Aretas bifasciatus Usinger 1946, new species
Creators: name: Usinger, Robert L.
Publisher: name: Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Bulletin 189
Year: 1946
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Miridae
Aretas
Aretas bifasciatus

description: 79. Aretas bifasciatus, new species (ﬁg. 22).
Elongate-oval, clothed with long, backwardly directed hairs much as in signatus. Head broader than long, 25: 19, the interocular space twice as wide as an eye, 13: 6.5; eyes nearly twice as long as wide, 12: 6.5. Vertex depressed basally and sulcate longitudinally much as in signatus, the frons convexly produced between bases of antennae and then abruptly depressed to base of tylus. Lora likewise feebly lobed. Rostrum slightly exceeding apices of middle coxae, the segments subequal. Antennae nearly as long as insect to tip of membrane, 122: 129, the ﬁrst segment about as long as head; proportion of segments 18: 56: 26: 22; ﬁrst segment with stiff, erect hairs, all segments with a short. ﬁne oubescence.
Pronotum shorter than head on median line, 15: 19; over twice as broad across humeri as long, 37: 15; the anterior margin convex and sinuate at middle, lateral margins very feebly concave, hind margin shallowly, broadly concave. Disk feebly impressed around callosities, with some erect hairs antero-laterally.
Other structural characters except male genitalia as in sign,atits.
Left genital clasper twisted subbasally and enlarged into a broad organ with a straight, stout outer arm which is blunt at apex and a longer, slender, sinuate inner arm which is minutely truncate at apex. Right clasper shorter, strongly convex and enlarged with a slender, inwardly turned arm.
Color flavous to ochraceous with red as follows: on portions of tylus, juga, and lora, eyes and areas immediately adjacent, lateral margins of pronotum and extending over the sides onto propleura, lateral margins of hemelytra on basal two thirds including extreme outer basal angles of scutellum, bases of clavi, and embolia and outer portions of coria. Pale beyond and within this red area except for a pale spot at middle and another at outer angle of each apical corial margin. Veins of membrane tinged with reddish, the membrane pale but infumate. First antenna! segment mostly red, the inner dorsal side more or less pale. Second segment often tinged with red basally and apically. Legs in great part pale but with the femora often vaguely embrowned or tinged with red subapically.
The male is considerably darker, the hemelytra entirely dark reddish brown except for narrowly pale inner margins and commissure of clavus, outer apical area of corium near cuneus, and cuneus except at inner base and at apex.
Size: female, length 3.3 mm., width (hemelytra) 1.2 mm.; male, length 3.4 mm., width (hemelytra slightly spread) 1.2 mm.
Holotype female, Piti, Sept. 21, on Glochidion, Swezey; allotype male, Piti, Aug. 13, on Glochidion, Swezey; 18 paratypes, Piti, same data as type except for two, Aug. 24, and one, Oct. 12; two paratypes, Upi Trail, May 5, Usinger; two specimens, Piti, Aug. 18, on Glochidion; one specimen, Nov. 21, on bamboo, Swezey.
A. bifasciatus will not run directly to any of the species in Knight's key and the situation is further complicated by the sexual dimorphism in color. The male genitalia are distinctive. Both signatus and bifasciatus have the frons convex and produced slightly between bases of antennae, a condition described by Knight in nigribasicornis and rubroclavus as "frons abrupt above base of tylus."
Study of the type shows that Tichorhinus vitiensis Kirkaldy (Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, Proc. 33: 377, 1908) is an Aretas. I have seen undescribed species of Aretas from New Caledonia and Australia.
description: Published as part of Usinger, Robert L., 1946, Hemiptera Heteroptera of Guam, pp. 11-103 in Insects of Guam II, Honolulu, Hawaii :Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Bulletin 189 on pages 84-85, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5173934