Odontotarsinae
Creators: name: Gerry Cassis
name: Loren Vanags
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2006
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Scutelleridae

description: Subfamily Odontotarsinae
Scutelleroides, Odontoscelidae DALLAS 1851: 54 (new family) Pentatomidae, Scutellerina, Odontotarsaria STÅL 1872: 32 (new suprageneric taxon) Pentatomidae, Scutellerinae, Odontotarsaria: SCHOUTEDEN 1904: 32 (synonymy of Eurygastraria 1872 STÅL and Odontoscelaria STÅL 1872) Pentatomidae, Scutellerinae, Odontotarsini: KIRKALDY 1909: 263 (catalogue) Pentatomidae, Scutellerinae, Eurygastrini, Odontotarsaria + Odontoscelaria: LESTON 1952d: 13 (new suprageneric classification) Pentatomidae, Odontoscelinae: MCDONALD 1966: 67, 68 (new suprageneric classification) Scutellerinae, Odontotarsinae: MCDONALD & CASSIS 1984: 547 (Australia)
Diagnosis: The Odontotarsinae are recognised by the following combination characters: small (e.g., Figs 11 a-c) to moderately-sized species; ovoid (e.g., Figs 11 a-c), elongate-ovoid or elongate, rarely strongly tapered at terminalia; body strongly punctate; often with setigerous punctures, and sometimes with sericeous setae (Figs 13a-i), rarely with body extremely setose with elongate setae; mostly grey-brown to dark brown species (e.g., Figs 11 a-c), sometimes strami-neous, and at times with paler stripes or spots, sometimes mottled, rarely black, occasionally with patterning on scutellum (e.g., Fig. 11 a-c); larvae dull in colouration; pro- and mesothoracic sterna flat to weakly elevated, never keel-like, metasternum mostly flat, rarely a little raised; anterior margin of proepisternum weakly to moderately explanate; pronotum often subtrapezoidal, with anterolateral margins explanate, and anterior angles spinose, sometimes more rounded, with lateral margins evenly arcuate, rarely, with a medial notch, with anterior angles anteriorly projected, in front of posterior margin of eyes; external efferent system of metathoracic glands often greatly reduced, without peritreme, with prominent rounded ostiole, laterally orient-ed, evaporative areas often greatly reduced to absent, sometimes external efferent system more well developed, with short oval peritreme, elevated, bounded by moderate distribution of evaporative areas, also occurring on mesepimeron; sometimes males abdominal androconial glands present (e.g., Figs 2 a-c, 12e); pregenital abdomen without stridulatory vittae; ventral surface of pygophore caudally (e.g., Fig. 12e) or ventrally oriented; parameres hook-shaped, often weakly (e.g., Fig. 14b); ejaculatory apparatus weakly to moderately-developed, usually without prominent ventral conducting canal (not convoluted), ejaculatory reservoir usually small and oval (e.g., Fig. 14c); CAI present or absent (e.g., Fig. 14c); CAII unbranched or bifurcate (e.g., Figs 14c, d), either sclerotized or membraneous with lobal sclerites; CAIII medially contiguous (Fig. 11d); spermathecal fecundation canal short; and, spermathecal reservoir oval to weakly dilated.
Remarks: STÅL (1872) described the Odontotarsinae (as Odontotarsaria) a tribe of the scutellerids, and redefined another tribe, as the Odontoscelaria, for a group of genera mostly from the Eastern Hemisphere. He separated these taxa primarily on the shape of the head (elongate versus semioval), the lateral margins of the pronotum, and degree of carination of the metathoracic sterna. SCHOUTEDEN (1904) synonymised these two taxa and the Eurygastraria sensu STÅL, and recognised the Odontotarsaria as the valid name, even though the Eurygastri-dae DALLAS and Odontoscelidae DALLAS have priority. He recognised the tribe on the basis of absence characters, such as the absence of stridulatory vittae on the pregenital abdomen, the lack of a keel-like carination on the thoracic sterna, as well as characters of general application, such as the biconvex body. KIRKALDY (1909) followed SCHOUTEDEN (1904), and grouped the three above-mentioned suprageneric taxa within the single tribe, and included the same taxa within it. LESTON (1952d) reverted to the Stålian classification in part, by distinguishing these three groups as subtribes, within the tribe Eurygastrini. He hypothesised that these taxa were clearly differentiated from both his Scutellerini and Pachycorini on the basis of the male genitalia, suggesting that the Scutellerini-type was distinctive, and more derived from the pentatomid-type, the latter being more characteristic of pachycorines and eurygastrines.
Modern Australian workers (e.g., GROSS 1975; MCDONALD & CASSIS 1984) have rejected this approach, mainly based on MC-DONALD’ s (1966) work on North American taxa, who regarded the eurygastrines as distinct from odontotarsines. SCHUH & SLATER (1995) also separated these two taxa, on the basis of the less broad scutellum (and more exposed abdominal connexiva) and reduced hindwing intervannal vein in eurygastrines. We have not evaluated either of these characters, and uncritically support the separation of the taxa. It is noteworthy that many odontotarsines and pachycorines have a reduced metathoracic peritreme, or it is absent entirely, with a distinct, laterally oriented ostiole, however these taxa are separated on the absence of stridulatory vittae in odontotarsines.
The monophyly of the Odontotarsinae, however, is contentious, and we know of no character that defines them exclusively. The above diagnosis is polythetic in format and the group is retained largely as a ‘convenience’ group. There are putative infra-subfamilial clades which are worthy of examination. A group of genera related to Odon-toscelis, including those taxa with male setose sternal glands (Table 3), and sometimes have rounded lateral margins of the Pronotum. This is largely a Palearctic group, but potentially includes the Australian genus Morbora (see below for discussion). Another putative clade, is represented by a group including and potentially related to Odonto-tarsus (e.g, Phimodera, Xerobia), which lack the male sternal glands, and sometimes have excavate anterolateral margins of the Pronotum. These ideas are reminiscent of STÅL’S Odontotarsaria and Odontoscelaria, and require explicit character testing. We retain the use of the Odontotarsinae in the broad sense in this work, acknowledging the above limitations.
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 320-321, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.12996779