Alloeomimella Yasunaga & Tamada & Hinami & Miyazaki & Duwal & Nagashima 2019, gen. nov.
Creators: name: Yasunaga, Tomohide
name: Tamada, Yui
name: Hinami, Haruka
name: Miyazaki, Ayana
name: Duwal, Ram Keshari
name: Nagashima, Tetsuya
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Miridae
Alloeomimella

description: Alloeomimella Yasunaga & Duwal gen. nov.
Type species. Alloeomimus muiri Schuh, 1984, present designation.
Diagnosis. Distinguished from the most closely related genus, Alloeomimus Reuter, 1910, by the following combination of characters: Body generally slender, constricted at middle of hemelytron, myrmecomorphic (Figs 9–10); female sometimes brachypterous (Fig. 59); dorsum dark gray, generally matte; head bulbous, rounded, with eye removed from pronotal collar (Figs 9, 62); pronotum trapezoidal, weakly constricted anteriorly (Fig. 62); scutellum weakly swollen, without any projection; metathoracic scent efferent system reduced, small (Figs 59–60); hemelytron with a large, white triangular macula on middle corium across embolium and a wedge-shaped macula at apex of corium across embolium along anterior margin of cuneus (Fig. 9); forewing margin and metafemur equipped with a distinct stridulatory device (Figs 54, 63–64); endosoma slender, C-shaped, similar in overall appearance to that of Hallodapus (cf. SCHUH 1984, YASUNAGA et al. 2013a); bursa copulatrix and ovipositors rather toughened (Fig. 210–211), with sclerotized rings small, ovoid (Fig. 210). Description. Male. Macropterous; body small, slender, myrmecomorphic (Figs 9–10); dorsum dark gray, matte, with uniformly distributed, short, reclining setae and sparsely distributed, stiff, erect setae (Fig. 62); head bulbous, rounded, less prognathous (Fig. 56); eye removed from pronotal collar but diameter of neck shorter than length of an eye in dorsal view (Figs 9, 62). Antenna generally slender, slightly longer than body; segment I short, about as long as height of an eye; segment II longer than III; segment IV about 3 times as long as I. Labium long, exceeding apex of metacoxa, reaching abdominal sternum IV. Pronotum matte, trapeziform, weakly constricted anteriorly (Fig. 62); metathoracic scent efferent system reduced, narrower than each coxa (Fig. 56); hemelytron with a large, white triangular macula on middle corium across embolium and a wedge-shaped macula at apex of corium across embolium along anterior margin of cuneus (Fig. 9); embolium with distinct FWS (Fig. 60). Legs long; metafemur equipped with distinct MFP; total length of metafemur+metatibia longer than body; parempodia setiform (Fig. 58). Male genitalia (Fig. 61): Pygophore smooth, narrow, with the apically tapered phallotheca; left paramere with stout sensory lobe; endosoma slender, C-shaped (cf. YASUNAGA et al. 2013a).
Macropterous female. Almost similar to male (Fig. 10). Stridulatory device as in male. Female genitalia (Figs 210−211): Bursa copulatrix relatively narrow, widely spinulate, with small, ovoid sclerotized rings (Fig. 210); ovipositors (gonapophyses) rather short; gonapophysis II sword-like, not expanded subapically (Fig. 211).
Brachypterous female. As in Fig. 59. Apex of forewing reaching anterior margin of abdominal tergum VI. Stridulatory device present (Figs 63−64).
Etymology. From the hallodapine generic name Alloeomimus combined with a diminutive suffix (-ella); gender feminine.
Distribution. Oriental Region: Indonesia (Java, Lombok), Laos and Thailand (SCHUH 1984, YASUNAGA 2013a); new record from Lombok Island, or Wallacea, based on two female specimens collected at Dasambaru, Lombok on 5 Mar 2005 by Ishikawa (deposited in TUAK).
Discussion. SCHUH (1984) described Alloeomimus muiri, based on Indochinese and Indonesian specimens. Alloeomimus is an Old World genus, currently composed of six species (including A. muiri) but five congeners (incl. type species of the genus) are restricted to the western Palearctic and Ethiopian Regions (Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa, cf. SCHUH 2013). Our present examination suggested that the Schuh’s species (muiri) can be evidently separated from the members of Alloeomimus in having some different characters mentioned above as well as disjunct distribution in the Oriental Region. We therefore propose a new genus Alloeomimella for it, and a new combination is accordingly established: Alloeomimella muiri (Schuh, 1984) comb. nov. (see SCHUH 1984 and YASUNAGA et al. 2013a for detailed diagnostic characters of this species).
Alloeomimella muiri was confirmed to be epigeic; several individuals including brachypterous females were found from the ground at tropical grasslands (cf. Fig. 2). On the other hand, Alloeomimus unifasciatus (Reuter, 1879) was reported to be associated with Ononis natrix L. (Fabaceae) (SCHUH 2013). In addition, a congener from the Middle East, A. kurdus Hoberlandt, 1953, was reported to occasionally inhabit galls of aphids (WAGNER 1974), which implies that Alloeomimus members may be associated with aerial parts of plants and may not prefer an epigeic habitat. Color habitus images of the five Alloeomimus species are available on a website (https://www.discoverlife.org/ mp/20q?search= Alloeomimus).
Based on the developed stridulatory device (Figs 63−64), reduced scent efferent system (Figs 59−60), setiform parempodia, similar male and female genitalic structures and habitat preference, Alloeomimella is assumed to be most closely allied to Hallodapus rather than Alloeomimus.
description: Published as part of Yasunaga, Tomohide, Tamada, Yui, Hinami, Haruka, Miyazaki, Ayana, Duwal, Ram Keshari & Nagashima, Tetsuya, 2019, Taxonomic review for the Asian taxa of plant bug tribe Hallodapini, with emphasis on stridulatory mechanism (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae), pp. 71-99 in Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (Acta. Ent. Mus. Natl. Pragae) (Acta. Ent. Mus. Natl. Pragae) 59 (1) on pages 77-79, DOI: 10.2478/aemnp-2019-0007, http://zenodo.org/record/4505468