Dasyscytus Fieber 1864
Creators: name: Tatarnic, Nikolai J.
name: Cassis, Gerasimos
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Miridae
Dasyscytus

description: DASYSCYTUS FIEBER (FIGS 3, 19)   
 Dasyscytus Fieber, 1864: 84 (gen. nov.; type species: Dasyscytus sordidus Fieber, 1864 by monotypy); Kirkaldy, 1906: 131 (cat.); Reuter, 1910: 162 (cat.); Oshanin, 1910: (cat.); Carvalho, 1952: 73 (cat.); Carvalho, 1955: 68 (key); Carvalho, 1958: 8 (cat.); Wagner, 1973: 30 (descr.); Schuh, 1995: 47 (world cat.).   
 Kilicanata Seidenstücker, 1956: 66 (gen. nov., type species: Kilicanata pilifera = junior synonym of Dasyscytus: syn. by Wagner, 1960: 99)   
 Diagnosis: Distinguished from all other Halticini by the presence of setae on the hemelytral membrane in macropterous males.   
 Redescription: Males macropterous, females coleopteroid or macropterous. Macropterous male 3.2–3.5 mm; macropterous female 3.3–3.5 mm; coleopteroid female 2.5– 3 mm. Coloration (Fig. 3): mostly dark brown to black, with some orange-brown, yellow-brown, and yellow markings. Macropterous male mostly orange-brown with yellow and tan markings. Surface and vestiture (Fig. 3): macropterous – body clothed in long white setae, with shorter brown setae, including on membrane of hemelytron. Coleopterous – with fewer setae, surface glossy. Antennae with white simple setae and several spinelike setae, most prominent on AI. Pronotum weakly rugulose. Structure: head (Fig. 3): transverse, approximately as tall as broad; width slightly wider than anterior margin of pronotum; vertex transversely sulcate, posterior margin carinate, weakly wraps around pronotum with eyes touching pronotum; genae height slightly greater than eye height; mandibular plate somewhat swollen in macropterous male; maxillary plate carinate. Antennae: insertion in line with lower margin of eye; AI weakly swollen, length approximately equal to eye height; AII weakly apically clavate, slightly more than three times AI length. Thorax (Fig. 3): pronotum trapezoidal, anterior weakly declivent in lateral view, collar not visible, callosite region poorly defined, posterior of humeral angles weakly depressed, posterior margin weakly concave; metathoracic spiracle large and exposed, narrowly bordered with evaporative bodies running downwards but not confluent with metathoracic evaporative area; MTG external efferent system triangular, occupies lower third of tergite, ostiole lateral, tongue-shaped, peritreme rounded, directly above ostiole, surrounded by evaporative bodies. Hemelytra (Fig. 3): macropterous – long and parallel-sided, extending beyond apex of abdomen, cuneus long and thin; membrane with two cells. Coleopterous – reduced to shell-like pads without division, posterior margins running diagonally from apex of claval commissure to lateral margin of abdomen, abdominal tergites IV and V partially covered, VI to apex exposed. Legs: long and slender; metafemora not swollen. Abdomen (Fig. 3): elongate and narrow in macropterous males, not surpassing hemelytral margins; rounded in macropterous females, laterally extending beyond lateral hemelytral margins. Coleopterous: rounded pear-shape. Male genitalia (Fig. 19A–C): pygophore conical; left paramere apically folded, sensory lobe short and narrow, apophysis sinuate and tapering, angled downwards, apically bifid; right paramere spoon-shaped, angled laterally; phallotheca apically narrow, apicodorsally slightly compressed; ductus seminis elongate with flexible ribbing; base of secondary gonopore a sclerotized ring; apically irregularly sclerotized, transversely broadened; endosoma with weakly sclerotized dentate folds and apical lobe densely covered with fields of short teeth. Female genitalia (Fig. 19D–F): DLP transverse, sclerotized rings indistinct, triangular-oval, lateral margin most strongly sclerotized, lateral margin and adjacent portion of DLP weakly upturned; posterior wall of bursa copulatrix membranous with thin, weakly sclerotized rods converging dorsally, ventral margin weakly sclerotized; margins of vestibulum symmetrical and very weakly sclerotized.   
THE HALTICINI OF THE WORLD 589  
 Diversity and distribution: This monotypic genus is found throughout much of the Mediterranean region, but has not been collected in Syria, Egypt, Italy, and southern France (Wagner, 1973).   
 Included species: Dasyscytus sordidus Fieber, 1864 * Mediterranean   
 Biology and host plant associations: Dasyscytus is found in vegetation at the edges of rivers and ditches, with adults collected in April and May (Wagner, 1973). No clear host records exist, although specimens have been collected under Rhanterium epapposum (Asteraceae) in north-east Arabia (Linnavuori, 1986).   
 Remarks: The monotypic genus Dasyscytus differs from all other halticines by the presence of setae on the hemelytral membrane in macropterous individuals (character 39-1), and the distinct folding of the left paramere (Fig. 19B: not coded in this analysis). In our phylogenetic analysis Dasyscytus is sister to Piezocranum, based on the thin hind femora of females (41-0) and the unbroken sclerotization of the apical region of the ductus seminis up to the secondary gonopore (62-1).
description: Published as part of Tatarnic, Nikolai J. & Cassis, Gerasimos, 2012, The Halticini of the world (Insecta: Heteroptera: Miridae: Orthotylinae): generic reclassification, phylogeny, and host plant associations, pp. 558-658 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 164 (3) on pages 585-589, DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00770.x, http://zenodo.org/record/5406610