Compsidolon (Compsidolon) elegantulum Reuter 1899
Creators: name: Çerçi, Barış
name: Koçak, Özgür
name: Tezcan, Serdar
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Miridae
Compsidolon
Compsidolon elegantulum

description: Compsidolon (Compsidolon) elegantulum Reuter, 1899
(Fig. 3C)
Material examined. TURKEY: MERSIN: Silifke, Kırobaşı, 24.iv.1985, 3 33, F.Önder leg., B. Çerçi det. (LEMT); Silifke, Kırobaşı, 24.iv.1985, 7 ♀♀,, F. Önder leg., B. Çerçi det. (LEMT).
Comment. The genus Compsidolon Reuter, 1899 consists of small species with mostly dotted hemelytra (WAGNER 1965). The subgenus Compsidolon consists of the following four species: C. bicolor (Reuter, 1883), C. elegantulum Reuter, 1899, C. nebulosum Reuter, 1878, and C. parietariae V. G. Putshkov, 1984. Compsidolon elegantulum is known to feed on Parietaria sp. (Urticaceae) and Podonosma orientalis (Boraginaceae) (WAGNER 1975; LINNAVUORI 1993). It has a Syrio-Anatolian distribution and is known from Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, and Syria (KERZHNER & JOSIFOV 1999, LINNAVUORI & MODARRES 1999). Compsidolon elegantulum and C. parietariae are two very similar species, and the latter was distinguished from the former by V. G. PUSTHKOV (1984) by the following characters: apex of second antennal segment obscured, black scutellum and large size (2.5‒2.7 mm). Among the typical specimens of C. elegantulum that we examined, there was a male which had a second antennal segment with obscured apex and dark scutellum. Furthermore, LINNAVUORI (1951) described a female specimen of C. elegantulum [as a new species, Psallus badius Linnavuori, 1951 which he later synonymized with C. elegantulum (LINNAVUORI 1953)] that measured 2.7 mm. LINNAVUORI (1992) differentiated C. parietariae from C. elegantulum in his key to the species of the subgenus Compsidolon by the following additional characters: pale basal half of hemelytra immaculate, head 0.83 (♀) as broad as basal width of pronotum and ocular index 2.21 (♀). But in the original description V. G. PUTSHKOV (1984) mentioned the presence of indistinct brownish dots on pale basal half of the hemelytra. Also the ratios that are used to distinguish C. parietariae from C. elegantulum by LINNAVUORI (1992) are very close to those of C. elegantulum so they may vary when a large number of specimens are examined. Also both authors did not indicate any difference between the male genitalia of the two species. Considering all these remarks, C. parietariae can very well be a junior synonym of C. elegantulum. Since we were not able to examine the types of C. parietariae we cannot suggest a definite synonymy between these two species. However, we want to encourage the experts who have an easy access to the types of C. parietariae to re-examine these specimens and evaluate the status of C. parietariae with our remarks in mind.
Distribution in Turkey. Mersin (this work).
description: Published as part of Çerçi, Barış, Koçak, Özgür & Tezcan, Serdar, 2019, Two new species and ten new records of Heteroptera from Turkey, including the first record of the potential alien Campylomma miyamotoi in the Western Palaearctic, pp. 295-306 in Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 59 (1) on pages 300-301, DOI: 10.2478/aemnp-2019-0023, http://zenodo.org/record/4488992