Lampromicra aerea DISTANT 1892
Creators: name: Gerry Cassis
name: Loren Vanags
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2006
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Scutelleridae
Lampromicra
Lampromicra aerea

description: Lampromicra aerea DISTANT 1892 (Figs 21f, 28c, 40, 41, Table 8) Revised Status
PHilia aerea DISTANT 1892: 96 (n.sp.); SCHOUTEDEN 1904: 29 (list) PHilia compacta BREDDIN 1903: 57 (n.sp.); SCHOUTEDEN 1904: 29 (synonymy) Lampromicra aerea: KIRKALDY 1909: 299 (new combination); MCDONALD 1963: 26 (male genitalia); MCDONALD & CASSIS 1984: 556 (as junior synonym of Lampromicra senator); CASSIS & GROSS 2002: 597 (catalogue; as junior synonym of Lampromicra senator)
Diagnosis: Lampromicra aerea is recognised by the following combination of characters: dorsum iridescent copper-fuscous (Fig. 28c); femora red; abdominal venter fuscous, with lateral regions red (inner margin of stripe linear) (Fig. 21f); dorsum setose (Fig. 28c); anterior callosite region of scutellum punctate (Fig. 28c); and, CAII dorsal branch with hooked, denticulate lobal sclerite (Figs 40c, d).
Description: Moderate size species, males 11.0-12.17 mm, females 11.0-11.5 mm.
Colouration. Dorsum uniformly copper-fuscous, often with purple iridescence (Fig. 28c); eyes and ocelli red; antennae fuscous; labium mostly fuscous, with LI burnt-orange highlighting. Thoracic pleura and sterna uniformly black. Legs: coxae and trochanters burnt-orange with dusty black highlighting; femora red; tibiae mostly fuscous with narrow basal red annulation; tarsi black. Pregenital Abdomen: venter mostly fuscous, with region lateral to spiracular-trichobothrial region red, sometimes orange-red, inner margin of stripe linear (Fig. 21f).
Vestiture. Body with dense distribution of elongate, fine, erect setae (Fig. 28c).
Texture. Body with dense distribution of shallow punctures. Pronotum: indistinct rows of deeper punctures on anterior and posterior margins of callosite region (Fig. 28c). Scutellum: anterior callosite region punctate; lateral margins weakly rugopunctate. Abdominal Venter: region lateral of spiracular-trichobothrial region rugopunctate (Fig. 21f).
Structure. Antennae: AI and AII(a) subequal in length, AI little longer in females; AIV longest segment. Labium: ex-tending to junction of abdominal sterna III/IV. Pronotal width broader than 1/2 body length. Head: weakly convex; broad. Male Genitalia: pygophore with broad setal patch on dorsal margin of genital opening (Fig. 40a); parameres with short hook-shaped apex (Fig. 40b); phallotheca with moderately large subapical thornlike processes (Fig. 40b); ejaculatory apparatus with prominent ventral conducting canals, up to 10 convolutions (Figs 40c, d); ejaculatory reservoir elongate (Fig. 40c); dorsal conducting canal broad; ductus seminis distalis and vesica Sshaped, extending to apex of conjunctival appendages in resting position (Figs 40c, d); CAI absent (Figs 40c, d); CAII(M) with conical lobal sclerite (Figs 40c, d); CAII(L) membraneous, with large hook-shaped, denticulate lobal sclerite (Figs 40c, d); CAIII arcuate, heavily sclerotised, separated post-thecal margin (Fig. 40d). Female Genitalia: paratergites VIII small, subtriangular; paratergites IX small, subelliptical; outer surface of gonocoxae I weakly concave. Spermatheca: fecundation canal elongate; reservoir, large, oval; pump well-developed.
Measurements. See Table 1.
Type material examined: PHilia aerea DISTANT: Holotype, ♀, ‘ Sidney’, ‘B.M. Hem. Type No. 456’, ‘Dist. Coll. 1911-383’ (BMNH).
Other material examined: New South Wales: 1♂, Woody Head, near Iluka, 31 December 1978, BJ Day, ex rainforest (AM); 1♀, 3 km NE Harrington, 30 November 1987, G Williams, ex littoral rainforest (AM); 1♀, Coory, P Cantwell, 7 January 1983 (AM); 1♂, Mooney Mooney Creek, near Gosford, 10-11 November 1982, B Day & K Khoo (AM); 1♀, 17 km N Macksville, 4-xii-1948 (BMNH); 1♀, Cabramatta, George’s River Valley, 5-30-I-1963, M Nikitin, B.M. 1963-283, on flowers of Bursaria spinosa (BMNH); 1♂, Sydney, x-1904, AP Dodd, ‘H65’, B.M. 1923-124 (BMNH); 1♀, Nowra, FA Rockway, B.M. 1929- 45 (BMNH); 1♀, Hornsby, 19-xi-1969, MI Nikitin (BMNH); 1♀, Lane Cove, 23-x-1958, B.M. 1964-57 (BMNH); 1♂, Cabramatta, George’s River Valley, MI Nikitin, B.M. 1962- 347, ex Kunzea ambigua (BMNH).
Distribution: Lampromicra aerea is known primarily from the Sydney Basin, with its most northern limit near Iluka on the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, and extends as far south as Narooma (Fig. 41).
Host plants and biology: Lampromicra aerea is not common in collections, and nothing is known of its biology. Single specimens have been collected on two shrublike plants (Table 1).
Remarks: MCDONALD & CASSIS (1984) in erecting a new synonymy, regarded L. aerea as a geographically isolated colour morph of the ubiquitous L. senator. Our examination of the same material, re-establishes the species status of L. aerea, on the basis of its ground colour (Fig. 28c), red femora, and colouration of the abdominal venter (Fig. 21f), as well as the shape of the lobal sclerite of CAII(L) (Figs 40c, d).
description: Published as part of Gerry Cassis & Loren Vanags, 2006, Jewel Bugs of Australia (Insecta, Heteroptera, Scutelleridae), pp. 275-398 in Denisia 19 on pages 371-374, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.12996779