Boxia China 1943
Creators: name: Namyatova, Anna A.
name: Cassis, Gerasimos
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Miridae
Boxia

description: BOXIA CHINA   
Figures 8, 11C, 13F, 14 M-O, 22  
 Boxia China, 1943 b: 287 (gen. nov.; type species: Boxia khayae China, 1943 by monotypy); China, 1944: 179 (key to gen.); Carvalho, 1952: 60 (cat.); Carvalho, 1955: 42 (key to gen.); Carvalho, 1957: 143 (cat.); Lavabre, 1977a: 50 (key to gen); Schuh, 1995: 526 (cat.); Schuh, 2002 –2013 (cat.); Namyatova et al., in press (phylogeny).   
 Boxiopsis Lavabre, 1960: 715 (gen. nov.; type species Boxiopsis madagascariensis Lavabre, 1960 by monotypy); Lavabre, 1960: 716 (key to gen.); Decazy, 1977: 124 (disc.); Lavabre, 1977a: 52, 60 (key to gen., descr.); Schuh, 1995: 526 (cat.); syn. nov., this work.   
 Diagnosis: Boxia belongs to the Odoniella -group (see discussion for the tribe), and can be separated from other genera of this group by the following characters: ASII straight; ASIII incrassate towards apex; ASIV only slightly clavate, spotted coloration (Fig. 8); pronotum and scutellum impunctate, with dense longitudinal and transverse raised wrinkles (Fig. 11C); posterior margin of pronotum almost straight; body clothed with very small rounded setae (Fig. 13F); spermathecal gland placed near middle of posterior margin of DLP.   
 Redescription: Male: Length 7–8 mm. COLORATION (Fig. 8). Mainly yellow, orange or pale brown with brown to dark brown markings, sometimes with reddish tinge; pronotum and hemelytron with dense brown to dark brown markings, hemelytron also with large dark brown marking posteriorly. TEXTURE. Body without tuber- cles; flattened areas or on vertex absent, head without wrinkles laterally; pronotum and scutellum impunctate, with dense longitudinal and transversal upraised wrinkles (Fig. 11C); pair of punctures between mesoscutum and scutellum, punctures on clavus and on R + M absent; striations on lateral margins of scutellum present; semicircular depression between scutellum and mesoscutum absent. VESTITURE. Head, pronotum anteriorly, thoracic pleura and hemelytra clothed with short rounded setae (Fig. 13F), most part of pronotum without setae, those on thoracic pleura very rare; appendages clothed with short, adpressed dark simple setae, not very dense; black spinules on femora and tibiae present, irregularly distributed. STRUCTURE. Head. Distance between eye and pronotum very short, distinctly shorter than eye diameter (as in Fig. 10H); occipital region not delimited with depression; longitudinal depression on vertex absent or very short; eyes stylate (as in Fig. 10H), directed outwards, c. 0.2–0.25× as wide as head; distance between antennal fossa c. 1.5–2× as long as antennal fossa diameter; frons distinctly swollen, without ridges, outgrowths or longitudinal depression; anterior view of head c. 1.7× as wide as high; eye c. 1.2× as high as distance between eye and apex of clypeus; antennal fossa oval, diameter subequal to half of eye height, not raised (as in fig. 3B in Namyatova et al., in press); inferior margin of fossa placed near inferior margin of eye; base of clypeus placed slightly above inferior margin of antennal fossa, distinctly delimited with depression; head flat in lateral view; gula shorter than buccula, straight or convex. Labium. Reaching posterior margin of mesosternum; LS I c. 4× as long as wide; LSII c. 5× as long as wide, subequal to LSII in length; LSIII c. 4× as long as wide, slightly longer than LSII; LSIV c. 6× as long as wide, c. 1.5× as long as LSIII. Antenna. Reaching base of cuneus; ASI c. 1.5× times as long as wide, subequal to quarter of head width, widened basally (as in fig. 8E in Namyatova et al., in press); ASII c. 5–6× as long as ASI, as long as head and pronotum combined, slightly widened towards apex; ASIII c. 0.6–0.7× as long as ASII, incrassate towards apex, without swellings basally or medially; ASIV 0.7–0.8× as long as ASIII, clavate. Thorax. Collar distinct, contiguous with calli posteriorly, flat; calli separated, flat (as in Fig. 10H); depression delimiting callosite region absent; humeral angles of pronotum rounded, not dilated (as in Fig. 10H); posterior margin of pronotum straight or sinuate (as in Fig. 10H); scutellum moderately swollen, triangular, not covering posterior margin of pronotum, acute apically, without outgrowth, ridge or medial depression (Fig. 11C); metepimeron enlarged, twice as high as long, angulate, subtriangular (as in Fig. 13E); metasternum with medial projection to abdominal segment II (as in fig. 17A in Namyatova et al., in press). Hemelytron. Costal margin slightly rounded, slightly concave anteriorly; claval commissure c. 0.5–0.7× as long as scutellum, straight (as in fig. 12E in Namyatova et al., in press); R + M distinct only anteriorly, not reaching middle of corium (as in fig. 12E in Namyatova et al., in press); medial fracture strongly inclined towards midline; corium without swelling posteriorly; cuneus c. 1.2–1.3× as long as wide, as long as half of pronotum, medial margin almost straight (as in fig. 13B in Namyatova et al., in press); membrane cell slightly surpassing apex of cuneus, forming right angle, c. 0.7– 0.8× as long as pronotum (as in fig. 13B in Namyatova et al., in press); auxiliary vein absent; distance from cell to apex of membrane c. 0.8× as long as cell. Legs. Forecoxae contiguous (as in fig. 17A in Namyatova et al., in press); femora only indistinctly swollen apically, straight; foretibia shorter than head and pronotum combined; swellings on tibiae absent; segment I of hind tarsus slightly longer than segment II and subequal to segment III; claw broadly rounded (as in fig. 10C in Namyatova & Cassis, 2013b); basal tooth on claw short and triangular (as in fig. 10B in Namyatova & Cassis, 2013b). Genitalia (Fig. 14M, N). Genital capsule as long as wide, without outgrowth(s), its ventral wall not shortened anteriorly; left paramere distinctly r-shaped; phallobase sclerite of primary gonopore subtriangular, straight apically, without outgrowths supporting ductus seminis; ductus seminis not sclerotized basally or apically, slightly longer than phallotheca, with coils, forming wide tube, attached to phallobase medially; sclerotized part of phallotheca wide, occupying entire dorsal part, rounded apically, with subtriangular uprising basally, without ridge or outgrowths; endosoma with two elongate spicules and two fields of small spicules, one of them placed close to secondary gonopore.   
 Female: Length varying from 6 to 10 mm. Coloration, texture, vestiture and structure as in male (Fig. 8). Genitalia. DLP without sclerotized bands, with distinct paired areas of striations at sides; lateral oviducts attached at middle of striated areas, widely separated, placed near lateral margin of DLP, at half way of DLP; spermathecal gland placed in posterior part half of DLP, at equal distance from each lateral oviducts.   
 Distribution: Ghana, Madagascar (Fig. 22).   
 Host plants: Both species are known to feed on cocoa (Lavabre, 1960; Leston, 1970; Decazy, 1977; Entwistle, 1977). Boxia khayae is also affiliated with Khaya grandifoliola C.DC. (China, 1943) and Entandrophragma sp. (Meliaceae) (Piart, 1977).
description: Published as part of Namyatova, Anna A. & Cassis, Gerasimos, 2016, Systematic revision and phylogeny of the plant bug tribe Monaloniini (Insecta: Heteroptera: Miridae: Bryocorinae) of the world, pp. 36-136 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 176 (1) on pages 85-86, DOI: 10.1111/zoj.12311, http://zenodo.org/record/5356719