Creek track.
Description
Male
BODY LENGTH. 2.25.
COLOURATION (Fig. 1). Mostly dark brown to black, eye whitish; antennal segment II yellow to pale brown, brown apically, segment III brown; labium mostly yellow, segment IV darkened apically; coxae yellow, brown basally; femur brown to dark brown; tibia and tarsi yellow to pale brown.
SURFACE AND VESTITURE. Head and pronotum more or less smooth and shiny, except for shagreened collar; lateral margin of pronotum only with a few wrinkles, without dense setae; pleura with setae only in metepisternum anteriorly; hemelytron shiny, with distinct punctures. Dorsum and abdomen clothed with long erect pale simple setae.
STRUCTURE AND MEASUREMENTS. Body ca 4.9× longer than pronotal width; head ca 2.1× wider than long, frons protruding anteriad at distance of more than half of eye diameter dorsally (Figs 1, 2B); vertex ca 1.2× wider than eye diameter; head ca 1.1× wider than high; antennal segment I twice length of vertex, antennal segment II longer than either segments I or III, ca 4.6× longer than vertex width, ca 2.3× longer than segment I; segment III slightly longer than segment I, segment IV slightly shorter than antennal segment III; labial segments I and II subequal in length, segment III slightly shorter than segment II, and segment IV slightly shorter than segment III (Fig. 2H); pronotum ca 1.1× wider than long, ca 0.8× width of head; metepimeron with distinct ridge (Fig. 2K); hind femur ca 3× longer than head height; tarsal segment I almost twice as long as segment II, segment II slightly shorter than segment III (Fig. 2).
GENITALIA (Fig. 7 A–E). Right paramere without ridge dorsally; outer margin of right paramere straight, apices of parameres straight, not hook-shaped; left paramere with ridge dorsally, its basal swelling rounded; theca mostly membranous, sclerotised apically; endosoma with single sclerite, placed ventrally on right side.
Female
BODY LENGTH. 2.3–2.8.
COLOURATION (Fig. 1). Similar to male, but usually somewhat darker; antennal segment IV brown to dark brown; labial segment I reddish or reddish brown, sometimes segment II reddish brown, segments III and IV rarely pale brown; labium yellow to pale brown, darkened apically, segment I sometimes reddish or with reddish tinge; coxae dark brown to black, yellow apically.
SURFACE AND VESTITURE. As in male.
STRUCTURE AND MEASUREMENTS. Similar to male. Body ca 4.5–5.2× width of pronotum; head ca 1.7–2.2× wider than long, vertex ca 0.9–1.3× diameter of eye; in anterior view head ca 1.1–1.2× wider than high; antennal segment I ca 1.8–2.2× width of vertex, segment II ca 4.0–4.7× width of vertex, and ca 2.0–2.2× longer than segment I; pronotum ca 1.2–1.3× wider than long, ca 0.8× wider than head.
GENITALIA. Dorsal labiate plate with elongate sclerite along outer margin; sclerotised ring not elongate posteriorly, its dorsal portion twice as long as wide (Fig. 7F); posterior wall with small tubercles (Fig. 7G).
Distribution
Eastern regions of NSW and Victoria (Fig. 11).
Remarks
Antennal segment IV is broken in males, and only partly present in examined females.
Differential diagnosis
Carvalhoma malcolmae was described from a single female specimen (Slater & Gross 1977) and the holotype is preserved in the Museum of Victoria. The specimen is damaged and photos of it are available at http://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/specimens/1018994. The non-type specimens we examined seem to be conspecific with the holotype and fit the original description. The only difference is a pair of strap-like sclerites on the dorsal labiate plate of the bursa copulatrix, as reported by Slater & Gross (1977), and we failed to find those structure in C. malcolmae and other congeners. However, the illustration of the bursa by Slater & Gross (1977) is not sufficiently detailed, and we refrain from drawing any further conclusions. The male genitalia of non-type material are very similar to those illustrated by Schuh & Schwartz (1984). Although they did not mention the sclerotised area in the description of the endosoma (= vesica in Schuh & Schwartz 1984), it was depicted on their fig. 7.
Carvalhoma malcolmae is most similar to C. parvum sp. nov. externally, with both species having an elongate body and a dark brown to black dorsum (Fig. 1). Carvalhoma parvum sp. nov. differs in being smaller in size, with the body length 1.5–1.6 in male and 1.9–2.2 in female, the distinctly rugulose and densely setose lateral margins of the pronotum (Fig. 4C), the densely setose pleura (Fig. 4D), and the short antennal segment I, ca 1.4–1.8× as long as vertex width in male and ca 1.3–1.4× in female.
Carvalhoma malcolmae also shares many characters in structure with C. weiri sp. nov., but the latter species differs in the colouration of the male, being mostly whitish yellow to pale brown (Fig. 1), the head is more transverse, ca 2.7–2.9× as wide as long in male and ca 2.3× in female (Fig. 6C).
description: Published as part of Namyatova, Anna A. & Cassis, Gerasimos, 2016, Revision of the staphylinoid and ground-dwelling genus Carvalhoma Slater & Gross (Insecta: Heteroptera: Miridae: Cylapinae) of Australia, pp. 1-27 in European Journal of Taxonomy 253 on pages 6-10, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2016.253, http://zenodo.org/record/3850847