Lasiacantha nipha Cassis & Symonds 2011, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Cassis, Gerasimos
name: Symonds, Celia
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Tingidae
Lasiacantha
Lasiacantha nipha

description: Lasiacantha nipha, sp. nov.   
(Figs 1, 3a, 4i, 5)  
 Holotype. ♂, AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: Charles Darwin Reserve, Wanarra East Rd, at Breakaway Well, 29.57877 ° S 117.03561 ° E, 293 m, 04 May 2009, C. Symonds, L. Botten, R. Gilmore, K. Reynolds, K. Woods, ex Eremophila sp. (Myoporaceae), det. field ID (30331) (WAM).   
 Diagnosis. Lasiacantha nipha (Fig. 5) is recognised by the following combination of characters: strongly patterned dorsal colouration, pale brown to dark brown with large patches of white micro-microtrichae on hemelytra; collum bicoloured, stramineous base, dark brown apex; major setiferous tubercles on pronotum and hemelytra short, terminal seta less than half length of tuberculate base; costal area without setiferous tubercles extending to posterior hemelytral margin; posterior angle of discoidal area with clump of setiferous tubercles, carinate margins of discoidal area without major setiferous tubercles; pronotum with woolly and hairlike setae; hemelytra with few woolly and mostly hairlike setae; woolly setae elongate, curly, silvery; hairlike setae elongate; abdominal venter with pale, short, clavate scalelike setae; cephalic spines short, medial spine forked; collum columnar, much higher than medial carina; paranota three areolae wide; costal area two areolae wide; areolae in discoidal and subcostal areas smaller than in sutural area; sternal carinae parallel, all equal width.   
 Description. Medium size, macropterous (Fig. 5); male 2.63. COLOURATION. Dorsum strongly patterned stramineous pale brown to dark brown with distinctive large patches of white microtrichae. Head: dark brown, almost black; cephalic spines pale brown, very tip of apex darkened; bucculae bicolourous, pale brown with dark brown base; labium orange brown with dark brown apex; antennae mostly pale yellow brown, AIV with clavate apex red brown, base as rest of antennae. Pronotum: disc dark brown, almost black, diminishing posteriorly to pale stramineous brown; paranota mostly stramineous with small flecks of red brown; collum bicolourous, base stramineous, apical half dark brown; carinae stramineous, medial carina darker red brown medially. Thoracic pleura and sterna: red brown, supracoxal lobes slightly paler; sternal carinae stramineous. Legs: mostly pale yellow brown; tarsi dark brown, almost black Hemelytra: strongly mottled/patchy; stramineous pale brown; dark brown patches banded on costal area, at posterior angle of discoidal area, and medially in sutural area; red brown patch at hemelytral base and medially on outer carinate margin of discoidal area; white microtrichae dense and broadly distributed across subcostal and costal areas at hemelytra base and just anterior to posterior angle of discoidal area. Abdomen: pale brown. VESTITURE. Head: dense distribution of elongate, curly, silvery, woolly setae; absent in longitudinal rows between occipital and medial spines; antennae with minor setiferous tubercles, pale colour, AI–AII with single row of setiferous tubercles with moderately elongate curved terminal seta, AIII setiferous tubercles with greatly elongate with straight terminal seta. Pronotum: paranota margins with short major setiferous tubercles, terminal seta less than half length of tuberculate base; keel of collum and pronotal carinae without major setiferous tubercles; collum, paranota and pronotal carinae with elongate, hairlike setae; disc with moderately dense distribution of elongate, curly, silver, woolly setae, more upright than on head. Thoracic pleura and sterna: pleura with dense distribution of elongate woolly setae as on dorsum; sparse distribution of short, clavate scalelike setae on supracoxal lobes and mesosternum. Legs: minor setiferous tubercles, terminal seta pale colour, elongate, erect, bristlelike; setae shorter and thickened on femora. Hemelytra: costal margins with major setiferous tubercles as on paranota, not extending to posterior margin of hemelytra; major setiferous tubercles on cubitus + R+M vein, clumped (aggregated) at anterior angle of discoidal area, absent from carinate margins of discoidal area; moderately dense distribution of hairlike setae, same as pronotum, on costal, subcostal and discoidal areas; discoidal area at wing base with few woolly setae. Abdomen: moderately dense distribution of short, clavate, silver scalelike setae. STRUCTURE. Head: spines relatively short; frontal spines parallel, subequal to AI; medial spine forked; occipital spines weakly curved outwards, extending only to inner margin of eye; labium moderate length, extending to anterior margin of metasternum; antennae, AI short and subequal length to AII, AIV with compact base before clavate apex. Pronotum: disc slightly convex; collum columnar, uniformly broad, vertically projected, much higher than medial carina; carinae moderately elevated, one areole wide, medial carina with extra one to three areolae medially; lateral carinae thickened; paranota rounded semi-circular, three areolae wide. Thoracic sterna: sternal carinae straight, metasternal carinae equal width to mesosternal carinae. Hemelytra: areolae variable, smaller in discoidal and subcostal areas than sutural and costal areas; costal area uniformly two areolae wide; subcostal area two areolae wide; discoidal area three areolae wide; sutural area four areolae wide. Male genitalia: not examined.   
MEASUREMENTS. For 1 ♂ is given in Table 6.  
 Host plant. From an Eremophila sp., a low shrub with small grey glandular leaves, with a crenate margin (Fig. 4i). This Eremophila was not flowering at the time of collection and thus could not be identified to species.   
 Distribution. The only specimen is known from one locality in the semi-arid shrublands on the northern edge of the southwest Western Australian botanical province (Fig. 3a).   
 Etymology. Meaning snow in Greek, after the white microtrichae of taxonomic importance in Lasiacantha and densely distributed on this species creating a striking contrast with dark brown patches on the hemelytra.   
 Remarks. Lasiacantha nipha is easily identified from other related Lasiacantha, spp. such as L. eremophila, L. dysmikos, L. quilpie and L. ephemera. The most striking diagnostic characters of L. nipha include: greatly enlarged uniformly broad column, bi-coloured stramineous and apically dark brown; rather short cephalic spines compared to other species in this group; greatly contrasting colouration and large patches of white microtrichiae on the hemelytra. Also see comments for L. pilbara.
description: Published as part of Cassis, Gerasimos & Symonds, Celia, 2011, Systematics, biogeography and host plant associations of the lace bug genus Lasiacantha Stål in Australia (Insecta: Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Tingidae) 2818, pp. 1-63 in Zootaxa 2818 (1) on pages 39-40, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2818.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5289063